When a once-in-a-lifetime trip turns into tradition.
In 2014 I embarked on my first-ever fishing adventure, which was to Tanaku Lodge located in southeast Alaska. From taking a float plane to a remote cove that was surrounded by an untamed treacherous landscape; to being “greeted” by eagles, sea lions, whales, and bears; to catching giant prehistoric fish… Tanaku Lodge incorporated everything I imagined a fishing adventure would be.
Since that epic trip, I have been back to Tanaku Lodge three additional times, with each trip being just as special as the first. Trip number two was with my dear friends Jerry, Greg, and Angelo. Jerry is a seasoned veteran of Tanaku, having been there 22 times, but for Greg and Angelo, this was a bucket list trip, and it did not disappoint. We caught so many fish during the first four days that on day five, we decided to leave the rods at the lodge and specifically search out wildlife encounters.
Not that we weren’t seeing any wildlife while fishing; we were always surrounded by it. Rather, we wanted to spend the day on a photo “safari,” and we did not regret our decision. We spotted countless sea otters, saw several bald eagle nesting sites, visited a steller sea lion haul out where a pair of large (2,000 pounds!) bulls were fighting each other for herd dominance, had the boat surrounded by a pod of orcas, and spotted at least six different brown bears. Those encounters lasted way longer than any of the fillets we brought home.
Trip number three was with the person who set me on my path as a marine biologist, my dad. When I was 6 years old he took me fishing for the first time along the walls of Long Island’s Shinnecock Canal. After catching my first fish, a winter flounder, I have been hooked on fishing ever since. Standing next to dad as he reeled in his first halibut, the King of all Flounder, was an experience that for me had come full circle. In addition to the wildlife encounters we experienced, I felt like we were watching one of the countless nature documentaries we had watched together when I was a kid, except we were living them in real time.
A Place For New Anglers
Ten years after my first voyage to Tanaku, I returned for my fourth adventure, this time with my wife, Candy. She is also a marine biologist, working with marine mammals at the Long Island Aquarium. We have gone on many adventures together, from hiking over 50 miles of Grand Canyon’s backcountry to SCUBA diving in the Solomon Islands, but this would be our first fishing trip away from Long Island. Candy enjoys fishing, but I would not say she is a hardcore angler (at least she wasn’t before going to Tanaku). Our friends Julio and Lisa also joined us, and neither of them are diehard fishers either. In fact, Lisa had never fished a day of her life. This trip was to be an adventure for all four of us.
As we took a ferry from Juneau to Tanaku Lodge, Candy, Lisa, and Julio had their faces glued to the windows in amazement as we passed beautiful landscapes, numerous humpback whales, sea otters, sea lions, and eagles. They were disappointed that we were not slowing down to get a better look at these critters, but I assured them we would have plenty of opportunities to get up close and personal in the coming days.
We arrived at Tanaku Lodge the third week in August in the midst of a strong salmon run, and fortunately for us, the king salmon season was still open. Candy wasted no time landing the first fish of the trip and a king salmon at that. The action was steady throughout the morning, with us boating quite a few fat coho (silver) salmon. Lisa also punched her king salmon tag that morning, which happened to be the first fish she had ever caught. It’s not a bad way to start her fishing career.
The abundance of salmon not only attracted a fleet of fishing vessels, but they also drew in a much bigger predator, orcas (killer whales). I have been fortunate enough to see orcas on each of my previous trips, and they were at the top of Candy’s list of wildlife she wished to see. Unfortunately, when it comes to wildlife, as with fishing, there are never any guarantees. However, within a couple of hours of the start of day one, Candy checked orcas off her list. As we trolled for salmon, a large pod of orcas that included several mature bulls could be observed in every direction around the boat. Candy was ecstatic.
Later in the week, we blew that amazing encounter away within minutes of leaving the lodge. As we left the cove on a relatively calm day, we noticed a large area of white water about a quarter mile away from us. Captain Riley wasted no time steering the boat in the direction of the disturbance, and to our amazement, it was a pod of about 30 orcas that consisted of only females and their calves. This matriarch group was extremely playful and social with one another. They swam around the boat, repeatedly tail-slapping, spy-hopping, and breaching. They were so close that we could hear them vocalizing. Everyone on the boat was speechless, including Captain Riley and deckhand Jamie, who had spent a lot of time on the water working for Tanaku Lodge. After about half an hour of this Nat Geo experience, they disappeared within the blink of an eye, and we continued to the fishing grounds.
Never A Dull Moment
One will never get bored while fishing at Tanaku Lodge. If the bite should stop or you catch your daily limit of a particular species, there are several others you can target. After our fill of catching salmon, we began vertical jigging over rock piles and humps. This yielded non-stop action with various types of rockfish, lingcod, and even halibut. On past trips, we typically deadsticked for halibut using large cut baits of salmon and octopus, which were sent to the bottom with between two and three pounds of lead. Although that method is very successful at catching barndoors, the action can be a bit slow at times. On this trip, we only jigged for halibut using jumbo leadheads with big rubber grubs or large diamond jigs that were bounced along the bottom. Not only are you more involved in catching the fish, but you also never knew what would be coming up at the other end of the line when you hooked up.
There is one fishing experience that Tanaku offers that I had not participated in during my previous three adventures, and that is the river trip for salmon. Salmon are spawned in freshwater, spend their adult life in the open ocean, return to their natal stream to spawn several years later, and die soon after spawning. This lifecycle has been going on for millions of years and is something that I have only read about or seen on TV. I wanted to experience it firsthand, and I was finally going to have the opportunity on this trip.
Candy, Lisa, Julio, and I, along with our guides Hayden, Riley, and Gavin, boarded one of Tanaku’s fishing vessels, with the lodge’s metal dinghy in tow. We headed deep into one of the area’s local bays. When the boat could go no further due to shallow water, we dropped anchor and boarded the dinghy. We navigated the shallows, continuing to go deeper and deeper into the bay, which at this point was now the mouth of a river. When the dinghy could go no further, we beached it and trekked about a half mile along the bank of the river to a sandbank where we would fish.
Before leaving the dinghy, Hayden swung a shotgun over his shoulder and gave us a set of important instructions. We are to stay with the group, do not wander off, and always stay alert. He then pointed out how the grass along the bank of the river had been flattened down and the many pieces of half-eaten salmon that were scattered all about. This was a sign that brown bears had been feeding in the area. After Hayden finished his safety talk, I looked at Candy, Lisa, and Julio to see that all their eyes were wide open. They had just realized that this trip was about to get real. We were about to embark on an adventure that none of us had ever experienced before.
A brown bear is the same genus/species as a grizzly bear. The difference between the two is a grizzly typically lives inland, while brown bears are coastal. Either way, they are huge and can have an aggressive temperament, especially when taken by surprise or when protecting their cubs. It did not take long before we encountered a sow (female) with two older cubs, which were probably from the year before. They were about 200 yards away, but close enough that they probably could hear our hearts beating out of our chests. Thankfully, with the number of salmon in the river, they showed zero interest in us, and after munching on some salmon, they disappeared into the woods. We continued our journey, stepping over numerous salmon carcasses and walking along the highway of game trails that traced the river.
The Desire For More
The river water was clear, and we could see schools of salmon in the deeper pockets of the river. We stopped at a wide sandy beach where we would play catch and release with chum and pink salmon, with even a couple of cohos mixed in. Five of us opted for spinning rods with a float and a small imitation salmon egg jig while Hayden and Gavin tried their luck at flyfishing. We caught and released many salmon that afternoon, and the group experienced many firsts. For Candy, Lisa, Julio, and even myself, this was the first time we saw bears in the wild while sharing the same ground as them.
| CONTACT INFO |
| For more information or to book your trip to Tanaku Lodge, call Capt. Joe Calandra at 516-319-3915. You can also visit their website at tanakulodge.com. And be sure to stop by the Tanaku Lodge table at the Ward Melville High School Saltwater Seminar on March 1 in East Setauket, NY, or booth #745 at the Saltwater Fishing Expo from March 14-16 at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Edison, NJ. Check out the incredible video footage from the author’s most recent trip to Elfin Cove, AK. |
This was the first time the four of us had fished from the shore in Alaska. In all my previous trips, I only ever fished from a boat. My feet had never touched the ground of the Alaskan wilderness. For Lisa, she learned the skill of casting a fishing rod while watching a rite of nature that has been taking place for millions of years. There is no better way to learn if you ask me! Although we didn’t take any fish home for the freezer that day, we experienced an adventure that will live with us forever.
As we sat on the ferry back to Juneau and watched Tanaku Lodge fade in the distance, Candy, Lisa, and Julio (all three of which I earlier described as not being hardcore anglers) were busy planning their return trip to Tanaku Lodge for their next adventure.
