Dune Lake in Alaska

We’ve headed up north again for our family vacation to Eielson AFB in North Pole, Alaska. It was mighty hectic as we drove to Houston to rendezvous with our youngest daughter and her husband so we could all fly to Fairbanks.

We left Houston on Thursday at 1:00 pm and landed in Minneapolis, then Anchorage and finally reached our destination at 1:00 am Friday. We got to sleep at 3:00 am, woke up at 6:00 am drove to Marina Air for a 9:30 am flight with Rick Gold to Dune Lake for a fly-in fishing trip. Quite a non-stop adventure so far, but we finally got to relax a little after putting our gear in our cabin and got ready for some top notch fishing.

The weather in Alaska has been very abnormal this year. There’s really not been much of a summer, so it’s the beginning of August and been very cold and rainy. We left Prairieville with highs in the upper 90’s to a daily high of 59 or 60 where we were. But hey, it is what it is and the fish were supposed to be biting, so on came the warm clothing and rain suits.

This is our second trip to fish for rainbow trout and silver salmon, so Wesley and Cory tied on spinners, Mepps and Blue Fox to be specific. I had an idea about a revolutionary bait that’s been very popular for bass, specs and redfish all over the lower 48 so I knew it would work here.

On my first trip with Rick, he informed me that those land locked lakes were full of shrimp so that’s what they eat. Well the best artificial shrimp bait going today is made by Berkley Gulp, so I tied on a 1\/16th oz jig head and threaded on a 3” natural color and went to work.

Rick told us the fish might be out away from the bank in some deeper water, so I told Cory and Wesley to let out their baits and we’d troll crossing the lake to fish the other side. About half way across it happened. A 17” silver salmon hit Cory’s spinner and the fight was on. We were going to fry up a couple of the fish, so on the stringer it went.

We landed several 15” to 19” salmon in the next few minutes so I started out fishing deep, sometimes fishing the Gulp shrimp on the bottom like a worm. I was jigging my bait in about 10’ of water when the tap came and a 22” rainbow was on the business end of that Gulp shrimp and I knew my hunch paid off.

2 ½ hours later, three water soaked and cold fishermen headed back to the cabin. We’d caught about 30 of the two species, including several 22” to 24” rainbows but the elements got the best of us for a while.

We brewed some hot coffee and began the mission of trying to light a fire in the wood stove. That didn’t start off to good as it’s been raining for about three weeks but as usual Alaska never lets you down.

In our hunt for wood we found wild blue berries that we picked and ate. Then we found three other berries that were edible; low bush cranberries, timberberries and prickly rose that are also edible. Mushrooms of all shapes and colors were everywhere, the species of lichen that caribou like to eat was all over the ground and the scenery was breathtaking.

But we finally got some wood that was a little dry and got the fire going so our morale picked up considerably. After we knew we’d return to a warm cabin we headed to the lake again. This time around the sun actually came out for about 30 minutes and that seemed to set the fish on fire.

We caught another 20 or so trout and salmon then we headed back to the cabin to cook some of the fish and get some sleep. Man, a good wood stove puts out the best heat in the world. The cabin was cozy, the coffee was hot and the fish were delicious. We hit the sack about 10:00 pm and it was still daylight.

Our alarm went off about 5:00 am, I got up and went outside and there was no wind or rain. We got pretty excited about fishing without either of the elements that plagued us the day before, so after some more great coffee and a pop tart, we hit the lake again. But before we left, the fog set in and we sort got concerned if our pilot would be able to come and get us. Of course that wouldn’t really be all that bad to get stuck where we were for another day or two.

The fishing started off pretty slow so we started back to camp to clean up and get ready for the flight back. After we unloaded our gear at the rendezvous spot, we headed to the opposite end of the lake to fish until Rick flew in.

This was the payoff of the whole trip. The fog lifted, the sun came out and we actually took some of our outer clothes off and enjoyed two hours of spectacular fishing. The ducks came to life, there were two swans on the lake and we landed another 15 or 20 of those giant rainbow trout.

Alas, the sound of Rick’s plane could be heard and our trip back was all we had left of this experience of a lifetime. But I’d highly recommend one of these trips to anyone who’s tempted for an adventure that you’ll never forget. This fishing trip can be seen on Ascension Outdoors in an upcoming episode and you can get all the info for Rick Gold at www.akfishing.com

Next we’ll be heading down to Seward and Homer for a few days and that’s where we’ll be reporting to you from. So until next time, have fun in the outdoors, be safe and may God truly bless you!