Alaska’s Lodge for Bear Viewing and Photography and Other Top Stories from Fishing on SI

These 3 stories captured our Sports Illustrated fishing reader’s attention on Fishing on SI this past week.

Inside Bear Haven, Alaska’s Lodge for Bear Viewing and Photography; What Fishing Taught Master Distiller Eddie Russell About Bourbon; How I Trigger Trout to Bite When Nothing Else Is Working | Ken Baldwin | Kyle Niego | Ken Baldwin

In case they slipped by you, following are the most read fishing stories of the week: Inside Bear Haven, Alaska’s Lodge for Bear Viewing and Photography; What Fishing Taught Master Distiller Eddie Russell About Bourbon; How I Trigger Trout to Bite When Nothing Else Is Working.

1.) Inside Bear Haven, Alaska’s Lodge for Bear Viewing and Photography

The bear on the left is a mama bear. Her two cubs are behind her. She took on this bigger male and backed him down the ledge. Do not mess with a mama bear's cubs. | Photo by Ken Baldwin

I’m huddled with a small group of photographers—enthusiasts and professionals—on a creek bank in Alaska. We set up by finding spots to sit or kneel amongst the rocks. It’s not comfortable, but everyone is so locked into the intensity of what is unfolding in front of them, that the rocks barely register.

In front of us, maybe 30 feet away, is a large Alaskan Coastal brown bear; her cubs are another 5 feet behind her. She’s trying to catch a salmon; her cubs are impatiently waiting to be fed. Thirty feet does not feel like thirty feet under these conditions.

As the mama bear chases down bright red sockeye salmon, every so often she will glance at us and hold the stare: “I know you are there.” The look is terrifying and calming…GET THE REST OF THE STORY HERE.

2.) What Fishing Taught Master Distiller Eddie Russell About Bourbon

Eddie Russell searches for trout on Montana’s Gallatin River, where finding the right spot proved just as important as it is back home in a Kentucky rickhouse. | Kyle Niego, @kyleniego

Eddie Russell missed the first fish that hit his fly on Montana’s legendary Gallatin River that day.

“I was still fishing like I was trying to catch a bass,” the Wild Turkey master distiller confessed back at the lodge. We laughed together about it because I had missed my first fish for the same reason.

After decades perfecting your hookset, swinging hard and fast gets wired in. The reaction doesn’t just disappear because you’re holding a nine-foot fly rod. But both of these ol’ bassin’ guys managed to calm down enough to enjoy a successful day of fly fishing for trout.

By late morning Eddie’s group had left their “warmup” stretch for a classic deep pool with bigger rocks and rapids at both ends. “The perfect little spot,” Eddie said.

Sure enough, that spot produced the biggest fish of the trip…GET THE REST OF THE STORY HERE.

3.) How I Trigger Trout to Bite When Nothing Else Is Working

I pulled this trout from deeper water with a black rabbit-fur streamer. | Photo provided by Ken Baldwin

There will be days when you are fly fishing for trout, and the fish aren't biting what you are throwing. You can jump back and forth between different nymphs and dry flies and still come up empty.

When this happens, I fall back on a technique conventional bass anglers use to efficiently find feeding fish or trigger a strike from non-feeding fish.

Bass anglers use "search baits" to cover water quickly and find an active fish. A search bait is a lure that does three things. It covers a lot of water efficiently, presents at a selected depth, and gets a detectable response. Once the angler finds an active fish, they slow down and work the area more thoroughly. If nothing happens after a few casts, they move on to actively search more water.

You can do the same thing in fly fishing with a streamer…GET THE REST OF THE STORY HERE.