An Alaskan Fishing Guide’s Farewell - Day 3: Exploring Wild Alaska by Raft and Fly Rod

After walking away from a twenty-year guiding career in Alaska to write full-time, I’m getting the chance to return for one more week on the water. This is the third installment of a ten-part series where I’ll share each day’s story—the fish landed, the humor that comes with helping people catch them, the inevitable encounters with bears, and an insider's view of the life of an Alaskan guide.

Guide Luke Valentino helping with the plane's takeoff. | Photo by Ken Baldwin

• Day 1: One More Chance Before I'm Done

• Day 2: It’s Good To Be Back, but Can I Still Do This?

• Day 4: Big Fish, Bigger Bears, and a Bruised Ego.

Day 3

Today was my third day as a "guest" guide for The Ridge Lodge in Alaska. The assingment I drew was a rafting trip with guide Luke Valentino. We took four guests to float the seven-mile Gibraltar River while fly fishing for extra-large and wild Alaskan Rainbow trout.

The Wild Alaskan Rainbow Trout

I emphasize "Wild" and "Alaskan" because this fish is a different animal from other trout. It is a strong and aggressive fish because they have to fight for survival every day in a very hostile environment. They grow big and never lack for oxygenated, cold water. They are thick and fat from gorging themselves on salmon eggs — and the occasional mouse, and they pull like nobody's business.

A guest of The Ridge Lodge in Alaska caught this big, wild, Alaskan rainbow trout. For most, this is a fish of a lifetime. In Alaska, it's called a good day on the water. | Photo by John Coffman - owner and co-manager of the Ridge Lodge

Fishing is the Easy Part

The fishing part, I wasn't worried about; I've been doing that for a long time and have never taken a break. The rafting part? It's been a while since I've been on the oars and navigated my way down a river, and I'm not given a warm-up or practice run. You get your guests in the raft, load it up with gear, and you go.

The Plan

Our morning prep involves getting suited up, gathering all the fly rods and reels for the guests, packing the lunches prepared by Mike Lynch, our chef, and loading up the two rafts, raft frames, oars, and our personal gear.

Guide Luke Valentino carrying one of the rafts we will use for the day to float down the Gibraltar River. | Photo by Ken Baldwin

How We Get There

This is all loaded into two float planes along with the guests. The planes land in a small lake that feeds the Gibraltar, and we move the gear and guests to the shore, where we pump up the rafts. From there, we paddle about one hundred yards to the mouth of the river and start fishing our way down for pickup at the end of the day.

Luke and I, with the help of the pilot Chris Hartis, loading up the plane for a day's float trip down the Gibraltar River in Alaska. | Photo by Ken Baldwin

The Voice in the Head

Again, the doubts kick in and start making noise in my head. I've floated this river before, and I know there are some big rocks; I just don't remember where. Plus, I'm out of practice. Flipping a raft on a rock is a scary thing when you have older passengers on board. And I really don't want to lose my camera equipment-I've done that before.

Work Smarter Not Harder

I have the most experience in the group, but Luke has recent experience on the river. I know enough to take my ego out of the equation and have Luke lead the way down the river. He is an excellent guide, and I'm going to sit back and enjoy the day - This ain't my first rodeo.

The deeper pockets and runs are filled with red sockeye salmon. | Photo by Ken Baldwin

This river is full of bright red salmon in full spawn. Every pool and run is stacked with salmon, and our job is to find the trout that mix in with them and are feeding on their eggs.

Different Standards for What Counts as BIG

Our first fish is on the smaller size for Alaska standards. We have a unique measuring system up here. There are trout you catch that are "Lower 48" big, and then there is "Alaska" big. We want a trout that is "Alaska" big.

The release. | Photo by Ken Baldwin

Luke On a Mission

Luke Valentino did what The Ridge guides do: he got his guest into a big fish. He told me earlier that he wanted Nancy to experience what a big and wild rainbow trout felt like at the end of a fly rod. He couldn't promise the outcome after she hooked it; these fish are notoriously hard to land, especially for anglers without extensive experience. But if she hooks one, she will remember the fight long after the trip is done.

This isn't always easy to do with a big fish that is full of energy. Fly angler Nancy Noonan and guide Luke Valentino time it just right to get the fish in the basket. | Photo by Ken Baldwin

Does What He Says

And he gets it done. On the last leg of the float Luke spots a big fish and puts Nancy in position to make a good presentation to the fish. When the fish hits, her reel starts screaming as it pulls out line heading downriver. It gets quickly down to the backing and Luke has her tighten the drag and coaches her up on maintaining tension without pulling the hook out of its mouth.

Success, Nancy lands the big fish of the day. | Photo by Ken Baldwin

A Good Day

I got lucky today. The Gibraltar is a relatively easy float with only a few big rocks to deal with. I hit one and we bounced off it, everyone got a laugh and a story out of that. More importantly, we caught fish, and the guests enjoyed themselves.

Day 3 In the Books

I'm loving it up here. The Ridge is an exceptional lodge; the crew, the management, and the location are all world class.

Memories from my years here keep flooding back, and I'm making new ones. I'm not fooling myself, this is a young man's game, and it's not in me to do it for a full season. But this week, I'm going to squeeze all that I can out of it. Four more days of guiding to go. KB

"The gods do not deduct from man’s allotted span the hours spent in fishing.” - Herbert Hoover

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