Here’s how your fishing day unfolds at Icy Bay.Īfter eating a hearty breakfast in the lodge, it’s time to load up the Bandvagn 206, a Swedish military transport vehicle used by the US Army. To put this in perspective, on day one of our adventure, nine people left the lodge to go fishing. That’s because getting to the fish from the lodge requires a lot of patience and resolve. And at Icy Bay Lodge, that’s exactly what you do - each and every day. It turns out, if you want to fish without any other fishermen, you have to work for it. Our 11 seat Dehavilland Otter at Icy Bay’s gravel landing strip Doug Tarr I couldn’t have been more ecstatically wrong. So when my bush plane landed on the gravel airstrip five miles from Icy Bay Lodge in Southeast Alaska (65 nautical miles from the nearest human settlement), I tempered my expectations of truly isolated Alaskan fishing. There’s even a term for this: combat fishing.īucolic, isolated fishing does exist in Alaska, but it is never guaranteed. Indeed, there’s parts of Alaska where hundreds of fishermen are literally shoulder to shoulder at the height of the salmon run. Even well-heeled visitors who pay up to $10,000 for a week for “fly out lodges” miles from the nearest road and only accessible via float plane often find themselves sharing their fishing spot with other lodges.Īnd for those who can’t afford a float plane, fishing from Alaska’s road system can be downright brutal. And of course fish lining up to take your lure! This is the dream that motivates thousands of fishing enthusiasts to book salmon and trout fishing trips to Alaska every summer.įor most anglers, reality never quite lives up to the dream. Every fisherman fantasizes about the ultimate day of fishing.

Fishing planet - alaska spots