From Field to Fire: Alaska fishing

FROM FIELD...

ENJOY AN ALASKAN ALASKAN ADVENTURE ADVENTURE

EXPERIENCE EPIC COHO SALMON FISHING, BEAR VIEWING AT EGEGIK RIVER

By Scott Haugen

With fishing opportunities being limited and/or delayed in California due to the coronavirus pandemic, there is another option amid all this uncertainty: Head north to Alaska and fish with me in August.

For nearly 15 years I’ve been fishing Bristol Bay’s Egegik River. While the coho salmon fishing is as good as I’ve seen anywhere in the state, you’ll also experience brown bears, bush planes, remote streams, thousands of crimson sockeye salmon on their spawning beds, and world-class grayling and char fishing. These are some of the other adventures that keep calling me back to the Egegik.

TWO SEASONS AGO, SOME buddies and I flew into one of my favorite remote streams. Since it was flowing more clear than I’d ever seen it, spotting Arctic grayling and Arctic char was simple. We landed multiple char in the 8- to 10-pound class, and I lost one pushing 15 pounds. We also battled the biggest grayling on average I’d seen anywhere, with three fish landed over the magic 20-inch mark.

Join one of the country’s top outdoor writers, Scott Haugen, on an Alaskan adventure you won’t forget. He took this limit of coho salmon by casting a Mag Lip, just one of the many ways these fish can be caught on the magical Egegik River. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

We even watched a giant brown bear chasing salmon and saw five other bears fishing that day.

Back at camp, dinner was delicious as usual, and we all shared stories late into the night. By 6 a.m. I was awake and going over my new cam

era equipment before heading to one of my favorite places in all of Alaska: Brooks Falls.

My previous two trips to the falls yielded some of my best photos of brown bears. This time, however, I was armed with two Canon 5D Mark

... TO FIRE

Tiffany Haugen says bringing home a big fish such as a salmon means you can try multiple recipes on its meaty fillets, including this misoinfused dish. (TIFFANY HAUGEN)

THINK OUTSIDE THE (FISH) BOX

By Tiffany Haugen

When it comes to new and exciting ways to cook fish, think outside the box.

Many of us get stuck preparing our prized catch the same way meal after meal. It’s understandable that you may not want to risk using unfamiliar ingredients on

something you worked so hard to attain, but think of what you might be missing out on.

The great thing about catching a big fish – like a salmon – is that it can be divided up and seasoned in many different ways.

If there are a few recipes that sound intriguing, try cutting the fillets in half – or even thirds – and try the new recipe on smaller portions of fish. Label them and invite your friends and family to taste-test.

Try to stay away from recipes that have a lot of ingredients that you don’t have onhand or won’t use again. If you haven’t tried miso before, it’s an amazing ingredient to keep in your refrigerator for all sorts of cooking options. Miso is fermented so it will last a long time; a tablespoon or two will make a quick broth-like soup, or it can also be used in stews, salad dressings, sauces or marinades as a salty/umami element.

1 fillet salmon 1 tablespoon miso 1 tablespoon butter, melted 1 tablespoon rice vinegar 1 teaspoon honey One sheet roasted seaweed or one 5-gram snack pack

SPICY MAYO

1 cup mayonnaise 1 tablespoon chili sauce 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice, optional

Rinse fish fillet in cold water and pat dry. Place fish in an ovenproof dish or foil pouch. In a small bowl, combine miso, butter, rice vinegar and honey. Spread miso mixture evenly over salmon fillet. Crush or tear seaweed into tiny pieces and sprinkle on top.

Bake in a preheated 3 5 0 - d e g r e e oven 15 to 25 minutes or until internal temperature of the fish reaches 135 degrees. Serve with spicy mayo.

Editor’s note: For signed copies of Tiffany’s popular book, Cooking Seafood, and other titles, visit tiffanyhaugen.com.

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IV cameras and two prime telephoto lenses.

I was rewarded with the best brown bear shots of my life and I can’t wait to go back again this summer. If you’re into watching brown bears and wildlife photography, you’ll find no better place to encounter such experiences.

At the height of activity, 11 brown bears occupied the falls. More bears could be seen downstream, also fishing. The forest, surrounded by tall and lush green grass, flourished, with endless bear trails carved throughout. There was no shortage of bears using these trails.

On our 25-minute flight back to camp, we saw moose, caribou, and where a pack of wolves had walked over a sandy flat on the tundra. There is abundant wildlife here.

THE NEXT MORNING, EVERYONE in camp caught limits of coho just upstream from the lodge, then hopped in a boat for a journey downstream, where we saw more brown bears, caught some

FISH WITH SCOTT HAUGEN IN ALASKA W riter Scott Haugen will be at Becharof Lodge On The Egegik River during the entire month of August, and you can join him!

Not only will you get to fish with this longtime author, but you can also accompany him to Brooks Falls, where you’ll experience Alaska’s ultimate brown bear viewing adventure. You might even go on a remote flyout, or a trip downriver to visit the village of Egegik.

To learn more about fishing the Egegik with Haugen, visit scotthaugen.com, and look at the Egegik River Camp link, then drop him a note at sthaugen@yahoo.com for more details. Be sure to ask about the California Sportsman Magazine discount! CS

sockeye and enjoyed the unique beauty of this region.

On the final day, we spent our time on the famed Egegik once again, where we fished for coho from daylight to dark, just as we had done during the first day of our trip. Catching our fivefish limit of silvers was easy.

On the Egegik, you can fish with bait, which means the bite can be spectacular. One time my buddy who stood next to me hooked a coho every single cast for three hours and four minutes, straight.

Once you catch your five-fish coho limit here, you can keep fishing catch-and-release style. I’ve had several 70-plus-silver days in August.

With so many salmon to be caught – and given the nature of the shallow, wide-flowing Egegik – they can be pursued numerous ways. Whether you’re a new angler looking to learn specific fishing styles or a veteran eager to perfect a technique that’s unfamiliar to you, there’s no better way to achieve success than while catching fish.

The Egegik is calm, simple to wade and easy to fish, making it one of the Last Frontier’s premier coho streams. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

It’s common to catch hard-fighting coho in one spot using an array of approaches. One morning I stood on a rock and landed and released over 30 fish by way of twitching jigs, rolling cured eggs, dangling a jig beneath a float, casting spoons, spinners, and stripping streamers on a fly rod.

Bead fishing can also be phenomenal on the Egegik.

And casting a 3.0 and 3.5 Mag Lip has enlightened me to the long lost art of fishing with plugs from the bank, something that was popular among salmon and steelhead anglers back in the early 1970s.

THE ACCOMMODATIONS I’VE BEEN going to all these years, Becharof Lodge, has recently changed management. The new Becharof Lodge On The Egegik River (becharoflodgefishing.com) is headed by one of the longtime guides who helped run the operation for the past decade. They’ve gotten rid of the tents and added two-story buildings and more flush toilets, making everyone’s stay more comfortable. There’s even electricity with slow, but working, internet access. Ray, the man whose cooking keeps bringing people back to this magical place, is still there. His shore lunches taste better

Fishing for coho is only part of what this adventure has to offer – there’s photographing bears and other wildlife too – but it might be hard to tear yourself away from the river with the potential for salmon catches like this, taken in less than two hours one morning. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

than ever.

On the Egegik River, when it comes to salmon fishing, the learning never stops and the beauty and tranquility of this special place are truly unique, even by Alaskan standards. There are many reasons I keep coming back and I’m thrilled to be spending all of August on the river this season. I’m hoping some fellow readers of California Sportsman can join me. CS

Editor’s note: Follow Scott Haugen on Twitter (@ScottHaugen) and Instagram (@scotthaugenoutdoors), and like at facebook.com/thehaugens.