Kamchatka is what Alaska was 50 years ago.  Until 1992, Kamchatka was totally off-limits to westerners, remaining undeveloped and protected from all outside intrusion.  There are, in fact, more out-of-state fishing licenses sold in Alaska every summer than there are human beings in Kamchatka.  The peninsula is slightly larger than California, and is the largest sub-arctic wooded wilderness left on earth.

The amazing trout fishing isn’t the only thing that separates Kamchatka from the rest of the world. It’s the fact that nobody else is there.  You will be fishing to 30” Rainbows that have never seen a fly but it’s the surrounding wilderness that will be the star of the show.  As our world shrinks there are no pristine wildernesses left that compare to Kamchatka.

The Salty Feather has booked two weeks, Aug 4^th – Aug. 10^th and Aug 11^th –Aug 17^th 2009, at Zhupanova’s Zendzur Lodge. The Lodge handles 6 anglers per week who will access more than 35 miles of the lower Zhupanova by jet boat. This two week period is the prime time for big rainbows.  If 30”+ rainbows are something you want to experience than you need to join us on this trip. The Zhupanova is a broad, shallow river that is home to the biggest of the big.  It is custom tailored for trophy hunters.

The Rainbows aren’t the only fish you’ll catch. The voracious Kundzha, a char native share the river with the trophy rainbows and add a zest to the already exciting fly fishing menu.  These huge char strike like king salmon, pull like freight trains and tip the scales at over fifteen pounds.

Every morning and each afternoon, two anglers and their guide are assigned an exclusive section of the river. No section is fished more than once a week and fewer than two dozen fisherman cover any one portion of the river during the ten week season. Call The Salty Feather if you would like to be one of these two dozen fishermen.

Dave Egdorf’s Nushagak River Camp

Dave and I grew up fly-fishing together on East Battle Lake in northern Minnesota. After high school Dave and I lost contact with each other until one of my customers at the Salty Feather told me that he had book a trip to Alaska with an outfitter by the name of Dave Egdorf.  I asked him to find out if this Dave Egdorf could be my childhood fly fishing buddy.  I couldn’t believe it but after 30 years we made contact again. I had a fly shop in Jacksonville Fl. And Dave had a wilderness tent camp in Alaska. In 1995 I sent my first group to Dave’s camp and I’ve been sending groups every year since.

After my first trip to Dave’s camp on the Nushagak, I knew right away it was a special place. It was, I thought, just how Alaska ought to be; catch a season’s worth of fish in a week and fish all day and all night because its daylight full time in that part of the world. The Nushagak has phenomenal runs of Kings, Sockeye and Silver Salmon but it’s the Rainbows that are prime attraction and unquestionably, Dave Egdorf has found the Rainbow trout fishing mother lode.  When he set up his camps in the 80’s there was hundreds of miles of river with no one else there. Nothing thankfully has changed and the Nushagak is still stuffed with three to five pound Rainbows and more Char and Grayling than a fly fisherman can count.  Apart from getting a lift in Dave’s plane, all other means of access to the upper Nushagak are so difficult, expensive, and time consuming, it may as well be Dave’s private river.  So a week on the upper Nush consists of solitude and red-hot fishing.

The Nusagak trout’s diet consists of mice, sculpins, smolt, and caddis in the spring.  They feast on salmon eggs and flesh in the summer and fall. It’s a river where a wide variety of techniques are effective.

The surrounding sub-arctic taiga is a real wildlife safari.  Sightings of bear, moose, caribou, and eagle are commonplace and it’s not unheard of to spot wolves, wolverines and lynx.

The rolling hills are topped in tundra that is rimmed with fireweed in the summer, and blazes red and orange in the fall.  The banks are lined with a lush band of willow and Black Spruce, and the river runs clear through all but the most severe of storms.  Most of the Nush has easily waded pebble bottom and the classic pool, riffle, cut bank pool, provides a picture perfect fly-fishing scenario.

Each year The Salty Feather has the middle of July reserved for its customers. This is when King Salmon are dropping their first eggs and Rainbows, Dollies and Grayling are ready to go on a feeding frenzy. 

Angling packages include the scenic floatplane trip from Dillingham; mid-week air transfers between camps, top-notch guides and an action packed 6 days of trout, char grayling and salmon fishing.  Week long packages are $4995

2008 on the Rio Grand was spectacular.  Over 30 Browns made the book and to make the book it takes a 15lb fish or better. Four of the six anglers will be returning in Feb. 2009 but that leaves two spots open for two lucky anglers. The last six years The Salty Feather has been taking a group of six anglers to The LaVilla on The Rio Grand river. The La Villa de Estancia Maria Behety is, arguably the most luxurious fly fishing lodge in the Americas, and perhaps the world. Each of the guests enjoy single occupancy accommodations, excellent meals, the finest Argentine vintages selected from the 9000 bottle cellar, and one of best Brown Trout fishing experiences in the world. Guides were hand-picked from knowledgeable local fly fishing fanatics and several have spent their life on the river. The sea trout fishing begins only minutes from the threshold of the lodge, where each two anglers, accompanied by an Argentina guide will fish one of the 29 runs on the first 32 miles of river. Each morning you fish from 8:00 AM till noon and then return to the lodge for a full course meal and a siesta. You will return to the river at 5:00 PM and fish till dark which around 10:00 PM. After returning to lodge for a shower, drinks and hors d'oeuvres you will be served another full course meal around midnite.   

Pictures above are from this years trip. 

If you are interested in joining our group for the trip of your life.  Give The Salty Feather a call at 904-645-8998 or email me at john@saltyfeather.com.

Cost of the trip is $5895.00 and that includes very thing except transportation and tips.

• The Salty Feather arranged the presidents trip for the First Coast Fly Fishers to Andros Island Bonefish Club.  Eight members from the club just returned and Donn Mckinnon wrote the following article.    

Andros Bonefishing

The wind blew and then blew some more.  It was extremely difficult for the guide to see the fish, therefore almost impossible for us to see them.  Then the horizon filled up with clouds so that the reflection off the water was making it seem like peering into a bubbly mirror.  I looked back at our guide, Brian and he shook his head disgustedly.  We both knew it was time to give up fishing.

This was the third day of our trip and Mark Brodersen and I had done pretty well earlier catching some bones while wading.  We felt pretty good about the day considering the conditions, windy, front passing, and the overhead clouds “turning the lights out” all day.  Mark was kind enough to get in the windward seat for the 30 minute ride back to Andros Island Bonefishing Club.  He regretted that decision immediately as it was like riding a bucking horse while buckets of water were tossed on him.

Eight of us intrepid anglers, Bud Larsen, Henry Dunbar, Dave Kudley, Jody Ballard, John Morford, Donn McKinnon, Greg Durrance, and Mark Brodersen left Jacksonville in the early morning April, 20 and drove to the Orlando Airport.  We caught a Delta Connection flight to Nassau, Bahamas and then boarded a Western Air flight for the 10 minute flight to Andros Town.  A couple of taxis took us for about a 25 minute ride to Andros Island Bonefishing Club.

AIBC is located on the east coast of Andros Island at the mouth of Cargill Creek which is located just north of the huge upper bight dividing Andros into two separate Islands.  The club is the place Lefty Kreh said he would choose to go if he had to choose just one place to go fishing.  The club is owned and operated by the infamous Bahamian guide, Rupert Leaden and just about everybody famous in the fly fishing world has fished with him.

Our club members found the club clean, laid-back, with the staff extremely accommodating. Also the meals were delicious!  Even with the remoteness of the place, we ate some wonderful dishes.  Things such as Conch Chowder, Conch Fritters, Lobster Bisque, barracuda, snapper, grouper, and even pizza were on the menu.  Breakfast was cooked to order at 6:30 AM.  There were lunch fixings spread on a table for us to make our own lunches which were put in the boat cooler.  Spicy tuna salad was the best sandwich choice. The fishing day was from 7:45 AM to 4 PM.

Not a great amount of bones were caught by anyone.  However, we had 4 people who had never caught a bonefish before and they all caught fish!  The first day was great weather-wise.  It took a little time to get used to the guide’s accent and understanding what we wanted.  The guides want you to cast in front of the fish, wait for it to drop to the bottom, then make a fairly long strip or two for the fish to find the fly, then stop it while the fish runs over to it, then strip again and you should have a fish.  You don’t have to be too subtle with these fish.  In fact, whenever I tried to cast to the largest fish in a small school, a small one would run over and steal the fly most of the time.

On the second day, the wind was up even before we left the club in the morning.  Fishing was tough in the bight.  Jody Ballard and Greg Durrance went on the long run through the bight to the west coast and found lots of fish.  Dave Kudley and I went to an island just before the west coast and only caught one apiece.  It was a long, long, long 1 hour ride back against the 20 knot wind in our faces.

The third day, the wind was even stronger.  None of the guides even wanted to go any distance into the bight as the wind was blowing from east to west right down the middle of it.  Two boats fished in Cargill Creek to try and stay out of the wind and as I related in the beginning, Mark Brodersen and I went up the east coast about 30 minutes to a wade-able flat.

Even though the fishing could have been better, all of us found the trip to be well worth it.  Marion (who replaced Donna Teeny in 2005) and her staff at AIBC were very attentive and accommodating.  The consensus was that it was a place we would all like to go back to.  It is definitely a trip worth considering for those wishing to find hungry bonefish in a great setting all for less than $2,000.00 for four nights and three days fishing.

Donn McKinnon

If you would like to book a trip give us a call at 904-645-8998