Fishing

Experience an Epic Adventure of Fly Fishing, Bear Viewing, and Rafting in Alaska - Part 2

An Alaskan outfitter makes epic float trips down wild rivers doable and easy to plan. Experience world-class fly fishing, bear viewing, and the remote Alaskan wilderness – at an affordable price.

Ken Baldwin

A big Alaskan brown bear is part of the adventure on a fish and float trip in Alaska
A big Alaskan brown bear is part of the adventure on a fish and float trip in Alaska / photo by Ken Baldwin

Fish and Float is an Alaskan outfitter that helps you plan a week-long rafting and fly fishing trip down a remote Alaskan river. Fish and Float provides the raft, gear, and food, and offers a large selection of rivers to choose from. Your choice of river will be based on your skill level and the species of fish you want to target. While you're in the true wilds of Alaska, you'll stay in contact with Fish and Float staff who monitor your progress and safety. It's a great way to experience epic fly fishing while having an adventure of a lifetime.

Continued from Part 1: The Fly Fishing Trip of a Lifetime-An Ultimate Alaska Adventure

The butterflies are gone, but the magic of being on a raft, floating down a wild and remote river in the heart of Alaska still has you buzzing. The river, the tundra, the fish and animals—the vastness of the Alaskan wilderness—that's your reality for the next 7 days.

Down Shifting - Let the Fly Fishing Begin

You have the first camp marked on a GPS map on your phone. It's 5 miles downriver, and you got an early start, so there's no rush. You can fish along the way while taking turns at the oars. Stop when you want to do some wading, and maybe take a break for lunch. You are off the clock, time isn't really an issue. It's early in the season in Alaska, so the sun stays high late into the night. You can feel the gears shifting down and the noise in your brain becoming silent.

The First Night In Camp

It's 11 pm in the Alaskan tundra and it's finally starting to get dark. Camp is set up, a fire is blazing, and you are dead tired. It's been a long and deeply satisfying day. Some good fish were caught, the paddling went smoothly (except for that one rough patch), and the weather has been great. You are sitting by the side of the fire, bourbon in hand, your body is spent, and there is nowhere you'd rather be.

Bears: The Wild Card

The wild card in the deck is the Alaskan brown bear. You can handle a raft, you are an experienced fly angler, you are competent in the outdoors—the only unknown is the brown bear and "what if." The reality is, it's not a matter of what if, but when. You are going to see brown bears, you will probably see lots of them, some will be closer than you ever imagined.

You Can't Teach This

It will be unnerving. No amount of books, classes, or advice will put into perspective the energy a nine-foot, 900-pound animal radiates. It triggers a deep, primal fear that is hardwired into your DNA. You are not in Kansas anymore.

3 fly anglers on a fly fishing trip down the river encounter four brown bears trying to catch salmon.
An Alaskan traffic jam as you float down the river. / photo by Ken Baldwin

Fly Fishing With the Bears

But you will be ok. And after a few encounters, you realize that the bears aren't interested in you; they are there for the salmon. If you practice common sense and caution, the bears will go about their business with no attention paid to you, and you will be able to witness these amazing animals in their natural environment. You'll see them fishing in the rivers, mothers with cubs, and maybe even some playful interactions. These encounters, while a bit scary at first, will become the highlights of the trip.

A brown bear viewed through the flap of a tent camped out on an Alaskan river during a fly fishing fish and float trip.
Waking up to a brown bear outside your tent is a true Alaskan experience. / photo by Ken Baldwin

Living the Fly Fishing Dream

You've planned the trip to allow two full days in the most promising fishing spots and still make it to the pickup on time. That means two days of eating, fly fishing, relaxing, and bear watching—a complete submersion into the Alaskan wilderness. No cell phones, no clocks, no meetings, and nowhere to be.

Wild Alaskan Rainbow Trout

A 26" wild Alaskan rainbow trout will make your drag scream, if you can keep the fish on long enough. These are nothing like the trout in the lower 48. They live in clear, clean, cold water, they get fat on salmon eggs, salmon flesh, mice, lemmings, bugs, and other fish. You don't have to be a great fly angler to have success. The fish are hungry, fattening up for the long winter, and aren't shy. But man, hold on. They are strong and wild, and will test your fish fighting skills.

It’s Not an Adventure if You Don’t Have Challenges

The trip isn't all peaches and cream. Bad weather can come in. It doesn't usually last long, but it can be formidable. Navigating the river has its challenges. When looking back at your trip, those will be some of the better memories, but when it's happening, it will be difficult.

It's physically demanding. Paddling an 8 hour day, fighting the wind, lifting and moving gear. You will feel it. If you get injured you will have to know some first aid and your way around a medical kit. It's wilderness, you will be challenged, sometimes uncomfortable, and things can happen.

Two fly anglers working their way down a river in Alaska while looking for good fly fishing water.
A float trip down the river will challenge you physically, but the adventure and amazing fly fishing makes it worth it. / photo by Ken Baldwin

It's All Worth It

Here are some of the upsides. You will have experiences with nature that border on the sublime. Fishing alongside brown bears that are cool with you being there. Catching a wild rainbow trout of a lifetime, and then doing it two or three more times. Witnessing schools of salmon by the thousands.

Sitting by a fire totally exhausted and enjoying good company. Coffee never tasted so good. That goes for the bourbon too. You are so tired and famished that you eat whatever is put in front of you, including junk food, and you still lose weight. You will sleep a deep sleep to the sound of the river. In the end, you will have awakened parts of your DNA that stretches back to the beginning of time. It all sounds like hyperbole, until you have experienced it.

An Epic Fly Fishing Adventure Made Doable

These raft trips are doable, and Fish and Float has a program that makes it both affordable and easy to plan. Most of the pieces are already in place. You just have to contact them, and they will assist in the planning. Fly fishing is the excuse to get out there, but what is delivered is a profound experience in the wild that you will carry with you for the rest of your life. KB

If You Missed It:

The Fly Fishing Trip of a Lifetime-An Ultimate Alaska Adventure: Part 1

The tundra in remote Alaska where the Fish and Float experience happens. Fly fishing and adventure in one trip.
Fish and Float Alaska. One of the most amazing fly fishing trips you will ever experience. / photo provided by Fish and Float Alaska

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

Published
Ken Baldwin
KEN BALDWIN

Ken Baldwin's career in fishing and the outdoors started twenty-two years ago. For twenty of those years he guided anglers in remote Alaska. Along with his work as a guide, he created a TV show called Season on the Edge, which aired on NBC Sports, worked on the nature documentary Our Planet 2, for Netflix, specialized in photographing the Alaskan brown bear, and has published his photographs and writing in several magazines. Ken Baldwin is a graduate from the University of Washington.

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