Fishing

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

Experience the Alaskan wilderness like never before on a Fish and Float trip. This challenging but doable adventure is perfect for fly anglers seeking a truly wild experience.

Ken Baldwin

Fish and Float Alaska. One of the most amazing fly fishing trips you will ever experience.
Fish and Float Alaska. One of the most amazing fly fishing trips you will ever experience. / photo provided by Fish and Float Alaska

It's a trip of a lifetime. It's a trip that will move you deeply, maybe even change you. It's a trip you will never forget

...and it's a trip that can become reality if you know where to look.

Where to Look

The program is called Fish and Float, and that is exactly what it is. You get outfitted with a week's worth of supplies, a big raft, and a map. A plane drops you off on a remote Alaskan river and picks you up a week later at a designated spot. For that week, you will have fly fishing opportunities, photographic opportunities, and a real-life adventure in the wilds of Alaska.

The yellow and orange shore of a lake in SW Alaska during the early Fall. A perfect time to Fish and Float Alaska.
A Fish and Float trip through the interior of Alaska is the ultimate fly fishing adventure. / photo by Ken Baldwin

A Real Fly Fishing Adventure With Safety Nets Along the Way

What makes this doable is the group you have backing you up and making sure you are prepared and equipped. The Fish and Float crew has been doing this for a long time and they'll equip you with everything you need for a safe and successful trip. This means support during the prep of the trip, and while you are on the river. If you know how to handle yourself in the outdoors, practice common sense, and can paddle a raft downriver, you can do this.

The Jumping Off Point

The first stage is at the Fish and Float base camp near the town of Iliamna. It's where all the gear and rafts are kept. You are still in civilization and you will be putting your gear together and doing your final prep for the trip. This is the stepping-off point, and you will probably be experiencing some nerves. From your location, if you look out across the lake, you can see the vastness that you will be flying into, and it looks big, real big.

Perhaps you've read books like Call of the Wild, or Into the Wild (Yeah, you might want to stay away from that last one), and your imagination of what to expect has you excited, with some dread and doubt mixed in. But you are so busy prepping and making sure you have what you need that it's enough of a distraction to keep you focused on the job at hand. At this point, anxiety and coffee are fueling you.

Packing the Plane, the Adventure Begins

Your float plane lands and pulls up to the loading position. It's a De Havilland Beaver, the famous classic flyer from the 50s. No more planning; everyone starts hustling, getting gear in the plane, keeping an eye on the cloud cover (you will have to fly up there), and doing a final check. It's time to go.

The Trip In

The plane is flying across the tundra to a drop-off point on a remote river or lake. Along the way, you look out the window, searching for caribou, moose, or bear. It's tundra, rivers, and mountains as far as you can see. Anxiety kicks in again, or is that adrenaline. The pilot may talk with you; he may not. Alaska bush pilots are strange that way.

It's difficult to tell when you begin to descend to your destination because you are flying so low in the first place. Eventually, you let go of control and take in the scenery. At some point, the pilot points to a spot on the horizon and says, "Right there"—your pilot's a talker. He circles to have a look and make sure there will be no surprises, before he puts the plane down . The feeling of "Here we go." helps you override your nerves, and you are all in.

Looking for wild rivers in Alaska for fly fishing and float trips.
Looking for wild rivers in Alaska for fly fishing and float trips. / photo by Ken Baldwin

We Are Really Doing This

Unloading the plane is a lot easier than loading it. Once the unloading is done, you help with turning the plane around so it faces out towards the lake. The pilot climbs into his seat. He tells you he'll see you in a week and gives you a wave. The De Havilland engine starts up and, sounding like a Harley Davidson, pulls away from the shore. That's it—there goes your ride; It just got real.

Volume up-There goes your ride.

The plane does a flyover and then vanishes into the horizon. You and your fishing buddy are silent, and that's what hits you, how silent it is out here. You can feel the immensity of Alaska. You look at the mountains in the distance, and you know that on the other side is just more mountains. You feel very small, and Alaska feels very big. Standing in the middle of Alaska, hundreds of miles from anything, is a tangible feeling that resides in your stomach and your chest.

Getting the gear and raft ready for a fly fishing trip down an Alaskan river.
Getting the raft ready for it's trip down the river. It's not going to pump itself. / photo by Ken Baldwin

After the finality of the plane leaving sinks in, it's time to get to work — pump up the raft, get the gear in it, and get down the river to your first camp — You hope to God you didn't forget anything. KB

The Fishing, The Bears, and Wild Alaska (Cont. in Part 2)

“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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