This report spans several days of fishing the Thorn Bay area of Alaska, out of Anderson Lodge. I was joined by Rob Holman, as well as NWFR members Paul and Bruce for an Alaska filming adventure. This report is about the self-guided trips that Anderson Lodge has available.

The bay itself is fairly calm and the Lodge provides 16 foot lunds with 25 HP Yamaha motors to fish out of. Each boat also has a scotty electric downrigger and all the gear you need to fish salmon or bottom fish.

Gary Anderson, owner of Anderson Lodge, reported that the prior week a 30 pound kin had been taken, and the coho and pinks were beginning to show up in increasing numbers. Alaska had been in the grip of a warm, dry spell prior to our arrival which had slowed the return of the coho to the bay prior to their run up the Thorn River.

We rigged up with a magnum flasher and green hoochie on one side, with a whole herring attached, and a Dutch Fork Custom spinner blade and beads on the starboard rod, with an eight ounce weight and 40-50 pulls back. Our trolling speed we kept at around 3 mph since we were trying to target the silvers that Gary reported had begun to show up. We knew they were out there as Gary had taken use up the Thorn River just the other day and I had caught a chrome bright six pound coho.

It didn’t take long before the downrigger rod violently loaded and released, drag screaming and line peeling. I grabbed the rod and battled in a beautiful 26” chinook which was safely released. So began three days of adventures on Thorn Bay as we traveled out to protected bays and points, searching out chinook, silvers, and coho. The first day we couldn’t keep the chinook off our lines, unfortunately they all ran just shy of the 28” minimum size required to keep a chinook. Along the way we started filling coolers with bright silvers and pink salmon. With rain coming and going, by the third day the bay, and specifically Tolstoy Point, began filling up with ever greater numbers of pinks and coho. The local chinook, meanwhile, dispersed from the first day when we easily caught and released around twenty chinook. The coho and pinks were chrome bright, aggressive and battled hard. It was not unusual to be letting out lines and suddenly have a fish smash the lure before even getting a chance to put the rod in the rod holder.
We had progressively better fishing each day we went out, as, after an unusual dry spell prior to our arrival gave way to a rainy week and brought with it ever increasing numbers of fish in the Bay.

With a generous six fish daily limit on both coho and pinks, the opportunity is there to bring home some serious amounts of fish. I really enjoyed the freedom to explore the waters of Thorn Bay and set our own agendas and pace. We could (and did) fish from 6m, coming in for lunch and then going back out again until 7am, dinner call. Anderson Lodge provides full meal plans, including amazing homemade dinners. A short under two hour flight from Seattle, then a 25 minute float plane ride put us in a beautiful, remote slice of Alaska. Quite an adventure and one I hope to repeat again!

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