Alaska West Lodge - Kanektok River 

Alaska

The Alaska West camp offers anglers the best of the Kanektok River — legendary main stem fly fishing for sea-bright king salmon, chum, and silvers, and willow-lined side channels teeming with wild leopard bows, char, and grayling.

The Kanektok river is by all standards a remarkably diverse fishery, perfectly suited to both single-hand and spey rod anglers, offering one of Alaska’s best opportunities to target both king salmon and fresh silvers with the fly. High catch-rates, easy wading, and open backcasts are the norm.
Alaska West is a large, luxurious tent camp set in the heart of the lower Kanektok river’s finest fly fishing water. Guests sleep in pairs in comfortable wall tents with carpeted floors, quality mattresses, heat and lighting. Hot showers, a large dining tent, a recreation tent, and a drying tent complete the scene. Anglers fish two per guide and move about the system in 18-foot jet boats.

For those interested in getting a great taste of all that Alaska fly fishing has to offer without footing the bill for a fly-out lodge, Alaska West is a proven crowd-pleaser that keeps anglers coming back year after year.

Location:
Alaska West is located on the Kanektok River, 5.5 miles from its mouth. It is 425 miles WSW from Anchorage, 75 miles due South of the hub village of Bethel and 190 miles WNW from Dillingham.

Fishing Program:
The Kanektok river is a fish factory. With runs of all 5 species of Pacific salmon, rainbow trout, Dolly Varden and grayling, the Kanektok river provides a great mix of quantity and variety. For those who haven’t experienced it, it’s simply a shock to see such a large biomass in a relatively small river.

Downriver from the lodge is the larger water, including the long gravel bars where the king salmon hold, the deep, snaggy channels where the big rainbows lay, the slow backwaters that are loaded with silver salmon and the tidewaters sections full of salmon that were in saltwater hours earlier. As you head upriver past the Alaska West camp, the Kanektok river makes a transition to smaller water, side channels and tributaries. These upriver sections allow hiking up side channels fly fishing for rainbows, targeting salmon in smaller water, making classic day-long drifts fishing for ‘anything’ and working extremely productive dolly flats. Upriver or down, within 15 minutes of the Alaska West fly fishing camp there is access to classic king salmon runs, silver salmon backwaters, pink, chum and sockeye holding spots, rainbows in big water and side channels, dolly flats and tidewater fishing like no other. This river combined with the location provides for incredible variety in a small area.

Alaska West utilizes 16 to 18 foot flat-bottomed john boats powered by 40 HP jet pumps. They are equipped with bow and stern anchors, two swivel seats and life jackets. A cooler is on board to store lunches and drinks. The jet boats are used in several different ways. While fly fishing for salmon you might fish from the boat. Anchoring up and swinging or stripping flies can be very effective. Back trolling plugs or spin ‘n’ glos for kings is deadly. Fly fishing for trout can be done from the boats as well. Both seats are removed, your guide rows you down river ‘drift boat style’ and you cast while floating. This method is a wonderful way to see the river and cover water. While fly fishing from the boat is fun, most anglers also choose to fish from the wader-friendly gravel bars. This is where the jet boat shines! They can also run over very shallow water and get you to many small side channels that can be hiked up and fly fished from shore with your guide.

Region:
Alaska West operates a fixed base tent lodge located in the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge, approximately 5 miles upriver from the Alaska Native village of Quinhagak, on the banks of the Kanektok River in far western Alaska along the coast of the Bering Sea. Quinhagak is a coastal community located in the southernmost reaches of Kuskokwim Bay.

The Togiak National Wildlife Refuge encompasses over 4 million acres of lands that the US government deemed appropriate to manage by the objectives set forth in the National
Wildlife Refuge system’s directive to, among other things, conserve fish and wildlife
populations and habitats in their natural diversity. Its northern border is the Yukon Delta
National Wilderness Refuge. Its Eastern border is the Wood Tikchik Lakes and Wood
Tikchik State Park. The southern border is Bristol Bay and the western border runs 50 miles inland of Goodnews and Platinum until it bisects the Kuskokwim Bay coastline. Several villages fall within the refuge’s boundaries including Eek, Quinhagak, Platinum, Goodnews, Manokotak and Togiak. The refuge is mainly comprised of coastal flats, river flood plains and high tundra plains. Two mountain ranges run through the refuge-- the Kilbuck range and the Ahklun range. Both are heavily eroded by ice, wind and water, and their highest peaks are less than 4,500 feet high. The area is habitat to over 48 mammal species, 31 land-bound including caribou, wolves, moose, brown and black bear, foxes, beaver, muskrats, minks, river otters, voles and porcupines. 17 marine mammals live in the refuge including sea lions, walruses and whales. Three main river drainages host all five species of pacific salmon, rainbow trout, Dolly Varden, arctic grayling, arctic char and pike. Over 200 bird species nest in the refuge including golden and bald eagles, peregrine falcons, numerous species of waterfowl and shorebirds. Willow and cottonwood make up the scrub forests along the riverbanks and the tundra is flush with lichen, berries, dwarf trees and grasses. From the river the world looks lush with a short forest of spindly trees, bushes and grasses, but gain 15 feet of elevation and look out over the treetops and the view is a vast flat tundra plain pocked with an uncountable number of ponds and lakes, that runs every direction until it crashes into the sea, bumps into a mountain or drops into a river’s path.

Accommodations and Meals:
The Alaska West facility is a ‘tent lodge’. It is made up of a combination of permanent and semi-permanent structures, and is designed to combine comfortable living, eating and lounging areas with a location right on top of a phenomenal river.
Dining Tent: The dining tent is a spacious 24’x 60’ heated structure with wood floors and is always kept neat and clean. The kitchen has state of the art equipment such as gas ranges, convection oven, microwave, refrigerators and freezers. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns regarding specific dietary requirements.
Lounge Tent: The lounge is great place to relax after a full day of fishing. This large heated tent is furnished with comfortable chairs and tables. A refrigerator with cool sodas, juices and mixers, poker chips with cards, board games, dart board, magazines, books, map board, telephone, satellite television and an online camp computer are available to all guests, as well as a fly tying bench with a limited supply of fly tying materials and vises. Serious tiers are advised to bring their own vise and tools.
Drying Tent: After returning from your day’s fishing adventure this tent serves as a place for you to hang your wet waders, coats, boots and anything else you don’t want wet or dirty in your sleeping quarters. This tent’s heater is lit every night to ensure that your things are nice and dry by morning.
Gazebo/Viewing Deck: This split-level wood structure is located close to the dining and lounge tents and has a great river view. The bottom area is open aired and enclosed with fine mesh bug screen. This is a great place to sit and enjoy the midnight sun without being bothered by our little biting buddies. Directly above is the viewing deck. Bring your camera-- the sunsets can be breathtaking!
Showers and Restrooms/Outhouses: Showers have hot and cold running water with a sink basin and chair. They are cleaned daily. The restrooms are indeed outhouses. They too are cleaned daily and they are strategically located near your tent cabin.
Tent Cabins/Sleeping Quarters: Your heated tent cabin is furnished with two single beds with full bedding and pillow, clean shower linen, nightstand, hang-down bug net, lantern, carpeted floor and clothes hangers. The housekeeping staff will come through daily to make beds, empty trash and tidy up to ensure your new home stays neat and clean.

Sample Itinerary:
Day 1 : Arrive Anchorage and overnight
Day 2 : Arrive Alaska West Lodge
Days 3-8: Full days of guided fishing
Day 9: Depart for home.

Typical Daily Schedule:
A typical day starts at 7:00AM with a buffet-style breakfast. At this time fixings are put out for you to build yourself a custom-made lunch. You may also request a shore lunch—a lunch of fresh-caught fish and trimmings cooked for you, by your guide, right on the shore of the river! If you choose to have a shore lunch it is best requested the night before so your guide can get it prepared in advance. Shore lunch adds about 20 minutes of cooking time to your lunch break.

Your guide and boat will be ready to leave the beach at 8:00AM and will be at your service until 6:00PM, when all boats are due back to camp. This is a long day of fishing! Appetizers are put out at 6:30PM and dinner is served at 7:30PM.
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"The fishing focus of Alaska West is exemplified by our first day. We arrived at camp at 3:00PM expecting fishing to start the next day. We were in the process of unpacking, when a guide ran up to us and said "Get on your waders. Dinner isn't for 4 hours. You're here to fish aren't you?'" B.W., CO
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