Wild River Guides – Alaska Float Trips
Species: Rainbow trout, Coho, Sockeye, Chinook and Chum salmon, Dolly Varden
Season: June – October
Capacity: 6 anglers
Cost: $5,500 per angler, double occupancy
Insurance: GLOBAL RESCUE
Our goal is to help you explore and discover an aspect of Alaska that you would never see on a conventional vacation or lodge experience. Group sizes are kept small, 2-6 people make a good group. These are wilderness trips and sometimes larger groups have a way of obscuring the qualities of solitude we have traveled so far to experience.
Mark Rutherford has decades of experience in this region having successfully been the first to navigate many of the smaller rivers and streams of which there remain many that have not been floated before. With additional experience working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the Forest Service as a firefighter, day and evening conversations on the water with Mark are peaks into a life lived in this great wild frontier.
Upon arrival each and every guest is met at the Dillingham airport and transported to the guest house, B&B, or hotel room and Mark makes sure everyone is comfortable in Dillingham, arranges for your local transport needs, and helps you re-pack into waterproof river bags for your impending adventure.
In 2003, Brent Whitney accompanied Mark on a first descent of a diminutive Nushugak river tributary in Bristol Bay, Alaska that they named the Little King Salmon River. This experience has led Mark to seek out and explore new watersheds which then become fabulous week long river trips for willing anglers
Each mile that one descends, the river becomes richer. The accumulated biomass of thousands of salmon who have returned to spawn and then die fertilize the waters. As the river picks up tributaries, each hosting a salmon run, the ecosystem becomes more fertile. The upper river through mid section fishes well with dry Caddis as well as wooly buggers, leaches, flesh and egg patterns.
Once deposited at your river of choice, the group works to assemble gear, pump boats and allocate the equipment for the beginning of the float trip. Once the plane is gone the adventure begins and you have officially embarked on your journey.
Camps are situated on a variety of terrain, mostly gravel bars. Some are protected from wind and rain by virtue of the margin of spruce trees and others are totally exposed. Each angler has their own personal tent and to make travel easier Mark provides bags and pads for each person as well. The riverbank wildlife seen is Caribou, Moose, Brown/Grizzly bears, Mink, Otters, nesting Osprey and Bald Eagles to name a few.
Satellite phones are on hand for emergency use and Mark and his staff are all up to date with WFR training and each boat carries a shotgun as a last resort for unfriendly wildlife encounters. Each angler is provided an air horn and bear spray and instructed to keep on them at all times.
We have chosen to work with Mark Rutherford and his company Wild River Guides because after time spent discussing life, fly fishing, our industry and what we feel like we want to provide our clients, we are as close to eye to eye as two people in this sport could possibly be.
We without hesitation say this is as good as it gets in the wilderness float department, anywhere in the world. Come create the memories lodges have a difficult time delivering.
