Sensible traveler Destinations Where they went Travel gear Student travelAlaska: A fisherman's dream
By Diane Daniel, Globe Correspondent, 10/20/02
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Sensible traveler Destinations Where they went Travel gear Student travel |
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It started harmlessly enough, on a 1993 sightseeing trip to Alaska, when Schwartz and his wife "fished a little because we happened to run into it." Never what he would call a big fisherman, Schwartz nonetheless was hooked. He has returned each August just to fish, either alone or with one of his sons.
"Fishing is so much better there, you get spoiled," said Schwartz, who lives in Lunenburg. Over the years, he has caught several halibut topping 100 pounds. He never even fishes at home anymore.
When Alaska became a regular visit, Schwartz, 74, a retired electronics engineer with Raytheon, started staying with Sound Experience (www.soundexperience.net), a Spokane, Wash., charter company that owns and operates a fishing lodge in Alaska. This August, he went with his son, Karl, of Bedford, and Karl's friend Larry Mikulski of Burlington, for a week. The fishing, lodging, and meals cost about $3,000 a person, not including air fare.
The lodge, which holds 10 guests in shared rooms, is on Knight Island on Prince William Sound, just southeast of Anchorage in the Gulf of Alaska. From Anchorage, Schwartz flies to the fishing village of Cordova, and then a float plane takes the group to the lodge.
"It's really isolated and completely wooded. Sometimes you see a boat or two, but usually you don't see anybody else," he said.
The lodge owner acts as guide, and a cook, handyman, and second guide also stay with the group. Most guests are from the Western United States, though some are from outside the country. This year there was only one woman; other years there have been more, Schwartz said.
One reason he keeps returning to the same place is, he said, "It's kind of a laid-back camp. We go out at 8:30 [a.m.] and get back around 6 or 6:30." Each day they fish for something different, including halibut, silver salmon (also called coho salmon), and pink salmon.
"We might go salmon fishing one day and either go to saltwater or go up the stream, if the salmon are running up to spawn," he said. Fishermen are limited to keeping three salmon and two halibut a day.
"You go to a different area for different fish," Schwartz said. "Halibut — if people aren't familiar — you fish for in saltwater and fish deep, about 200 or 300 feet down. You use dead bait, a dead fish. The silver salmon, you fish in the saltwater by trolling, dragging a lure, or in the freshwater by casting."
Wildlife is plentiful on the pristine island and in the surrounding waters, Schwartz said. "We see mostly black bear and marine wildlife, like sea lions, marine otters, seals, humpback whales, and orcas."
Last year, Karl Schwartz was fishing by himself a short distance away from the group when a black bear sneaked up and nabbed a salmon he had placed on the bank. "Off he went in the woods with it," Karl's father recalled. "You don't mess with them."
For the airplane ride home, the fish are cleaned, scaled, filleted, bagged up, and frozen. The journey "takes us about a day, and it's still frozen by that time."
Though Schwartz is known locally for his travel photos from Antarctica and Africa (he gives slide shows at local adult community education centers and senior centers), he has yet to put together such a show from a fishing trip. But who can blame him for not snapping pictures, when he's busy reeling in the big ones?
Send suggestions to ddaniel@globe.com.