I have had a lot of people ask what fishing in Alaska is like from a woman’s perspective. I want to enlighten any woman interested in traveling to Alaska to embark on a fishing trip. My mom always tells my dad “why would I go fishing at home with you when I can go catching with Jon and Britt in Alaska”. I feel like it’s a fairly accurate comment based on my experience of fishing in Alaska. Every time we go fishing we always come back with something. It can sometimes be work but it’s always worth it.
One of my fondest memories is a day we were heading to Idaho Inlet for the night. On the way in we were surrounded by humpback whales, we stopped for over an hour to watch them feed and play with there young. Once the whales left, we headed towards the inlet and dropped crab and shrimp pots on our way in. We anchored out and enjoyed the sight of bald eagles diving to the water’s surface feeding on small fish. We all boarded the skiff with our fishing rods and headed up stream. We took 
the skiff as far up stream as possible, when we could go no further we anchored the skiff and continued our trek further upstream to the fishing hole we were after. Along the way we passed through a field of wild flowers where I spotted many chocolate lilies… I collected the tubers (roots) of the lilies to cook later that night with dinner. As we continued our trek up stream, we came through some alder brush and emerged on the edge of the river. Up ahead of us was a brown bear in the water playing and eating salmon. It was so amazing to witness. We just stood there watching this bear eat till he was full and scampered off in the opposite direction as us. Once the coast was clear we started fishing where the bear had vacated trying to 
catch silver salmon. It was an amazing experience fishing in a stream so thick with salmon you couldn’t see the bottom. Once we caught our fill, we strung them up on some alder saplings and made the trek back to the skiff. Back aboard we headed out to the entrance of the inlet and pulled our crab and shrimp traps. There is nothing better then pulling your traps from the depths of the ocean to find them full of crabs and shrimp. Once the skiff was loaded with our crab, shrimp and salmon we headed back to the boat to process our bounty and get ready for dinner. That evening we ate outside on the aft deck and enjoyed nature teaming around us. We saw more bears, dear, bald eagles, and even two sea otters. It was one of the most amazing and memorable experiences of my life and I look forward to recreating it again every year.
Alaska is one of the last frontiers it can be a lot of work, but it is also a blast and very rewarding to go out into the wilderness on an adventure and come home victorious! I can’t picture anyone not having an amazing time while adventuring in Alaska. For me it is an experience that has shaped who I am as an adult and how I see the world today.
~ Brittany Yoors ~