GREAT NORTH WATERS, IN ALASKA, SALMON KING.

Byline: Dave Strege Orange County Register

Katmai Lodge sits on a bluff overlooking the Alagnak River and an endless expanse of wilderness in the land of bears, beavers and bald eagles.

Aside from the small town of King Salmon (20 minutes by plane), the closest civilization is 300 miles away in Anchorage. The stresses of work and everyday life lie even farther.

When people from all over the world come here, their only care or worry is whether something other than the mosquitoes are biting. Usually, something is. Otherwise, Tony Sarp would never have built the lodge where he did, smack dab in the middle of salmon country. King (chinook), sockeye (red), chum (dog), silver (coho) and pink (humpback) salmon - the Alagnak has them all.

``It's a nice fishery and a nice time because people can fish sockeyes and chum and even do some rainbow trout fishing,'' said Dan Dunaway of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. ``In fact, the diversity available on the Alagnak is one of the big draws.''

Of course, the biggest attraction on the Alagnak, as throughout Alaska, is the king salmon, because of its enormous size. No place is more popular for kings than the ``the salmon capital of the world,'' the Kenai River, located a few hundred miles to the northeast. It commonly produces chinooks from 40 to 60 pounds, with some taken each year that surpass 80 pounds; the all-tackle world record is 97-1/4 pounds, taken on the Kenai in May 1985.

But the Kenai is crowded. Anglers are elbow to elbow along its banks. Boats are bumper to bumper on the water in what is often referred to as ``combat fishing.''

``The Kenai is about four times as big (as the Alagnak) and has 45 times as many boats,'' said Gary Proctor, 54, of Tustin. ``It's kind of like being in Newport Back Bay on a July Sunday. There are boats everywhere.''

The outdoors experience is more complete on the Alagnak, where you actually have elbowroom to catch kings from 25 to 40 pounds, with some reaching 60. The remoteness, diversity and uncrowded waters are the river's calling cards and why anglers faithfully return each year.

``I would've never thought I would go to one place 10 times because I get bored real easy,'' Robert Follman, 54, of Coto de Caza said of his 10th consecutive summer visit. ``So I have to compliment the place because it draws me back.''

The return of some anglers is almost as predictable as the salmon's. Their groups always go in the second week of July, a peak time for kings . . . in most years, anyway.

This year has been different. Alaska Outdoor Journal called king fishing poor on the Alagnak. Typically, when a good run of kings are moving up river, anglers hook four to 10 kings a day and land 60 percent of them, Sarp said. Timing is everything.

``We didn't catch any (kings this time),'' said Victor Hardin, an 81-year-old Dana Point auto dealer with a 12-year streak fishing the Alagnak. ``Some of the guys caught some, but we didn't. We fished two days for them and gave up and went sockeye fishing.

``It's the best day of fishing I ever had. We caught all the sockeye we could possibly catch in one day.''

Nonstop action at its best, as an endless parade of sockeyes headed upriver. The kings are never that thick, but fishing for them is usually better than it was. Duncan couldn't remember a slower year for kings, but so what?

``I've caught five, but we caught a ton of sockeye,'' Duncan said. ``It's the greatest fishing place in the world and this is a bad year.''

Sockeye and chum salmon can salvage a bad year; they are refreshing standbys.

Sockeyes are considered by most as the best-tasting salmon and provide a stern test on a fly rod. They average 6 to 9 pounds with some to 12 pounds. Chum salmon, which usually go 10 to 12 pounds, don't taste great but also offer a spirited battle on fly gear.

Some anglers try fly-fishing for kings, though it cuts their chances of hooking one. Most use bait-casting outfits and drift or troll for kings. It's fly rods for everything else.

You can drive to the Kenai River. The Alagnak is accessible only by float plane or boat. So filling up the home freezer isn't the main objective here. Anglers can take five sockeye and one king.

The lodge encourages catch and release, enforces it for female kings to ensure the fishery's future, even though it's not a state regulation.

``We have a prolific king fishery and it will stay that way because there is no industry here and the only commercial fishing is for sockeye,'' Sarp said. ``There's no lumbering, no mining, nothing to interfere with these fish. So, hopefully, we can keep the numbers of these fish for an awful long time.

``Most rivers lose their fish over time because of development and overfishing. This river isn't influenced by any of that. It's inaccessible, so to speak.''

Local angler John Tallekpalek, who lives somewhere down river between countless beaver lodges, couldn't help himself one day recently. In front of a few boats with anglers, he exclaimed with a grin as wide as the river, ``Look what I got!''

From the bottom of his skiff, he used two hands to lift a reddish king salmon that weighed 40 pounds or more. The fishermen looked on in awe. They were left to dream about what it might be like to have such a behemoth at the end of their line during this unheralded king season.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1) There are plenty of options if the king salmon aren't biting along the Alagnak River in Alaska. Sockeye, considered the best-tasting salmon, is plentiful in the area 300 miles from Anchorage.

(2) King and sockeye salmon are plentiful along the Alagnak River in Alaska.

Dave Strege/Orange County Register