Alaska Bristol Bay fly fishing lodge, Iliamna rainbow trout fishing

Chapter 1: General Information
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	Page 2-Lodge, Guest Rooms, Guest Cabin

Introduction and Location

Welcome to Alaska's Clearwater Lodge, at Bristol Bay.Thank you very much for your interest in our Alaska fishing lodge.

We hope you enjoy viewing and reading our web site. It is very informative and should answer some of your questions about our operation. Please feel free to call or email with any unanswered questions, as we would be happy to respond. Our phone number is (907) 688-6215.

Alaska's Clearwater Lodge was built on the premier location in all of Bristol Bay. We are located at the very center of the Bristol Bay Drainage, partially on the shores of Lake Iliamna. Lake Iliamna is the heart and soul of Bristol Bay fishing, and Clearwater Lodge in positioned at the outlet of the lake, where the world famous Kvichak River starts.

The Kvichak River starts in front of the lodge, just feet from the main lodge building. Lake Iliamna is on one side of the Clearwater Lodge property and the gin clear water of the Kvichak River is on the other side

Our location is the key to some of the world's best native rainbow trout fishing. Rainbows up to 37 inches are caught in front of the lodge, off of our beach, in the Kvichak River -as shown in the picture to the right.

The Fishing at Alaska's Clearwater Lodge

Clearwater Lodge's fishing is world famous for 2 species: we catch the largest native Rainbow Trout in the world and we also have the largest natural sockeye salmon run in the world.

Rainbow Trout

Clearwater Lodge fishes the clear waters of the Kvichak River and Lake Iliamna. This is home to the world's largest native Rainbow Trout. The Rainbow Trout grow huge in the clear water of the Kvichak River. These are native Rainbows, never introduced or enhanced in any way. They grow to such large proportions due to the cold clear water of the Kvichak River/Lake Iliamna and the large food source of the world's largest natural run of sockeye salmon. In this area of the river, in front of Clearwater Lodge, the rainbows grow in excess of 37 inches.

In the spring, the huge rainbows school up at the outlet of the lake, (in front of Clearwater Lodge) where up to 500,000,000 (five hundred million) sockeye salmon smolt begin their journey downriver to the ocean. The rainbows gorge on these smolt during the month of June. At the end of June, the adult Sockeye salmon start showing up (runs up to 28 million, with the 20 year average of 9.7 million). The Rainbows now switch over from sockeye smolt to gorging on the eggs of the spawning sockeyes, and then in August, September, and October, the decaying flesh of the sockeyes are the prime food.

Above- One of our larger Rainbow Trout

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Sockeye Salmon

The Sockeye Salmon run in front of Clearwater Lodge is hard to believe. In an average year, 9.7 million sockeye head to the Kvichak River. A few years ago, the Kvichak Sockeye run had 28 million fish. This is just the sockeye headed for the Kvichak River. This is a natural run that is not stocked or enhanced in any way.

Sockeye Fishing is non-stop action, with both the fly rod or the spinning rod.

The run of Sockeye going past Clearwater Lodge is so great that in one day, (one 24 hour period) almost 600,000 sockeyes swam by the front door of Clearwater Lodge. This means that on average 6.9 sockeyes per second swam by the lodge for a straight 24 hours.

The picture above illustrates the 6.9 Sockeye Salmon that swam by the front door of Clearwater Lodge every single second for 24 hours straight!

The Millions of Sockeye Arrive Bright and Full of Fight

Clearwater Lodge staff will fillet, package, and freeze your fish for your return home. We provide airline approved boxes for you to carry on your flight. All fish processing, freezing, and packaging is included in the price and is at no additonal charge.

The limit for sockeye salmon is keeping 5 fish per day. (of course you can catch and release hundreds more)

	The Sockeye Salmon stream by the lodge nonstop for over a month. This is the premeire sockeye fishing is Alaska; "millions of Sockeye Salmon in crystal clear water."

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Silver Salmon, Coho

The silver salmon (coho) fishing is equally thrilling in the clear water. We specialize in the use of dry flies (surface flies) in enticing the silver salmon to hit on the surface. Silvers on the surface! What could be better?
If you want to see what we mean by "surface fishing" for silver salmon, click here , for an 8 second video clip. This is in window's media player format.

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King Salmon, Chinook

At Alaska's Clearwater Lodge, we also catch the large King Salmon, (chinook). We catch the kings as they work their way up the river, holding at the mouths of various streams. They also run up the different streams in our area as well and it's a blast to catch these kings in the shallower waters of the smaller streams. One of our other lodges, Alaska's Lake Marie Lodge, specializes in king fishing with enormous runs in a huge variety of small clear water streams. For more information about this lodge, please check out the web site www.lakemarie.com
Our newest fishing adventure is catching King Salmon on the surface using floating or dry flies. Yes, King salmon (chinook) can be enticed to rise and strike on the surface!
At one of our other lodges, Lake Marie Lodge, over the course of the last several years, we had been developing and perfecting a technique to catch these huge fish on the surface. We previously thought that silver salmon on the surface was the ultimate fishing experience, however we have come to believe that the much larger king salmon is indeed the king sized ultimate fishing experience! Click here, for a ten second video showing a king salmon striking a surface fly, and watch the king's explosive reaction.