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ALASKA — Perhaps this scenario sounds familiar. You wake before dawn to drive to a new fishing spot that your buddy told you about. The weather is perfect, the birds are singing, and it seems as though your first strike is only moments away.
But nothing happens.
Cast after cast, you canvass the water with increasing frustration. Not only are the fish not biting, but you haven't even seen so much as a fin or tail all day long. It's clear that you're being ghosted by the same fish that your buddy allegedly catches on a regular basis. For all you know, this spot could've been hit with rotenone the day before.
At the other end of the spectrum is the type of place where there seems to be more fish than water. Take this river, near Alaska's Prince William Sound:
Filled to the brim with spawning salmon, you could probably walk from one side to the other and not even get wet. I can't even imagine what it'd be like to fish a river like this, as each cast would inevitably smack 20 or so salmon. Rather than "sight fishing," you'd simply be "water fishing." As long as you heard a plunk at the end of your cast, you're gonna get something.
But then things would take an unexpected turn. Surrounded by millions of fish and the beauty of the Alaskan wilderness, you'd probably begin quoting poetry like Tom Skerritt in "A River Runs Through It." After setting down your rod and leaning against a mossy tree, you'd write a sermon on the old notepad you keep in your chest pocket and then nod off to sleep.
Have You Seen This?
Have You Seen This? Bear lounges in koi pond
Did this bear realize that it was crashing a koi pond? Probably not.
