The brown bear 20 yards away is living its best life. The gravel road provides an elevated perch to watch, with great awe, a bear in a creek up to its neck, standing on its hind legs, as hundreds of migrating salmon swirl and swim by. For this sizable animal, the eddy is both cold plunge and buffet. Nearby, untold numbers of silvers stack up in a shallow stretch, unable to pass over the rocks despite their thrashing and tail beating. When the next rain comes, the creek will rise and these salmon will be able to move farther upstream as they instinctively head back to the location where they hatched.
“It’s incredible,” says Joshua Badder, co-owner of Wild Strawberry Lodge in Sitka, Alaska. “The life that they have… and the life they give.”
It’s late August in Sitka. With the exception of the gunmetal gray peaks of the nearby mountains, everything is verdant. Unlike the distant, northwestern expanses of the Frontier State, Southeast Alaska (a three-hour flight from Seattle) is a temperate rainforest that’s home to a rich and diverse biomass. Bear sightings are constant. Bald eagles are as common here as seagulls in South Florida. And this time of year, the salmon run inspires anglers to join a phenomenon unlike any other in nature.
“It’s hard to explain. It’s like magic,” says Badder. “Thousands and thousands of these fish run upstream. It draws in the birds, the bears, and the people. Being in those streams in your waders, surrounded by these fish, is surreal. There’s nothing like it in the world.”
Alaska’s Wild Strawberry Lodge in Sitka
For Badder, it’s also surreal that he now has a front row seat to this magical migration. In February, Badder and his friend and business partner Justin Karleski bought Wild Strawberry Lodge. The two lifelong outdoorsmen and former heavy equipment salesmen were at their favorite pizza place back home in Kansas City, Missouri, when their broker called to inform them that after eight months of negotiations, the deal was done. They were now the owners of a legendary getaway that’s been a Sitka staple for more than 30 years.
“Did I ever dream of owning a fishing lodge? No. But it’s pretty awesome that this came to fruition,” says Karleski. Within days of the deal’s closure, Badder and Karleski were packed and headed to Sitka to get to work.
Alaska is well known for its salmon fishing lodges, which range from homespun to luxurious. Wild Strawberry feels like you’re staying at a relative’s home. Located in the heart of Sitka a short walk from the marina, Wild Strawberry offers expertly organized multi-day, immersive fishing charters. The fleet consists of aluminum pilothouse boats built for the rough and tumble waters of Baranof Island. But the payoff is considerable. “Each client is leaving the Sitka airport with 50 to 100 pounds of fish,” says Badder. (The culinary yield of a processed salmon is 45 percent.) While king and silver salmon make up the bulk of the poundage, lingcod, halibut and rockfish are a regular part of the mix.
Best Fishing in Sitka Alaska
While trolling used to be the strategy of choice for salmon fishing, these days it’s all about mooching. The rig consists of a two-hook leader, mooching sinker and cut herring. The captain sets up a good drift, marks the salmon on the MFD, and directs the anglers to drop the bait to the target depth and reel up slowly. (All the reels have line counters so anglers can dial in their depth.) From here, it’s not a matter of if, but when.
Once you’ve limited out on kings and silvers, the entrails of a few pinks end up as bait for the barn doors. “Everyone has their own favorite fish. For me, in salt water, the obsession is halibut,” says Badder. The strategy is simple: Open the bail until you feel the thump on the bottom, reel up twice, and start jigging. “It’s the elusive fish that might get away, or maybe you’ll catch a state record,” Badder says. “What I’m sure of is you’ll have a great time doing it.”
One misty morning, a few members of our crew pile into Karleski’s side-by-side (which are street legal in Sitka). The drive goes from asphalt to gravel to dirt to untamed wild. The UTV crawls over downed trees and through mud pits. The destination is one of Karleski’s secret spots: a waterfall that empties into a quiet, elevated pool. Trapped by the water level and waiting for more rain, the salmon swim in circles. Armed with fly rods, we cast into the pool while precariously balancing our deck boots on wet rocks. If you saw this scene in a movie, you’d swear it was CGI. A natural vignette that seems impossible.
“Is this heaven?” I ask.
Karleski chuckles. “Close,” he says. “It’s Alaska.”
Planning a Trip to Sitka, Alaska
When to Go: Peak season is June 1 to August 31.
How to Get There: Alaska Airlines offers direct jet service year-round from Seattle, with a flight time of approximately three hours. Delta Airlines also operates one daily flight from Seattle.
Cost: Wild Strawberry’s base package is two days fishing and three nights lodging for $2,525, plus taxes. The all-inclusive package includes airport transport, meals, tackle and rain gear, fishing licenses, and processing/shipping your catch.
What to Expect: A wide array of weather. Fog, drizzle, wind, intense sun, rain, chill—that’s just one of the ways a summer day can unfold in Southeast Alaska. You’ll likely go from bundled up under foul weather gear in the morning to stripping down to a T-shirt and pants by the afternoon. Even with all the wardrobe changes, the sock hat was the one item I consistently wore all day, every day.
