I don't know who does it- there might be more than one. The Good News River float, flying into Red (named for salmon) Lake and floating down to the village of Good News Bay has to be dynamite, factoring in weather/river conditions.
I wouldn't know- I only spent 6 weeks in a Weatherport at one location one year on that river years ago 17 miles above the village and never fished more than a quarter mile from camp - and I fished every day, caught fish every day, while working for F&G establishing a new salmon counting site. No heat in the camp then (I understand they have a fuel-oil equipped cabin there now, the wusses), except for a Coleman 3 burner to cook on. Pat McManus's "A Fine and Pleasant Misery" comes to mind.... In my mind, even after decades, it is a fairly even draw between "fine and pleasant" and "misery", shading toward the former.....
You can find misery (tho maybe not in that quality) anywhere - but fishing like that is hard to come by!
Two days before I left, I managed to catch a rainbow under 16 inches (14"). Tough, thick, chunky fish! 5 species of salmon, grayling, and char to boot. Hell, even my Lab was catching salmon - or trying to - (that 30 lb king he latched into and eventually managed to turn loose of- the fish was definately trying to drown him!) - almost made me fall out of the tower, I was laughing so hard- but it got him put on leash thereafter while I was spotting... Can't go around abusing the product, after all.... He'd previously proudly carried around his self-caught first "trophy" salmon ( a pink, or humpie) for 3 days before it got stinking so bad I threw it into the river. He was crushed. Thereafter, he brought his catches to me and I cooked them up for him for supper... Until his eyes got too big for his abilities.
One evening, I saw a pretty good fish on the opposite side of the river jump out of the water up onto an overhanging bank, then flop a couple times to get back into the water- repeated 2 more times. Since a float party had just come thru, I assumed they had hooked and lost a salmon, with line attatched, and this fish was in distress, hung up on something by the line. I crossed the river to the spot- a deep hole straightoff a slanted undercut-overhang bank with a drowned alder bush just off-shore, but couldn't see anything. after a few minutes, just for the hell of it, I jigged my Krocodile down into a hole in the center of the drowned bush and had it taken. No real fight- I just kind of lead this 6.5 pound female rainbow out of the bush and onto a 2-feet wide (literally) landing at the base of the overhang bank. I was fishing for supper for 3 guys, so she died. She had three (fresh) large voles in her stomach, another in her craw, with the tip of the tail hanging out of the corner of her mouth. I figured she was laying there in her hole, sky-lining thevoles at the crest of the overhanging bank as they traveled an obvious trail, and nailing them on the fly! On dry ground (well- as dry as that country ever gets, anyway.)!
Talk about "Jaws"!
I've seen a lot of pretty neat things over the years up here, but that has to be the most incredible. Literally- so no offense if you disbelieve it. I probably would myself, but, "Hell, I Was There" !
I've got a couple more tales from that river... but not as good.
The country sucks, and the weather sucks, but that is the most incredible river and fishing I have ever encountered. Once, during very high/muddy water, I choked up on my fishing rod to about 18 inches (not easy in heavy willow/alder cover), jigged the Krokodile, and caught a 20 inch rainbow about 6 inches in front of my toes, 10 inches deep, hard up against the bank.... The old spot-and-stalk.... tho I didn't have to travel anywhere after spotting it...
Ate that one too. Our supply line just wasn't all that reliable.....It got to the point where I would take orders for what we were eating that night- just varying the location/ portion of hole, and presentaton to catch the species desired. Used the same tackle and lure for 5 weeks, until a 40 lb king got the Krokodile (I was after a coho)... by that time, the 10 lb test line was getting pretty haggard also...
There are several outfitters in the Wood River/Tikchik Lakes system - similar incredible fishing- that would do you good. Beautiful country.! Trees, here and there, even!
