I spent two hours traveling the prettier 26 miles of the Denali Highway. My camera batteries were dead last night, so the photos posted yesterday were taken with my phone. I charged the camera over night, took many photos with the idea that if I take 100 photos, 1 or 2 might come out great. Once I finished traveling the Denali Highway, I decided to shoot down to Valdez as the Internet stated that there are many places to catch Silver Salmon casting from the Shore.
Valdez is a beautiful, small area, surrounded by mountains, close by, on all sides. I drove out to Allison Point to check out the campground and the shore fishing. What I found was a mile or more of parked cars with the occupants on the bank casting for Silver Salmon. There is a hatchery at the end (beginning) of the line of cars, and the salmon stay close to the bank swimming to the hatchery. The daily limit is 6, and snagging fish is allowed since the bay has salt water. I realized that a fly rod wasn’t going to cut it here.
I checked out other campgrounds, and drove around the town for about an hour. Certainly a quaint, beautiful little town, but I didn’t like the opportunities for fishing with a fly rod. So, I drove back up to Glen Allen (city), crossed the Glen Highway to Palmer, about 40 miles above Anchorage. I got into Palmer around 10:00, as I could not find campgrounds at the end of the Glen Highway. Exhausted, I checked for nearby campsites and found that the Walmart in Wasilla allowed self contained RV’s to spend the night along the outer edges of their parking lot. Another life bucket list item has been conquered: I spent the night in a Walmart parking lot.
My plan is to go to Anchorage and find out where Silver Salmon are venturing at this time and in the near future. My guide, Hank, told me that Silver Salmon were in downtown Anchorage. Might be a good place to start.
Tight Lines!