It was a dark and windy night 
 sorry wrong novel

It was an early July morning on our first Klutina trip with KingFisher's, when Carolyn timidly announced the presence of something trying to jerk her pole away. Our guide Josh had already assessed the situation and was quickly at her side with instruction and support, restraining her from a surefire dunking in the swift, glacial Klutina. Josh knew this was a serious King and we weren't going to land it unless we went after it. We piled into the raft and set out after it until Josh found some "calmer" water where we had a better chance to wear it down some. Kalo (Carolyn) fought it there until it decided it didn't like the neighborhood. So it's back into the raft for another chase. Don't know how far we went or how long it took, but I was starting to have thoughts of seeing the mighty Copper River that morning. It was a great fight. Kalo would not give up, even though I could see the agony in her eyes. There was something else in there that looked like ecstasy. When it was finally over and Josh netted, then  clubbed the King, Kalo looked like she wanted to be clubbed too. Jus' kiddin". She wouldn't touch a fishing pole the rest of that day, but two weeks later she had recovered and Josh was showing us how to catch Reds on a fly rod.

                    See you in June ~ Dave and Carolyn

 
     Kevin Hicks 
1465 E. Murphys Lane 
Salt Lake City, Utah 84106 
Cell Phone 801 913-2656
Business 801 973-8000

     The Best Days Ever. 

 Fishing in Alaska has always been a dream and this past summer my dreams and expectations were fulfilled. There was a group of six of us, two veterans four rookies, and six wide open days to try to fulfill our Alaska fishing dreams. I have seen plenty of Kenai pictures and wanted no part of the combat fishing scene that is so readily available there, I wanted a great trip, but I wanted some Alaskan isolation as well. Our wonderful host has spent several days fishing with KingFisher's Perch and suggested that any money spent with them would be money well spent.  

Our first day fishing with KingFisher's Perch we had six fishermen, two boats, and weather you could only dream about. My hope of fishing with a guide was not only to hook a big fish but more importantly to get to the holes you can not get to from the shore, and to learn how to fish for Kings from a expert. I consider myself a better than average western trout and bass fisherman but Kings I understood to be a different story. Our first day with Kingfishers Perch I hooked three and landed one. My fish was by no means the biggest, approximately 25 lbs., but it was very silver indicating it was recently in the ocean. Josh educated me telling me that when salmon enter the river they are entirely silver and the longer they are in the fresh water the more their color turns to pink or salmon. He let me know that a silver King was the best tasting King, so I was happy with my fish. 

Just before I caught my King a friend in our boat hooked into a really large fish and all of our jaws dropped as we watched his pole continue to bend and bend as he looked to be struggling mightily just to keep the rod in his hands. Luckily we were already in the boat and we were able to chase the fish down river. After some tense moments and floating down stream for a half of mile we all got our first look at what we refer to as a HOG. We figured the weight to be around 50 lbs. and the length at 48 inches. What a fish, or should I say what a monster. It was shortly after he caught his fish that I landed my 25 lb. King. The lesson I learned that day was “the price you pay to fish with a guide is priceless when you have a big King tugging on the end of your line”. It would have been impossible to land my friends fish if we did not have boat and a professional guide to walk us through the steps to land the King and to professionally maneuver the boat. 

At the end of the day while laying awake in my bed I imagined over and over in my head what it must be like to catch a fish as big as my friends. When the sun came up around 2 AM, I was determined that if I was to have a opportunity to catch a 50 LB King I needed to be with KingFisher's Perch. After a quick phone call later I the day, my brother and I were lucky enough to get scheduled an additional day with KingFisher's. Fishing with my brother Kelly is always a treat but when you add the unmatched beauty of Alaska and numerous Bald Eagles, 80 degree sunny weather and a professional guide, the only way to describe it would be to steal a line from my 7 Yr. old son and call it “The Best Day Ever”. 

The first hole I hooked into what was definitely a larger King than I had caught a couple of days earlier but after a ten minute fight, during which the sound from my reel told me that I was loosing, the line snapped and I was left with a heart that was pounding and no King. As the day went on I hooked three more Kings, and missed who knows how many, but was not successful in landing any of them. I was starting to get frustrated and asked Josh, the guide, what I was doing wrong. He replied, “Do you want me to tell you what you want to hear or do you want me to tell you the truth”? I swallowed my pride and asked for the truth. Josh proceeded to tell me that I needed to set the hook quicker and more often, I seemed to wait to long and rear back to hard, pulling the hook out of the water channel. Josh taught me again for ten minutes or so and then I was back at it, casting with renewed enthusiasm. Within fifteen minutes of that invaluable lesson, I felt a strike, set the hook, and watched my pole bend, and bend, and bend. I was sure it was going to snap. I was able to hold the fish for about 5 minutes but the second the King decided to run down river I knew I was in trouble because the reel was screaming and it seemed that nothing was going to stop it. I am a rather large guy, I played football in college, I stand 6’5” and weigh 285 lbs., and it was all I could do to hold on to this King. I braced myself with a nice wide stance, my biceps were screaming and I was loosing this battle again. I called for Josh to get the boat and within 15 seconds they were waiting for me to get in so we could do a little fish rodeo. I handed the rod to my brother as I got into the boat and within 5 seconds there was an audible “snap” and my brother said “I think he is gone”. To see a grown man cry is not a pretty sight and I could already feel my eyes filling up. Josh yelled, “He is still there reel up reel up!” so I reeled as fast as I could and my pole began that downward bend. My heart and spirits soared as we realized the fish had started to swim back upstream. We floated down river for a quarter of a mile or more and I got to do a little fish rodeo. I was sure it was the biggest fish I had ever caught but it was not until we saw it roll by the boat that we realized that we had another genuine Hog. We were finally able to beach the boat and net the fish and its’ measurements were 46” and 55 lbs. Big and fat kind of like the lucky fisherman that caught him. I think about my trip to Alaska on a daily basis and all of my friends and associates are probably sick of seeing my pictures but in my mind it was simply “The Best Trip Ever”. Fishing in Alaska was fun but fishing with Kingfisher's Perch put it way over the top.  
                                                    Thanks ~ Kevin Hicks