An Alaska Adventure--Tuesday (Part I): The Bears of Featherly Creek

Rob and Shan flew with our guide Heidi in a Cessna float plane to Featherly Creek, a tributary to Becharof Lake, a 37-mile lake that is second largest in Alaska and eighth largest (by volume) in the United States. We were in search of Arctic Char and Grayling—Rob had fished here five years ago.  We encountered low clouds so were unable to

As the plane left us on the beach for our hike into Featherly, we noted with some concern a series of rather large bear footprints.  They measured 10” wide x 14”long, which Heidi informed us would mean they belonged to a 10-foot brown bear (grizzly).  There were also wolf tracks along the beach. 

A sizable bear paw-print on our arrival beach

To our surprise, our pathway to the river coincided with the large bear tracks, headed the same direction as us and the size was somewhat unnerving, despite all we’ve been told over the years of visiting Bear Trail Lodge that they are “good bears”.

Shan with a representative grayling

Once on the river, we were quickly into char and eventually found some grayling. The grayling were the largest I’d ever caught and ranged from 18-22”.

Rob found a grayling too!

Fishing beads below an indicator we spent the entire morning fishing about 400 yards downstream from our entry point.  We were briefly visited upstream by an Alaska brown bear, not the one with large paws, and were happy when he decided to just fish where he was rather than getting a closer look at us. 

Guide Heidi showing us hot to hold one of our grayline

After a brief lunch break, we headed upstream of our entry point and again were busy with an assortment of char and grayling.  

Rob with a beautiful Arctic Char

When time arrived to head back to the lake for our pickup, we sadly bid farewell to Featherly Creek.  A great day of fishing!