Many of us who are a bit long in the tooth are looking for a once-in-a-lifetime trip or have a bucket list of fish that we are checking off. Chinook salmon likely are at the top of that freshwater fly-fishing list, but finding a river that’s fishable with a fly rod and has a reliable, substantial run of kings can be a problem.
The first place that comes to mind is the Kenai River in Alaska. There are some huge kings in the Kenai, but the river is big, and finding a spot where you can present a fly is difficult. I’ve spent more than three years of my life fly-fishing in Alaska, and one of the very best spots in the world to catch a king salmon on a fly is Rod Schuh’s Hoodoo Lodge on the Aleutian Peninsula near Nelson Lagoon. Hoodoo Lodge is the only private parcel of land on the Sapsuck River (also known as the Hoodoo River) and one of the last untouched fly-fishing destinations. There’s only one other lodge on the river, so there’s little competition for the many excellent holes. As a bonus, the gravel river bed provides easy wading.
In most spots, the Hoodoo is about a good Spey cast wide, which makes it easy to cover the prime salmon holding sites. The lodge is surrounded by the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge and is about 10 miles
