Yesterday we published an article about four bright college leaders from the TU Costa 5 Rivers Program exploring the Kenai Penninsula in the first part of there Alaskan Journey. Today the story continues as we highlight the second portion of the trip.
 Students Recap their time spent in Bristol Bay:
“We were running on empty; 3 hours of sleep and 3 cups of coffee for breakfast were all that was keeping me from collapsing on the rocky tundra. My arms burned and my hands were cramping, but we finally made it. With a shrug of relief, I set down the two buckets filled with white fuel and food and took the duffel off of my back. I leaned against one of the buckets and before I could catch my breath, Chuck, our guide for the week, was yelling, “Hurry up, we have at least 4 more trips!â€Â I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. We had to carry all of our gear for the 8-day float across the tundra to the river and I was already exhausted. How were we going to be able to carry all of our gear when one trip was a half mile? “
“Somehow, we made it to the end of the portage. We thought that was the end of the work, but it was only the beginning. We pumped up the rafts and organized our gear and were immediately faced with challenges on the raft. Chuck decided to take us through a narrow back channel with low flows to get to the main river so we did not have to carry gear any farther, but it meant sliding our rafts over many obstacles including beaver dams and bushes. This may sound like a terrible time to some, but it made the entire trip that much sweeter for me. Once we carried our rafts over all of the obstacles and made it to the main channel of the river, I was filled with joy.”
“Immediately, we saw the subtle ripples resulting from salmon and grayling rising to insects skirting across the surface of the water. Our hard work had paid off. This was the first time I had truly set my eyes on the Koktuli River, and I would not have been as amazed if we could have reached the river from a parking lot. Overcoming many of the challenges that we faced also gave me a new perspective on the challenges that salmon face. We had the privilege of taking two flights to get to our put-in on the Koktuli, while the salmon make an enormous journey from the open ocean (where at?), swimming hundreds of miles upstream back to their birthplace to spawn. Before the float trip, I saw firsthand how salmon brought the people together.”
“Now, I got to see how the salmon contributed to the environment. We ran into salmon carcasses on the river that had been eaten by bears. Those carcasses were now filled with insects(specific ones?) that would later feed the salmon fry in the river. The same fry (as well as salmon eggs) sustained very healthy populations of dolly varden, rainbow trout, and grayling. The entire ecosystem revolves around the salmon, and it was truly incredible to come into contact with salmon on their journey.”
Exploring the Tongass National Forest
The Tongass National Forest is the largest national forest in the United States and is home to the third largest island in the United States, Prince of Wales. The 5 Rivers Odyssey crew is spending ten days on Prince of Wales to learn more about issues affecting the salmon who spawn in the island’s streams and rivers.
As the largest national forest in the U.S., the Tongass has various opportunities for both recreation and industry. While both national parks and national forests can be utilized and enjoyed by the public, they differ in how they can be used. National parks are managed for recreational purposes such as hiking, camping, and fishing, whereas national forests are managed for timber production, hunting, grazing, and other uses.Â
69% of Alaska’s land is public land, providing endless opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts to see their fair share of wilderness. Hunters and anglers come to the Tongass to experience the pristine wilderness accented by old-growth forests, lively rivers, and towering mountains. The Tongass is known as “the Salmon Forest” for reasons that became obvious to us as soon as we arrived on Prince of Wales. Wild salmon bring the nutrients from the open ocean back to the Tongass’s streams and rivers, creating a unique ecosystem of spruce, hemlock, and cedar trees, among other organisms. When bears feed on salmon carcasses, they fertilize the forest floor, promoting the growth of shrubs and plants that feed the forest’s strong population of blacktail deer. Blacktail deer are then consumed by the forest’s black bears and wolves.
  While the landscapes that we have seen in the Tongass are entirely different from any other part of Alaska that we have visited, they are just as enticing. The Tongass has something for everyone to enjoy, and its abundant fish and wildlife populations support strong hunting, commercial, and sport-fishing industries. To ensure that future generations can continue to enjoy and utilize national parks and national forests, we need to be aware of how our public lands are being managed. Salmon are a crucial resource in the Tongass, and their survival depends on our ability to protect and conserve their habitat.
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Flylords: Who is 
Flylords: What part of South Africa are you from?
Flylords: What is your favorite fish to chase on the fly?
Flylords: What species do you primarily target in the salt? 
Over half of the world’s commercial wild-caught sockeye salmon comes from Alaska. It supports thousands of livelihoods across the state. We all have a voice, and it is important to stand up and tell the U.S. Army Core of Engineers and the EPA to keep Bristol bay the way it is. Sign the petition at 
“I’m so stoked to be doing some volunteer projects with the U.S. Forest Service. Stream Watch on the Russian River to repair fencing along riparian zones, and to then float the Kenai with some rad TU Alaska staff members. Stay tuned for some gnarly pics and stories about these adventures!”
“To these communities, the return of the salmon each year is a festive season. For most in the region, salmon makes up half of their food supply for the long and bitter winter. When not fishing for themselves, they are fishing to share with the rest of the world. Alaska holds the largest surviving wild salmon fishery in the world which fuels their economy and attracts adventurers from all over. A quarter of the job market is related to the salmon industry, raking in $1.5 billion each year. Similarly, 14,000 full and part-time jobs are created because of these special fish. In another sense, it provides families the opportunity to pass down their traditions to youth and spend time teaching them the science and sustainability of these species.  All of these symbolize the independence of the communities to maintain their cultural values.”
“Outside of the native communities the locals highly support the salmon industry. No matter where you are, you can strike up a conversation with anyone about the importance of salmon, not just for Alaska but for the world. Between anglers, biologists, engineers, businessmen, wildlife officers, teachers, volunteers, politicians, and many more, the dependence and respect for these amazing creatures is immeasurable. I have never seen so many people from different fields come together to protect and fight for something that usually goes unnoticed. While sports fishing, commercial fishing, and subsistence fishing have traditionally competed for resources, all of these sectors of the fishing industry have come together to protect the resource on which they all rely. The cultural significance of salmon is so deeply ingrained in Alaskan society, and this is something that we as anglers and conservationists should fight to protect.”
An action packed 10 minutes:
 “I scanned the river for promising holes and that’s when I saw it… the bear! It was a young black bear trotting down the opposite bank. Almost immediately I thought about Libby. I said “Hey bear…whoah bear…†in a low voice and he looked up at me. The bear put his head back down and continued trotting. Libby was downstream and on the other side of the river and had no visual of the bear. I scooted back and told her that a bear was upstream of her. Looking back on it, she must’ve been terrified. She had no clue how far away the bear was or what it was doing. She began to wade across the river to my side, and right on cue, the bear disappeared into the brush that lined the canyon walls. Libby made it across and we decided to stick a little closer together and switch off fishing holes. I tossed my streamer in the water and gave it a few twitches while we were talking. Not really paying attention, I was very surprised to feel a huge pull at the end of my line. A nice bow was furiously hooked on the end of my line, jumping and running for any brush pile in sight. We managed to land him, and it was a bow unlike any I had caught before, covered in spots from nose to tail. I was ecstatic to look at my first leopard bow. I quickly unhooked the fish and released it. I took a deep breath and sat down on a rock. Wow, what a crazy few minutes!”
The Odyssey students will be heading to Bristol Bay and the Tongass National Forest in the next part of the series, so be sure to tune in for the rest of the story.
Sometimes you find a river that takes your breath away. The challenge suddenly becomes capturing the essence of the river more so than catching the fish that are in it.
Timing is everything. Being on the right water at the right time of day, fishing the right fly to the right fish at the right moment. Here it was knowing the image I wanted and having the right conditions that allowed it to happen.
Knowing how to alter your presentation based on conditions can make all the difference to your fishing success. When your shooting, knowing how to alter your body position and perspective can make all the difference to the feel of an image.
It can be tempting to try and get everything into a shot. Ask yourself if everything is needed or will some of it cause a distraction. Whats the story your telling. The composition is arguably to most important factor to consider when taking a photo.
What story do you want to tell with your image? Here it was about the conditions, the dark skies, and the snowy ground. To avoid unnecessary distractions you may need to do things like lay face down in the wet snowy grass, but if that what it takes, then that’s what it takes.
Change your perspective and take a risk. Getting low to capture the waves breaking on a rock in the foreground added a lot to this image and highlighted how challenging the fishing conditions were that day. It also gave my camera a quick bath and forced me to scurry up the rocks to dry it off.
Scenery with a foreground subject can be tricky sometimes. Sometimes you just need to decide whats important and make that your focal point.
As I floated with my buddy Landon I explained a shot I was hoping to get. Knowing ahead of time what I was trying to do meant he could easily and quickly release the fish with minimal handling while allowing me to snapshots. No need to stress a fish just for a photo. A quick conversation before even hooking the fish can help you and really help the fish.
Sometimes when it’s all happening so quickly you just have to start snapping and hope it works out. Often times it won’t, and that’s ok, but every now and then it comes together. This fish was trying hard to break off Chris Heiser in some structure and luck allowed me to capture a tail flick as it pushed once more towards the downed tree.
Post-production is interesting. Some shots look heavily edited when you have barely touched them, others look completely natural but take a lot of adjustments to get them to that point. This is one of those images that came out of the camera looking edited. The bubbles behind the fish dictated the exposure of this shot meaning the bottom of the river darkened right out. Apart from a couple of very minor adjustments, this is how the scene actually played out.
Light can be a lot of fun to play with. Netting a fish in an area with tree cover that caused patches of light and dark along with some interesting shadow from the net itself gave a beautiful glow to this rainbow.
This is one of the only shots I have ever staged. My buddy Scot and I were fishing from a boat when we found this almost submerged stump. It was too good an opportunity to turn up. Scot stepped out, I drifted back in the boat, got low, and was able to capture the clouds reflecting perfectly off the glassy water while Scot seemingly walked on water. Photography should be fun and if it means you stage a shot on occasion, well then so be it.
So let’s get started on what made this gadget so exciting. For anyone who enjoys reading or looking at fly fishing media, we all know that the half underwater shots are some of the most engaging photos around. I can’t count the number of magazine covers that have featured the split shot with a fish underwater and the angler above. Not only do the photos look great, but they also keep the fish wet, and we are big fans of the #keepemwet movement. In the past, one of the main problems with shooting these photos was the cost of entry into this specific realm of photography. But with the AxisGO, this barrier is broken. For $200 (+Accessories) you can buy an AxisGO case and with the right accessories be ready to roll the day the product arrives. To buy a DSLR and a professional water housing you are looking at spending $4,000-5,000. We have also tested out our fair share of other dome port products for taking these photos, and this product has by far exceeded those performances.
The New York Times’ published 
