This year, the owners of Island Air Express and the El Capitan Lodge invited Rob and some guests up to their lodge to "break in" the staff before they started to receive clients in ernest. Mainly to see how the new staff would react and behave with a crowd of people to serve, pamper, etc. Robbo, Bucket, Stam, CanyonMan, and I were just what they needed and we booked our trip to include a day up there.
I will also write this up with the notion that some of you reading this have not heard of Prince of Wales Sportfishing, of Captain "Love" Rob Endsley, or what he has to offer up there. Let's just say it's a "Must Do" for anyone who calls themselves a fisherman.
First thing you should do after reading all of this is book a trip with Rob. Once your trip is booked, here's a nice long piscatorial tour of how your adventure *might* look like. With your trip in hand, get yourself up to Ketchikan. It's a small little airport and more than likely, you will see the fleet of Island Air Express planes that will ferry you over to Klawock, which is a short van ride to Craig.
Once in Ketchikan, Captain Robbo takes care of everything for you, from the moment you leave the airport to the moment you come back. Get yourself checked in downstairs and relax. Your fishing vacation of a lifetime is just beginning.
Don't worry if the weather is bad, or if the airport is socked in. The big Island Air Express plane(s) have all the fancy nav stuff that allows them to fly safely in all weather. You will get taken to Klawock in comfort when you fly in this bad boy!
You will get picked up at the Klawock Airport by either the Captain himself, or his assistant, Shay.
Ok, maybe not Shay. Either way, someone will drive you from Klawock over to Craig where you will be shown to your room at Ruth Ann's. If you are one of the "lucky" ones, you'll get the Honeymoon suit on the corner, which is the PREMIUM room in the town to view the "intersection entertainment" that always happens in Craig on a Friday or Saturday night. My recommendation is to just stay on the deck and observe.
You won't need to go much further than what you see here. There is a restaurant and small bar at Ruth Ann's and I highly recommend you go say hi to Shay. If that's not enough for you, there's the Hill Bar...and off to the right of that is the cafe.
You are probably dying to see the infamous "ManTown" and the PolarBear. ManTown was voted the "Happiest Place in LasCraigas" the last 4 years in a row!
From here, I'm going to detour a bit away from the expectations of your trip, as we had a different plan when we arrived in town. We just grabbed our crap, hopped on the PolarBear and began a 3 hour run or so up North to the El Capitan Lodge.
Along the way, we did manage to rig up some gear and see if the new Cannon down riggers worked. They did...and they did well. I really liked the new Cannon down riggers. Actually liked them a lot better than the Scotty's. These things were buff, strong, and just worked really damn well over the 5 days we abused them.
When you are there, the kings should be in and it's a mooching show for you. But for us, the kings were just not quite there yet, so we had to pull some gear to find some fish. Stam loves gear fishing and it showed on his smiling face. He got over it by drinking a beer or many.
Fishing and drinking on the boat is hungry work, so the boys broke out the oysters. Either that, or they were preparing for the evening. I passed on the oysters, as I didn't feel like puking at the moment. Maybe later in the evening.
We ran across some curious locals on the way up......
Here's some video I shot of the pod of ocas as they came and checked us out. The
hopping and baby whales were pretty cool.[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X80Uz9uttFI[/video]
[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBT0oZjjQRY[/video]
Didn't catch any fish on the way up but we did pay our respects at the narrow El Capitan Passage. This statue was put up here around 300 years ago and I believe the there's someone buried next to the statue. Tradition states that if you travel through this passage, you must offer whatever is in your pocket (money, tobacco, etc) to this statue for good luck. Not wanting any bad ju-ju on this trip, we tossed the contents of our pockets at the statue and moved along. Still bummed the keys to my 4Runner was in my pocket at the time. Oh well.
We finally arrived late in the afternoon to the El Capitan Lodge. This place caters to the upper 1%. Just imagine being up in remote SE Alaska, at your own private lodge, private fishing boat, private wildlife tours, but yet pampered to hear hearts content. Probably out of the price range for the motley crew that is reading this now, but if you ever wanted to go someplace super nice yet still have the Alaskan experience, this is the place!
Everyone came out to greet us at the dock and we were instantly treated like family....even if you do travel to SE Alaska with your wheeled luggage.
Off the dock, you walk along the gangway and if you were to look out over the lagoon, you will see the restaurant to your left, the personal cabins straight ahead and the ever so important bar on the right.
Turn around and this is the view that greets you from your cabin, the bar, and the restaurant. Quite stunning, really. The place is all hand-crafted wood and I shudder to know how much maintenance is required to keep a place like this looking like it does. It's pristine. It feels like home and you are treated like family there.
We found our rooms, dropped off or stuff, and quickly headed over to the bar where we found a table of h'orderves waiting for us as well as the Massage Therapist turned Bartender (normal bartender from last year was showing up the next day) to cater to our every drink whim. Whiskey was a good start for some. Dark and Stormys were a hit for others.
With several drinks under our belts, we finally settled in and started to unwind and relax. Did I mention *several* drinks (open bar, mind you) and this before dinner.
We were called to dinner and were seated at our own table (probably not to scare everyone away). The halibut they served was to die for. The fresh bread was awesome and the desert put Stam and Robbo over the edge. I think the booze and the oysters were kicking in. A nice Bromance was forming between the two. Did I mention that they were pouring endless red and white wine with dinner? Rob and I were the only ones comfortable with our manhood and settled for the chardonnay with our halibut. Everyone else pretended to be grumpy old loggers and drank the red.
We moved back to the bar after dinner and some of us went outside by the fire to relax and enjoy some more post-dinner cocktails.
At this point, we were all many many drinks in to the night and any normal person probably should have just called it a night and left it at that. Matter of fact, I was just about to do that when Rob called for shots. As they were deciding on what shot to start with, I made the mistake of telling Rob "No Mas" and that I was done. On the verge of going over that drinking edge where nothing good can come when that happens.
Rob just looked at me and yelled: "F*UCKING FAGOTT!" which got everyone else in hysterics. So, I did what anyone would do at that point. Manned up. Let the shots begin, bitches!!!!
And they did...and did...and did......and then the bartender left us to close up the place then things got crazier and crazier.....
We eventually broke Scott (the owner). Won't say much about this photo, other than it truly makes me laugh every time I see it. Sorry Scott!
We all woke up terminally hung the hell over. After some brekky and a ton of coffee, we said our goodbyes and headed back to the PolarBear for the trip down South. One last shot as we departed was the night's dinner. Of course, Stam had to stop and grab a freshies to shuck and eat raw. Last time I did that....I puked for many an hour.
End of Part 1.
