Kodiak Island Alaska Fishing Lodge: Zachar Bay Lodge: Wilderness Adventures: Salmon and Halibut Fishing


Summer 1997

	235 Pound Halibut sets Lodge Record
KING SALMON Caught It was an excellent season for fishing king salmon. We seemed to be able to find them wherever we fished. In June, three feeder kings were caught off of the beach in front of the lodge... a first! Karluk was also very productive in returning King Salmon. The final escapement of the river was a high 13,000. Fishing was excellent for our fly-out fishermen, wherever they went. The Zachar River even managed to produce a single jack King! Kyle caught it while fishing for chums. Fish & Game identified it to be from Kodiak’s Buskin River...50 miles away.	Manfred Wurtenberger was in for a long haul when he came to Zachar Bay on June 20. Traveling from Switzerland straight to ZB is tedious, let alone adding halibut fishing to that. Andy took him and a group from Georgia out halibut fishing at 9AM and did not return until 9PM that evening. Manny hooked into this huge fish with a light rod with only 25 lb test line on it at 80 feet deep. It was 4PM when the fight began. The line strained as he held the rod taunt and unforgiving, but the fish wouldn’t budge. After a span of time the fish began swimming away from the	boat, as if it was tired of playing with the man on the boat. The ocean was smooth as glass, so Andy pulled the anchor and the halibut pulled the boat into 120 feet of water. At this time, Billy Hasty hooked into another large fish on light tackle. Two at once...this could be a mess. Andy eventually coaxed the boat into shallow water and the monster from the deep appeared. All in all it took over 3 hours to land the 235 pound halibut on 25lb test line. Hasty’s fish turned out to be a large 71 pounder. Another successful day at the sea.	Andy congratulates Manfred Wurtenberger on his lodge record! If you’re on the Internet, check out our website at http://www.ptialaska.net/ ~zbay/zbay.htm
	Many Luxuries added to ZBL
	From Hot-tubs to satellite television, it seems like life is getting more luxurious in the “wilderness”. This year we made many improvements and modifications around the cannery.	A boardwalk was finished around the store, a new roof was put on the cannery to help keep the rain out. With some help from one of our hunters, we were able to build a new banya (sauna) down on the beach. Our old one got burned down so we had a great reason to build a new one. Two windows were put in the BayHouse to give the rooms a view.	Dawn has a professional cooking range in the kitchen along with new lighting. For those pool sharks, we acquired a good used pool table for those after dinner duals. Our wood- fired hot-tub was heated up almost every other night for those with fisherman’s arm.
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Zachar River Productive

Once again the Zachar River was extremely productive in many areas of interest. Fish were plentiful and so was the wildlife.

Early in July the Dolly Varden lined the river so thick you would think they were salmon. These dollies were waiting for the arrival of the pink salmon for a plentiful meal of salmon roe. We caught some of the largest dolly varden this year that we have ever seen... 4 or 5 pounders!

Chums and Pinks started showing up around mid July and ran strong into August. Many of our guests could not believe that there could be so many salmon in such a small area. While fishing on the river, we would occasionally be greeted by a curious fox. It would be the center of attention for at least an hour during lunch when it would roll around in the sand and play.

This little fox would follow us up from the beach all the way up to the fishing hole in the morning during silver salmon season. Silvers flooded the stream in mid August until October. They seem to be the most active and acrobatic of all the salmon and provide quite a challenge for some of our anglers.

BEARS. The bears seemed to show up on the river at perfect timing. After the fisherman’s arm was starting to set in at about 3 PM, one of our furry critters would show up and provide some entertainment. Many excellent photos and videos were taken especially when they would get close.

Frazer Lake Reds

Frazer Lake produced the largest escapement of Red Salmon that it ever has. Over 200,000 Reds made it back up to the lake to spawn a future generation of fish.

Our anglers were extremely successful in catching this finicky fish. In one group, five anglers managed to catch and keep 20 reds in a single day of July. That seemed to be the peak of the red run.

We also incorporated a new fishing area for all five species of salmon. It is called Dog Salmon River and is only five minutes away from Frazer Lake. Having the airplane allows us to reveal successful locations such as this.

In one day, during July at Dog Salmon River, a group of guests caught Reds, Chums, Pinks and a King Salmon. Four out of five isn’t bad when the other species is still at sea.

Bear Damage in Winter of 1996

When Linda Eaton went to Zachar Bay to visit Marty after all the hunters had left, little did they know what was about to happen. It had snowed two feet a few nights before and all was quiet at the lodge.

In the morning, Linda went over to the Dining Hall to get some supplies only to find that the backroom was nice and light due to a large hole ripped through the wall.

Apparently, a bear had broken into the Dining Hall the night before looking for food, and caused extensive damage. It broke a chest freezer, numerous serving dishes and pieces of china, and ripped of one of our walk in freezer doors - a mighty feat.

Blood littered the room from where the bear cut itself in causing all the damage. This bear even left it’s trademark, a bloody footprint on the door which we left as a conversation piece.

All in all, it wasn’t totally bad. The ladies in the kitchen now have a restroom that was added on where the bear made its entrance.


Halibut 100+ Club for 1997 Harry Wyckoff 195 # Manfred Wurtenberger 235 # Greg Swant 165 # Tim Swant 145 # Rolf Bona 150 # Carson Baur 105 # Robert Morin 185 # Claude Villiard 100 # Mike Dowdrich 115 # Mike Hennesy 100 # John Barsness 120 # Jim Lowe 120 # Eberhard Lohrmann 110 # Rick Rhoads 130 # Ronald Reisch 130# There were also many halibut caught between 50 and ninety pounds!!	Busy Summer We had about 1/3 increase in guests. Most guests came from USA (with Arizona, the most from one state), then from Europe (with most from Switzerland, then Germany). Keith & Edna Leo-Smith traveled half-way around the world from South Africa. George and Frank Obertin came from Luxembourg. From UK, Ray & Sally Martin, John & Sue Stabler & J. T. Edgar came for wildlife viewing (but Ray caught a king). From Germany came Kurt Wilwurth , Alfred Kayser & Christoph & Sibylle Muellneisen, Dick & Elly Kloopman (The Netherlands) returned with their sailboat Jantine and took us sailing. We Welcomed Many Large Groups of Fishermen Terry Sabo of Pioneer Masonry (AZ) brought employees who worked hard to earn the trip (Photo Above). Chris Meili & Jan Banjak (Swiss) fit right in with the group. Chris & Jan came for 4 days and liked it so much they stayed for 12! Pat Hennesy booked the entire lodge for his group from AZ & WI. They called their trip Cheesehead Cowboy Alaskan Fishermen with all their photos on tee shirts. They kept us really busy. They liked our Snorkel Hot Tub. The “Treyburnites” were a group that all live on the same street in VA.
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The Baur family from St. Louis (Cardinals) jumped into the ocean after fishing to get cool (which is extremely unusual).

Returned Guests

Martin Johnson (NM) came for his fifth visit. Willy Wurth with Rolf Bona & Kati returned bearing gifts. Willy brought us all Swiss Army Knives; Rolf & Kati brought many fondue pots, cheese, forks for us to use at our lodge. John Barsness brought his wife Eileen Clarke. John wrote a wonderful article about us in Grays Sporting Journal Expeditions 1997, “Salmon by Sight” which resulted in many bookings. Eileen writes cookbooks for The Fish & Game Kitchen and brought us some with beautiful photos. Max Tanner (Swiss) returned with his sons and brought Roger Fritzi and trolled for silver salmon. Matthias Lauterbach (Swiss) returned with Peter Silberhorn (German) for fly fishing silvers. Tom & Jane Buch (OH) fished and hiked to the top of Zachar Mountain. (Thanks also so much for all the delicious Swiss Chocolates that our guests brought.)

Our very first group of fishermen that we had when we started in 1990 returned for their 3rd time—Reulen party from Germany.

Two families from GA—Hastys & Haygoods came. Bill Hasty wrote an article in his local newspaper about our family—which was really nice.

The Kovash (WA) family came as a gift from John’s wife for John and his father for fishing. George & Jack Tate came in a Learjet. Sigrid Balekjian had a fox steal her salmon. From Montana, Jim & Sharon Gelhaus decided to give their niece a surprise trip for her graduation from college as a teacher. She married just before they came so they brought Luke & Kami Johnston for their honeymoon also. They managed to bring them all the way without them knowing until they arrived!

Jens & Inga Dittenberger were honeymooners that came from Germany for fishing. The Walter family brought their two sons for a graduation gift. The Blazer brothers had great fun and Victor ate a Sushi red salmon at Frazer with soy sauce & hot mustard. Also from Switzerland came the Zollingers, father and son for fishing. The Villiars/Wurst/Bollier group (Swiss) caught a huge king salmon at Frazer.

Bob List & Don Hunter, retired doctors traveling around Alaska said that Zachar Bay was the true Alaska and they liked it best. Harry Wyckoff fished halibut patiently with “nary a nibble” but at the end of the day caught a 195#. Roberta liked flowers and found a field of Lady Slippers when she hiked up the Zachar River. Rolf Gminder & Beat Gohl (Swiss) came for fishing silvers. Sue Hand wrote great email messages before she came and she was just as nice in person. Sue came with Michael Dowdrick for fishing and send us a Pennsylvania flag. Peg & Ron Reisch came with Richard & Janet Werner and Rick Rhoads from PA for silver salmon fishing. Peg painted a beautiful watercolor of our “Wreck Hall” and Janet brought the crew felt hats.

Mark & Evelyne Koskovich (AK) brought Claudia & Pieree Uhl & John Wullschleger (Swiss). Evelyne has Hello Alaska Tours and has booked guests for us. It was nice to get to meet her. Andrew & Laurie Skipper (CA) brought Gregg & Julie Alpelt (AZ) for fishing silvers.

Summer was Two Weeks Early

To our delight, our weather was excellent. PenAir & Glen did an outstanding job flying our guests. Dawn’s garden and greenhouse flourished and we had fresh lettuce everyday. The raspberries were delicious and Liz (Dawn’s assistant) enjoyed picking them fresh for meals. We had only one weather delay for Tom & Jody Uryniak. They were the first to fish Dog Salmon River and were wonderful adventurers. Uli & Martha Korners and Rudy & Susanne Luscher (Swiss) experienced windy conditions but stayed a week so it finally calmed down enough for them to catch fish. Ray & Nancy Wittebort (OH) had wind in Kodiak, but they flew to Larsen Bay and we met them

The Swant family came to celebrate Fred’s successful 5 year new heart. They went home with plenty of “heart healthy” halibut and salmon.