The Fly Shop800·669·3474

Included in your stay at Lava Creek Lodge are seven nights double occupancy lodging and six days guided fishing (a mix of fishing on the home river and some fly-out fishing, weather permitting), all meals, (limited wine and beer, see alcohol policy, below), round trip air charter between Anchorage, Alaska, and the lodge, flies and leaders, as well as the use of lodge single-handed fly rods and reels, if needed.

Not included in your stay at Lava Creek Lodge are your Alaska State Sport Fishing License and King Salmon Stamp (the latter only needed in June and July) available online to purchase before your trip, fly fishing equipment (though there is some at the lodge if need be), gratuities, alcohol (limited wine and beer - otherwise BYOB, usually purchased in Anchorage or brought from home), and items of a personal nature.

Lava Creek Lodge Alcohol Policy:
One bottle of wine (red or white) (750 ml) (4 – 5 glasses) will be provided by the lodge to each table of four guests for dinner each evening. In addition the lodge will provide two cans of beer per day for each guest. If you think you will want more wine, beer or spirits, please plan on bringing your own. The lodge will provide all the mixers. We recommend you purchase your preferred liquor in Anchorage, the day before flying to the lodge. The Brown Jug liquor store located at 3900 Spenard Road, Anchorage, AK 99517, is just down the street (walking distance) from the Lakefront Anchorage Hotel on Lake Hood.

The Fly Shop® is not in the insurance business, but we recommend Travel Guard coverage as a service with a desire to see your best interests protected. It is impossible to know when an unfortunate situation (loss of luggage, fly rods, illness in the family, or an accident) may occur. However, such things can and do happen, and this insurance can provide a means of recourse against non-refundable financial losses.

• Travel Insurance Information

Sunday, Day 1:
Lava Creek Lodge has arranged for a private charter from Anchorage, Alaska, to a landing strip 25 miles from the lodge.

You’ll want to take a hotel shuttle or taxi to their hangar in order to catch your flight. Check in time is 9:00 AM, wheels up at 10:00 AM.

Upon arrival to the airstrip, you will be met by Phil Byrd and flown in his wheel plane (usually two to three anglers at a time) the approximate 10-minute flight to the lodge.

Upon arrival to Lava Creek Lodge you will be shown to your cabin, where you’ll have a chance to get settled in, unpack, and ready your gear for the action-packed week of fly fishing ahead of you. A light lunch will be served in the main lodge.

Your arrival day is considered a non-fishing day. Phil Byrd will give a brief orientation of the lodge facilities and outline the daily fishing schedule. The rest of the day is at your leisure to relax and prepare for a full week of angling.

Days 2 – 7: Fishing Days at Lava Creek Lodge:
Each morning you will awaken to a hearty breakfast and hot coffee, followed by pulling on your waders and loading into the boats for a run to the pools and runs where you will begin the day. If you are flying out for the day, you will be loading up in Phil’s float plane. A nice advantage of such a small occupancy lodge is that there is some flexibility to the daily schedule. This is your fishing vacation so please relay your preferences to Phil and he and his staff will do their best to accommodate you.

River skiffs are used to navigate the rivers, but virtually all the fishing is done while wading. Lunches will be taken in the field, and your fishing days are full. At the end of each day, tired anglers will load back into the boats or float plane and ride back to an awaiting hot shower, hot meal, and comfortable bed.

Day 8 (Sunday): Return to Anchorage, and on home:
The Lava Creek Lodge to Anchorage charter is scheduled to depart at 12:45 PM, arriving in Anchorage at approximately 2:20 PM.

There is a main lodge building where all the meals are served, as well as where the kitchen and family room are located - a perfect place to gather at the end of a fish filled day to enjoy an adult beverage and delicious appetizers.

The lodge complex features 24-hour electricity and limited WiFi (adequate to send and receive emails) and face time phone service (no cell reception), and all of the buildings are heated. The entire lodge complex is not fancy, but it is new, comfortable, dry, warm and offers spectacular views of the coastal range and ancient Aniakchak Volcano rising 4,400 feet from sea level, separating the Pacific Ocean from the Bering Sea.

Below is a sample of some of the amazing foods that will be served during your stay:
• Steaks on the barbecue with grilled shrimp
• Spiral cut honey baked ham with sweet potatoes & green beans
• Cornish Game Hen stuffed with orange wedge, wild rice & vegetables
• Barbecued Salmon, rice pilaf & salad
• Barbecued pork chops (or loin) & grilled potatoes
• Baked or barbecued halibut with crab cakes

The Chinook salmon fishing at Lava Creek Lodge is classic down and across swing-fishing with a double handed rod or appropriate single handed stick. In some situations, especially in this type of fishing, a double handed rod is a better tool. The rivers we fish are not fast or terribly deep, and usually light sink-tips are all you need to get your fly into the correct water column. Additionally, the rivers we fish are not terribly wide, so long and difficult casts are not needed to be successful.

Silver salmon fishing is about numbers. They school up in pools by the hundreds, and these hyper-aggressive fish will jump on pink poppers and wildly-colored streamers during the months of August and September.

Typical of the Bering Sea coastal rivers in this area, Lava Creek Lodge silvers are large - 10 pounds on average with daily chances of hooking into a fish in the 15 to 18 pound range.

Anglers can expect high volume silver salmon fishing both on the home-water as well as the remote rivers creeks and inlets the lodge accesses by short float plane flight.

Lava Creek Lodge guides are professionals who know the rivers and each daily fishing experience will be a memorable adventure, unique and full of action. Fishing days are full; expect long days on the water, only interrupted by a quick lunch break, then back at it. Lunches are normally taken in the field, prepared by the cook staff and carried by your guide, along with drinks of your choice.

At the end of each long, fish-filled day, guides will return their guests to the lodge, tired from hooking fish. A quick shower in your private bathroom is in order, and then you’ll head to the lodge for appetizers and cocktails and listen to your fishing buddies tell of the day’s events on the river.

The lodge serves up tasty lodge dinners, and after eating their fill, anglers will walk to their cabin and collapse, getting a good nights sleep. The best part is that tomorrow you get to do it again!

Fish for Alaskan rainbows and not see another person?
Over the last three years the guides at Lava Creek Lodge (and a few guests) have been on an exploratory mission to fully vet the rainbow trout fishing we thought we had on our home river. We are happy to say that all the work has paid off and we have identified a legitimate wild rainbow trout fishery that we are confident will impress and satisfy the most ardent trout fisherman! So much so that we have dedicated four “Trout Weeks” between king and silver season, mid-July through mid-August, solely to trout fishing. These weeks are limited to four anglers only – so everyone gets a private cabin – and will focus on the large population of big rainbows in the home river, as well as fly-out options.

The rainbow trout can be accessed via boat directly from the lodge, and a modest boat ride will put you in strong numbers of beautiful trout in the 20 - 24-inch range, with an occasional larger beast. We will also be flying to even more remote waters, weather permitting, that can only be accessed by a bush plane on tundra tires. Leopard-spotted rainbows that ate skated mouse patterns, and streamers swung on floating lines and light sink-tips. We are convinced that these trout have never been fished over before, and the numbers of fish landed was impressive. Most of the trout were between 20 and 24 inches in length, but we did land larger fish in the high 20’s. The fish were healthy and aggressive and produced some great days on the water.