The Ivishak River 2006

In August of 2006, I took my fours Sons to the Ivishak River for a fly-out adventure.  This required that my older Sons drive our Ford F-350 to Happy Valley where I met them with the C180F.  It took a couple of shuttle flights, but I flew all of us to my favorite gravel bar on the Ivishak River. Here Devin (my oldest) relaxes in Camp after setting up for the beautiful evening.

JT lands a nice Arctic Grayling at the base of the Mountain that we have lovingly named Mount Chester (after Chris Pettine).   Typically, this hole holds a number of spawning Char.  This year, we didn't find any Char in this hole.  In fact, we didn't find many Char at all.  There were a few located throughout the mile upstream from the Camp.

They were a little tough to find in 2006, but by walking carefully along the edges, a few Char could be found lurking in the shallows. Woody found this female under a willow along the bank.

This is one of just a few spawning male Char that we found on this trip.  Devin actually caught a larger one in this same small pool, but the SD Card on the Camera was full and the photo did not save. This was not a HUGE Char.  To be honest, I didn't measure it.  It was probably about 25 inches.

The Boys enjoyed the photo of Chris, Doug and I last year so much, that they wanted to recreate the scene with all the Baker Butts. There is actually a better photo of the five of us, but Mack made it X-rated by turning the wrong direction!

Though there weren't many Char in the river in 2006, the weather was very nice.  No snow fell on us at all in 2006. I like this shot of the rods lined up in the willows after a long day of fishing on the Ivishak River.  Notice the ubiquitous Egg-Sucking Leech on all of the rods.  What can I say - it works!

The Fall Tundra on the North Slope can be simply beautiful.  Some of these leaves turn the brightest of crimson and blanket the Tundra. This is a nice scenic of Devin walking along the bank of the river with the Tundra and Brooks Range in the background.

Devin made a spectacular shot to bring down this nice Caribou.  The animal had been traversing about 400 yards up the side of Mount Chester.  I didn't think Devin could pull the shot off, but he did it with one shot. We had to hustle right up there to get this Caribou dressed out as the evening fell.  It was a bit of a hike!  Notice the Airplane and Tent parked below us (just next to the tip of the Antler).

Woody also got into the action with this Trophy Bull taken at 50 yards.  I let both boys do the dressing of their respective animals.  They did a great job. All of my Boys have come to me at various times to tell me that this was the most memorable trip that we have taken together as the Baker Boys.  I hope that some day in the future we can repeat a trip like this.  We created memories that will last all of us our lifetimes.