Dec. 13, 2006

When Alaska junior forward Ryan Muspratt is not playing hockey or hitting the books to maintain his high grade point average, you may find him out on the water pursuing one of his other passions. The move to Alaska to play for the Nanooks not only afforded him the opportunity to play college hockey, but also the chance to enjoy some of the greatest fishing in the world. In his own words, Muspratt shares his greatest fishing shores in "Fishing in Alaska."

Fishing in Alaska
By Ryan Muspratt

After hockey, my biggest passion is fishing. The seed of this passion is found in my childhood where every summer my Dad and Grandpa would take me on a trip to our favorite holiday spot in British Columbia, from our home in Calgary, Alberta. Sometimes my older and/or younger brother would tag along, but I always was the keen one when it came to packing up the 14-foot aluminum boat for a day trip to one of two favorite Rocky Mountain lakes in the pursuit of the beautiful rainbow trout. This has been the summer routine for as long as I can remember.

When it came to being recruited by NCAA colleges, something that attracted me to the Alaska Nanooks, aside from the hockey program, was the fact that Alaska has great fishing. Alaska has it all: arctic grayling fishing in its interior rivers, very strong salmon runs and huge halibut in the depths of the Gulf of Alaska. Last summer I was able to take full advantage of these fishing opportunities provided by living in Alaska.

Exiting my sophomore year here at UAF, I had, at that point, lived in the state for more than a year and was granted an in-state fishing license, which made fishing affordable, and opened up unique opportunities. One unique opportunity was dip netting on the Chitna River. Now dip netting is something that I had never even heard of, let alone tried, until I moved to Alaska. Dip netting is where you stand on shore, or in my case, drift down the river in a boat, and drag a huge fish net attached to a 15-foot pole along the bottom of the river trapping red, king, or silver salmon running up the river (depending on the season). Nine-pound reds are challenging enough, but watch out if a 55-pound king swims into the net. This form of fishing allows a single person like me the ability to keep up to 15 red salmon a year. I was lucky enough to limit out, and have been eating this favorite meal of mine ever since. It is pretty neat since the red salmon that is caught in this river is world renowned, known as "Copper River Red" salmon at your local seafood restaurant.

Alaska also has great fishing on its coast, and Valdez, Alaska, is one of the beautiful costal towns that can provide the complete salt water fishing experience. Valdez is about a six-hour scenic drive south west of Fairbanks, known as "little Switzerland" for it's the snow-covered mountains that surround the town (even in the middle of summer). Valdez supplied my dad (who was visiting at the time) and I with a fishing trip we will never forget. The fish that we sought on this trip was the Salmon Shark. Salmon Shark are sharks that eat salmon all day, hence the name. The species has been known to eat up to 30 percent of the salmon run from year to year. These sharks range from 250 to 500 pounds, with a length of six to nine feet on average. To find these fish, we arranged a guide many months in advance; fishing for these sharks is gaining popularity, and only certain guides are capable of guiding these types of trips; so needless to say, it was not cheap. The day of our quest we set out at 5:30 a.m. and took a two-hour boat ride to the captain's favorite spot "shark point." When we arrived to our destination we could see the salmon sharks swimming and rolling on the surface. It was quite exhilarating to contemplate the possibility of one being on the end of your line. Quickly, we were set to cast out our lines with the captain's bait of choice, a whole salmon! Within 15 minutes the sharks started biting. When my turn finally came to reel one of these beasts in, I don't think I ever had felt something pull on me so hard. Without the advantage of a super strong fishing rod and reel, the fish would have most definitely pulled me in since I had to wear a jacket that attached the rod and reel to my body (as seen in the picture). After a 45-minute battle with this 300-pound Salmon Shark, I finally got it to the boat where the captain gaffed the fish and proceeded to kill it. I was completely exhausted; I had sweated through a t-shirt and a sweatshirt during the battle, and had to take a good 10-minute breather after the fight. Once I caught my shark, it was my Dad's turn to have a similar experience; being a true fisherman, I would argue that his battle was much easier since my shark was the superior fish of the two. My dad let his go after we tagged it with a marker for Alaska Fish and Game since my kept shark would supply us with around 100 pounds of meat. Now you're probably asking, why keep shark? Actually, it is not a bad meal, having a similar taste to swordfish.

My dad and I had a great time, and the experience was certainly worth the expense. I would recommend that anyone who enjoys fishing take the time to come to Alaska; I guarantee it will be a trip of a lifetime, if you don't believe you could ask my Dad who is saving his air miles to come and visit me again next summer.