Dad and daughter bond fishing in the wilds of Alaska

By Ron Devlin | rdevlin@republicanherald.com | Republican Herald

PUBLISHED: October 18, 2025 at 1:30 PM EDT

BARNESVILLE —

After Dr. Brone Lobichusky completed a fellowship in critical care at MD Anderson Cancer Cancer in Camden, Joseph Lobichusky felt it was time for a celebratory father-daughter fishing trip.

In late September, the Lobichuskys packed up their fly fishing rods and headed off for an 11-day outing in the Alaskan wilderness.

They’d been on fishing trips to Alaska before, but this one would be special.

Not only because of Alaska’s magnificent waterfalls, fjords and glaciers, but because it came at a critical juncture in their lives.

Brone had secured a position as a trauma surgeon at J. W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, the academic center of the University of West Virginia Medical School. She would be relocating soon after the vacation ended.

For Joe Lobichusky, 79, a retired Mahanoy City dentist, the trip was a memory-making occasion he’ll never forget.

“Being on an adventure with your daughter is special,” he said recently in the family’s Barnesville home. “There’s nothing like spending time with your kid.”

Fish stories

Flying out of Seattle, the Lobichuskys landed in Whittier, a base for trips through Portage Pass, an area of stunning mountain views and glaciers.

They headed to Homer, the Halibut fishing capital of the world.

There, in Kachemak Bay, Brone landed an 80 pound Halibut.

Posing arm-in-arm with her dad, the day’s catch spread out on deck, 33-year-old Brone had the look of a 13-year-old kid.

Thanks to fish cutters in Homer, the pair brought home 50 pounds of Halibut.

At the Lodge at 58* North, in the Bristol Bay region, 300 miles southwest of Anchorage, they managed to catch the end of the annual salmon run in the Naknek River. Witnessing the brown bears feasting on King, or Chinook, salmon was better than fishing for them.

A photo from Joe Lobichusky’s fishing trip in Alaska with his daughter Brone. (Submitted)

The real fish stories at Lobichusky gatherings, though, are likely to be about the 30-inch rainbow trout they pulled from a remote river, accessed only by chartered plane.

The trout, Joe explained, follow the salmon and feast on their eggs.

Trophy fish, they grow big and fat, and put up a determined battle, often leaping from the water when caught.

“The fish ran out and out, it was quite a fight,” Brone said, recalling an encounter with a wild rainbow trout. “I could hardly feel my arms afterward.”

Trout fishing Lobichusky style, however, is strictly sport. They use unbarbed hooks, and the catch was released back into the Brooks and Big Quejak rivers.

Local connection

Growing up in Mahanoy City, Joe Lobichusky worked in his father’s bakery shop at 438 West Centre Street. At 6-foot-7, he earned a scholarship to Albright College, where he played center on the basketball team. He graduated from Temple University Dental School in 1970, and returned to Mahanoy City, where he practiced dentistry for 48 years.

Though he moved the family to Barnesville when Brone was 12, Joe is still president of West End Fire & Rescue Company in Mahanoy City.

He says Dr. Charles Getter, a mentor, got him interested in fly fishing. Obviously, he’s passed it on to Brone, whose name is Lithuanian.

A graduate of MMI Preparatory School in Freeland, she earned undergraduate degrees at Swarthmore College and graduated from Temple Medical School. She recently completed a five-year residency at WellSpring Health Pain Center in York.

She’s board certified in general and trauma surgery, with a specialty in critical care.

Alone in the wild

Awaiting test results on a patient at Ruby Memorial in Morgantown, still in her scrubs, Brone took a few moments to assess the recent trip with her dad.

On two previous trips, when Alaska was a new experience, she marveled at its ecology, animals and natural wonders.

During moments alone with her father, as she prepared to embark on a new chapter in her life, she felt a deeper appreciation for the time and place.

“Out in the water or surrounded by the white capped mountains,” she said, “it was so peacefully beautiful you wanted to cry.”