The DrakeCast: A Week in Bristol Bay w/ The Lodge at 58* North

The DrakeCast #70: A Week in Bristol Bay w/ The Lodge at 58* North

In this episode of The DrakeCast we head to The Lodge at 58* North for a week of fishing Alaska’s Bristol Bay. In between chasing trout, char, grayling and salmon, we chat with the people who add to this already remarkable place. The Lodge at 58* North sits on the banks of the Naknek River near the town of King Salmon, about fifteen miles from the ocean. Upstream is the giant Naknek Lake, Brooks Falls, American Creek and countless other less recognizable tributaries.

The state’s sport fisheries department defines the Bristol Bay Management Area as the watersheds from Cape Newenham in the northwest to Cape Menshikof in the southeast. But the Alaska Conservation Foundation does a better job of defining Bristol Bay with just a single word: salmon. Over a half-million square miles of rivers and streams sustain the largest remaining wild salmon populations and habitat on Earth. Not to mention the rainbows, dolly varden, char, grayling, and pike that feed on the salmon-delivered bounty in the form of eggs and flesh.

Throughout my time in Bristol Bay we flew over mountains, active volcanos, boreal forests, juicy streams and tundra that host wildlife from lynx to moose to brown bears. It’s a bucket list destination for hunters, wildlife enthusiasts, and anglers from around the world.

In this first installment of a multi-part series, we’ll head to a small stream with guide Hailey and Chef Jason. We’ll hear the story of how they wound up working in the Alaskan Wilderness, and get a taste of the lodge’s culinary offerings. We’ll also sit down with lodge co-owners Justin & Kate Crump and find out they ended up together, and the journey they took on their way to becoming lodge owners in Alaska & Oregon. The episode ends with an emotional trip to small stream filled with spawning chum and kings and the rainbows, grayling, and dolly varden there to eat their eggs.

The second part of this series will be available in two weeks.

Elliott Adler

Elliott Adler is The Drake's Senior Editor and host of the magazine's podcast, The DrakeCast. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Follow him: @cobaltjackson