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5 Days Spearfishing Wild Salmon in Remote Alaska — Transcript

Join Big Water Guy on a thrilling 5-day spearfishing adventure for wild salmon in remote Alaska, facing freezing waters, sea lions, sharks, and grizzly bears.

Key Takeaways

  • Alaska is one of the few places where spearfishing wild salmon is legal, making it a unique destination for this activity.
  • Spearfishing king salmon is challenging due to the fish's intelligence and natural predators.
  • Safety is paramount, with grizzly bears posing a significant risk near salmon rivers.
  • Preparation, local knowledge, and adaptability are crucial for a successful spearfishing trip in remote wilderness.
  • Technology and health awareness, such as using apps like ZachDoc, support the adventurer’s wellbeing during extended trips.

Summary

  • The video documents a 5-day spearfishing trip in remote Alaskan wilderness targeting wild salmon, a legal activity in Alaska but illegal in most places.
  • The team uses float planes to access remote waters and lives out of boats in isolated locations.
  • Challenges include diving in freezing water, avoiding large sea lions, salmon sharks, and especially grizzly bears that fiercely protect salmon.
  • Big Water Guy is accompanied by Mikey from Castle Alaska, a frequent collaborator and experienced local guide.
  • The video highlights the difficulty and thrill of spearfishing king salmon, emphasizing the elusive nature of the fish.
  • The team adapts to changing conditions, including water clarity and weather, to improve their chances of successful spearfishing.
  • Health and safety are briefly discussed, with a sponsorship mention of ZachDoc, an app for booking medical appointments.
  • The video captures the excitement and challenges of hunting wild salmon, including equipment setup and underwater footage.
  • The narrative includes reflections on the unique experience of Alaska as a second home and the deep connection to the wilderness.
  • Plans evolve throughout the trip, including float plane logistics and adjustments due to weather and wildlife encounters.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:00
Speaker A
For the next five days, we're heading deep into the Alaskan wilderness to do something that's illegal almost everywhere else in the world.
00:07
Speaker A
Let's go spearfish wild salmon. To pull this off, we'll fly into remote waters on float planes, live out of boats in the middle of nowhere, and dive Alaska's freezing waters. But the biggest challenge isn't the freezing water, nor
00:20
Speaker A
the giant sea lions patrolling these waters. And not even the salmon sharks. It's the grizzly bears.
00:26
Speaker A
Hi there. We're surrounded by bears. These rivers are their dinner table, and they don't exactly like sharing their salmon. Every dive could put us face to face with one of Alaska's most dangerous predators. So, buckle up as we head into
00:39
Speaker A
one of the wildest adventures I've ever filmed. Let's get after it. Thank you, everyone.
00:44
Speaker A
Thank you. That's what we like to see right there. We're back in Alaska, baby.
00:55
Speaker A
Ricky. Yo, we are so back, guys. If you do not remember, this is Mikey from Castle Alaska. This is like my fifth time here.
01:05
Speaker A
Fourth or fifth time in the last year. And, uh, whenever you see this face, just know good things are going to happen.
01:11
Speaker A
We're going to go get them. Mikey literally just picked me up from the airport. We're unloading stuff and going straight onto the boat.
01:16
Speaker A
I love you. Thank you. It's the weapon of choice. The weapon today. Woo. I really do feel like Alaska is my second home. Feel like I belong here. I start coming alive as soon as I get some of that Alaska air into my nostrils.
01:38
Speaker A
[snorts] It smells like low tide. Let's go. All right. If you guys need to know one thing about Alaska, it is that it is one of the few places, if not the only place in the world, where you could legally
01:52
Speaker A
spearfish salmon, which is primarily the focus for this trip. [music] [music] [music] Pulling up spot number one.
02:17
Speaker A
That's usually a waterfall. So you're saying there's some salmon here?
02:28
Speaker A
Should be. Rick's smelling them right now. It's a king salmon pointer. So, he's leading us on.
02:37
Speaker A
Ricky, are the fish in? You said usually they sit under these poles.
02:47
Speaker A
Yeah, they'll, uh, they'll stage up in this little hole right here.
03:01
Speaker A
So, we didn't see any salmon at the waterfall, so we moved to a different spot. We did this last year, but we did it later in the year. Um, the fishing was a little better and more consistent. The
03:11
Speaker A
reason why I came earlier this year is because before June 30th, I'm allowed three king salmon per year, one per day, three per year. After June 30th, so starting July, I'm only allowed one per year, which is what we did last year. I
03:26
Speaker A
shot my one and it was cool, but it was kind of like sucked that I was only able to shoot one. So, that's kind of the trade-off. I'm able to keep three king salmon, but it's a little bit more of a
03:36
Speaker A
hit or miss. Oh, spearfish and king salmon. That's the pinnacle of human existence right here. That's all I got to say, boys and girls. There's nothing, nothing quite like beating the brakes off some king salmon in Alaska.
03:47
Speaker A
There's a whole school right there. Look at them. Mikey said whole school. Oh yeah, they're right there. They're right there.
03:55
Speaker A
[laughter] Yo, that is sick. I see him right there. I just got my heart racing. I'm buzzing.
04:03
Speaker A
I'm pumped. I'm pumped. [laughter] Let's go. Mikey tried spearfishing for the first time last year when we came down. He shot some coho and he's just been seeing red ever since.
04:10
Speaker A
Yeah. I brought Mikey all his gear. We're going to start it up. We should kind of study the pattern, see how often they swim through, where they swim through. I mean, I fish here with rod and reel a
04:17
Speaker A
lot. They always swim along this edge line right here. So, there's one thing I remember from last year is hunting king salmon was significantly harder than I thought.
04:41
Speaker A
They're really smart. They're being really elusive. They're used to being hunted by seals and sea lions my size.
05:06
Speaker A
So, they stay far and clear away from you. Salmon right there. I'm sure you guys can see it now. See it clear. Salmon bodies right there.
05:18
Speaker A
Yeah buddy. [music] [music] You supposed to wear underwear under this? One thing I've learned over the last few years is that when life gets busy, your health is usually the first thing that gets pushed to the side. I'm
05:30
Speaker A
constantly traveling, filming in different states, chasing tides, fish, and before I know it, weeks or months have gone by without me taking care of the little things I probably should have, like getting my blood work done to make sure my mercury levels aren't at
05:46
Speaker A
astronomical levels from all the raw fish I eat. And that's one of the reasons I'm happy to have Zach sponsoring today's video. Zachdoc is a free app and website that makes it incredibly easy to find and book appointments with doctors near you.
05:56
Speaker A
Whether you're at home or traveling, you can search through over 150,000 healthcare providers across more than 200 specialties. Read verified patient reviews, see real-time availability, and book appointments online, often within 24 to 72 hours, and sometimes even the
06:05
Speaker A
very same day. I don't know about you guys, but anything that saves me time and makes my life easier is a win for me. Instead of spending forever calling different offices trying to see who's available, I can get it taken care of in
06:23
Speaker A
just a few minutes. That sounds like exactly what the doctor ordered. So, if you've been putting off taking care of your health, don't keep kicking that can down the road. Click the link in the description or head over to
06:38
Speaker A
zdoc.com/bigwwaterguy and make taking care of yourself a whole lot easier. Big thanks to ZachDoc for sponsoring today's video. And now, let's get back into it. [music] I've watched so many last videos I know exactly how to put these on now.
06:46
Speaker A
[laughter] [gasps] You actually do. That was a great part. Let's go. Got some magic powder. That water is frisky.
07:03
Speaker A
Oh yeah. The fact I was in an airplane an hour ago makes this a whole lot better.
07:20
Speaker A
Rick's going to freak out. Oh, yeah. Hey, it's going to be okay, bud. Since I don't have a reel on this gun, I need to use a breakaway system. So, we got a very light inflatable float. I will say one thing. I've seen a lot of
07:39
Speaker A
impressive things in my spearfishing days, but this, this belt system [laughter] is one of the craziest things I've ever seen in my life. Bro, this belt is actually a client got it for me for beer, but it's only been used for a weight
07:50
Speaker A
belt and now let's go, baby. So, as soon as I got into the water, there's just a freight train of king salmon going right under me. And I didn't even time this. I just coincidentally got in at the same time.
08:01
Speaker A
And I was for a second like, "Oh, wow. Maybe the salmon are a lot more chill this year," and we're also in a different area. Turns out I was wrong. They were not more chill. I just coincidentally happened to get in at the same time. And
08:13
Speaker A
after I got in, I didn't see another school of salmon for literally like 30, 40 minutes. Obviously, I cut down these clips as much as I can to make them as interesting and engaging as possible.
08:17
Speaker A
But something you guys got to keep in mind as I make these videos is I just keep the juiciest sections. I swam around and drifted around and dove and tried different techniques to try to get myself closer to the school of salmon.
08:21
Speaker A
But for the first half of my dive, I did not see any fish at all.
08:33
Speaker A
And I think our best bet is if we just stay glued to the boat.
08:42
Speaker A
I couldn't see anything over there. Yeah. Like the brackish. Yeah. So, since the water was so brackish, although it looks clear, it was a lot harder to see anything. So, I told Mikey, "Let's stick close to the boat
08:53
Speaker A
and maybe we'll kind of blend into the boat so they don't see us and they'll be able to cruise by like they were earlier before we got into the water." I can barely see it.
09:05
Speaker A
And after doing that for about 10 minutes, sure enough, the school came through. But like I said, the water is so odd here because although it looks clear, it really is not. You can't even really see the school of salmon passing
09:16
Speaker A
through. But I did see subtle shadows. I lined up on the first shadow I...
09:22
Speaker A
But luckily, I was still able to put a shot into my first king salmon of 2026.
09:26
Speaker A
It wasn't the best shot, but at least it held. And salmon one out of three is secured if I don't mess this up. Of course, the first thing I try to do with fish that are strong is make sure that
09:36
Speaker A
the spear has went all the way through and that both floppers are deployed. So, it's keeping that fish on. Because once that fish starts going crazy, they're so strong, they'll just keep ripping until either the shaft comes right out or they
09:48
Speaker A
tear a hole in themselves and tear loose. Yeah, buddy. We got our first time on.
10:20
Speaker A
Oh, that's amazing. Some would say this is exactly what the doctor ordered. I forget how strong these fish are.
10:38
Speaker A
Yeah, buddy. That is so nice. Oh my gosh. So stoked. They really made us work for it.
10:47
Speaker A
Guys, this right here is the pinnacle of life. There is nothing quite like being in a remote Alaska spear fishing for giant king salmon.
10:58
Speaker A
Oh yeah, baby. And this is definitely the biggest one I've ever shot. Absolute toad. Exactly what we came out here for.
11:07
Speaker A
And that took only an hour in the water. These fish were smarter than I thought they would be. The water was very brackish. But we got a dog, baby.
11:18
Speaker A
Oh my gosh, I'm so happy. I've been dreaming about this moment ever since last summer. Mikey got some clients back at the lodge that are leaving tonight.
11:25
Speaker A
He needs to go feed and say his goodbyes. So, we're going to go. And honestly, I mean, I have no other choice. I can't dive anymore either. I'm only allowed one per day. Bro, [music] [music] I don't know. This might be peak. You
11:56
Speaker A
guys tell me. Is this peak? Hey chat, are we peaking? Ew. What up? So, I like to gut them first. We use the guts for halibet baits.
12:10
Speaker A
I'm eating the eggs for sure. Oh, yeah. You like to do that. Make that little cut. You get this whole membrane out.
12:18
Speaker A
These are the gills. So, we use all this for halibit bait. Vlad's going to eat that.
12:25
Speaker A
These eggs are nice and ripe. They're going to get whacked. Fast and efficient. So, straight down the backbone.
12:34
Speaker A
down there. Nice, bro. That's a slab right there. I kind of messed up. This is a brand new knife, but usually you get all those uh belly bones off. But if your knife is too sharp, there we go.
13:02
Speaker A
Oh, you got a stud today. More stoked on the eggs than anything. These are [clears throat] super ripe.
13:08
Speaker A
Did you see them? Look at this premium grade eight meat. We'll see. I'm fishing tomorrow, too.
13:14
Speaker A
I know you guys busy at town. We're back at Castle Alaska. Mikey said he's made some renovations since the last time we were here. So, yeah.
13:26
Speaker A
Nice. Wow. Now we're talking. Mikey's going to get spanked in some pool tonight. Cribs, the chef here, she uh made a wicked meal already and plated it for me. Looks like some sort of shrimp pasta dish. So, I'm going to eat
13:44
Speaker A
that. But I did take the eggs out and I will cure the eggs. So, I get a ton of questions of people asking how I cure my eggs because I always make videos of me eating them and they are very delicious
13:56
Speaker A
and I highly recommend that you guys try them instead of throwing them away or using them as bait because they are a serious delicacy in many parts of the world. First thing I do is throw it into some warm water. And you slowly want to
14:09
Speaker A
start massaging the eggs out of the sack. After you do this, it's probably the longest part of the whole process.
14:14
Speaker A
Takes about 10 15 minutes per sack. You're left with just the eggs. You take the membrane, throw it away, and then you just start washing and filtering out the eggs. You want to get all that gunk out. And this is another pretty lengthy
14:27
Speaker A
process, about a 10-minute process where you just rinse and repeat. Keep filtering through, washing out until you get to a point where the water just crystal clear. And then you're ready to throw it in a strainer. Strain all the
14:39
Speaker A
water out. Throw into a mason jar. And in the mason jar, I usually like to throw in some soy sauce, marin, and water. But since we didn't have any merin, we instead threw some sort of salty broth that the chef had that
14:51
Speaker A
actually ended up working great for this. Mikey prepared a room for me and a special requirement that he had this on the wall when I came in here.
15:03
Speaker A
[sighs] What is up? It is a beautiful morning. Whenever it's sunny in Alaska, it's a good morning.
15:11
Speaker A
Running the program back. We got our salmon eggs from yesterday. They're cured up. I'm still buzzing about that salmon. The fact that I could go out and shoot another salmon today just makes me way too happy cuz last year I shot my
15:24
Speaker A
one and I couldn't shoot another one for a whole year till yesterday. Let's go. [laughter] Let's go. We're in route to the promised land, boys. This is the part of my YouTube journey you guys usually don't see. Just saucing
15:37
Speaker A
every ounce of this Starlink right here. Trying to upload a YouTube video for you guys right now. The only problem with Alaska is service is a little cooked out here. So, a regular upload has taken like six hours. What do you guys think
15:49
Speaker A
about Mikey's fit? There's one guy who deserves to rock the buzzing hat with pride. It's Mikey. [laughter] This is true. This is true. By the way, if you guys want, we got some hot merch right now. We just restocked a couple
16:02
Speaker A
things. Bigwaterguy.com. This is good stuff. I wear it all the time. I love it. The quality is there.
16:09
Speaker A
This is very comfortable. I got a big head and it it's perfect. Buzz and hats might be sold out by the time this video comes out cuz he's they've been selling like hot cakes. See him?
16:19
Speaker A
Yeah. Give me that. Give me that pull. We're both going to be in the water, but spotter helps. If anything, I'm down to spot you at first, too.
16:37
Speaker A
Those are some of the biggest sea lions I've ever seen. And there's a whole pack of them. They're just flinging around.
16:44
Speaker A
Salmon eagle tried to swoop in from the air and steal it. That was crazy footage.
16:50
Speaker A
Look at that size of the head, dude. Those are big sea lions. 3 2 1.
17:01
Speaker A
It's about that time. Are there still more? Yeah. I went into day two a lot more relaxed.
17:10
Speaker A
I wasn't looking to pull the trigger on the first salmon I saw. It's always nice on these multi-day trips where you have a couple buffer days. I got to get in yesterday, test the waters, see how the fish are acting. I got to get my one
17:22
Speaker A
king salmon. And today I was going to more tap into my nerdy side where I was going to pick up sea urchins, try a couple, you know, underwater little edible snacks, play with different crabs and sea life, that type of vibe. As much
17:34
Speaker A
as I love spear fishing, I also just as much enjoy being underwater, especially in new areas, seeing the different life and sea creatures down there. I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to all that. But don't get it wrong, I'm still actively
17:46
Speaker A
hunting king salmon. This is a trick I learned last year, and it was the only way I was able to shoot king salmon. I would go down to the floor, lay on my back, and just the way I'm laying, I
17:55
Speaker A
would kind of camouflage with the ground, and the school of king salmon would swim right over me and have no idea I was down there. So that technique is what helped me land my king salmon last year.
18:06
Speaker A
Was the whole school humid? Yeah, I was just trying not to move, so I had my gun. I wasn't even aiming in front of me.
18:11
Speaker A
He's just trying to aim. Those two shots were very If I thought yesterday was slow, then today was on a whole different level.
18:20
Speaker A
I've already been in the water for like an hour and I still haven't even seen a single fish. Although the laying on the back technique worked for me last year, I was quickly beginning to lose faith in it this year. I've already been laying
18:31
Speaker A
on my back down here for an hour up and down and no schools of salmon were swimming over me. I heard some commotion coming from Mikey. So, I swam over to check out what he had going on and I
18:41
Speaker A
couldn't believe it. He shot his first ever king salmon against all odds, even though today was really slow. I have still yet to see a single king salmon.
18:49
Speaker A
He was patient enough, laid in one area in the shallows until a big school of salmon swam right in front of him and he was able to secure his first ever king salmon. Press down on that flopper so he
18:58
Speaker A
can't escape. Nice. Good stuff, bro. Oh, yeah. That's sick. I haven't been seeing them at all. Did they just come in right at you?
19:19
Speaker A
Dude, I I started going farther back out. I took a really long shot. This gun ripped for how small it is, it ripped. Yeah, that's sick, dude. Good stuff.
19:30
Speaker A
Yeah, buddy. Uncle Mikey's in the game. Let's go, baby. That's your first king salmon. Yeah.
19:37
Speaker A
Yeah, that's sick. After seeing Mikey land his first kingy, I got fired up. I abandoned my laying on the back technique and I started swimming up and down the coastline kind of hoping to cross paths with these fish. And as I was down there, I saw
19:59
Speaker A
this salmon in the distance flailing and acting all crazy. And I swim up and some fisherman had snagged into it.
20:04
Speaker A
That's sick. I almost shot that one. [clears throat] He got one on. Nice fish. So, as I went down the coastline, there was a couple times where I did cross paths with the school salmon, but literally the second they
20:19
Speaker A
saw me or I moved my gun or I made any type of movement to try to shoot one of these fish, the whole school just disappeared. And I didn't even get close to getting a shot off on one.
20:32
Speaker A
Man, I've already been in the water for like hour and a half, two, and nothing.
20:38
Speaker A
These salmon are so elusive. It's crazy. Like the guys will tell me or the other fisherman will tell me, "Oh, they're right there." And then I get in and just can't see them. It's so dirty in there and
20:51
Speaker A
brackish. So, I think my new game plan is going to be sit in the boat on the back of the boat, look out for them, and as soon as I see them, drop in, go to the bottom, and hopefully I can chase
21:03
Speaker A
them down cuz they're skittish. They don't they're not the salmon that are going to come by, check you out like the coo or the sakkeye. This is a different breed. These king salmon, they're fresh.
21:15
Speaker A
They're still in salt water. They're full of energy, full of life. Um, and they're not dumb. They're constantly being chased by sea lions, orcas, whatever else is in these waters. So, they're not going to come check you out
21:27
Speaker A
and figure out what this big looking seal object is. Especially since we've seen sea lions hunting here, that means they're they're on edge. And that's exactly what I did. I stood up on the back of the boat until I saw a school of
21:38
Speaker A
king salmon cruising by. I immediately got in the water and I told myself, I'm pulling the trigger on the first fish I saw. I'm not being patient. I'm taking what I could get.
22:23
Speaker A
Man, we're so back. So, I ended up swimming like way down there, clearing the whole coastline, but while I was gone. Mikey ended up shooting another fish.
22:40
Speaker A
So, we got our limit of three. This is the one I shot. Yeah, buddy. And we got some uh sea urchin. Got to see what the Alaskan sea urchin are saying today.
22:51
Speaker A
We got another Alaskan Sparrow. Nice. Oh wow, dude. This thing is full. Nice, bro. Haven't seen a urchin this full in a minute. Yeah, buddy. This is what it's all about right here. This is grade A.
23:19
Speaker A
Wow. This the biggest piece of ooni I've had in a minute, dude. Absolute toad. Wow.
23:27
Speaker A
Look at that. Very creamy, too. Salty and creamy. Mike, you want to try one?
23:39
Speaker A
Oh, yeah. Some donuts. I'm actually shocked how big these are, dude. For being summertime, that's crazy.
23:53
Speaker A
[laughter] Look at that. Yeah, those are big. Woo. Almost like spicy. All right, let's do one of these smaller ones.
24:02
Speaker A
That's pretty good. I like them. Yeah, this one's practically bone dry. That's kind of what I was expecting to find last year.
24:12
Speaker A
Yeah, last year they were bone dry here. And this one, too. Chalk full. Wow, dude. This one's a male.
24:28
Speaker A
I like those. That one's grade A right there. Tastes like ocean. Tastes like ocean.
24:38
Speaker A
That was good stuff. Alaska Oonie in the vibe. All right, I'm going to show you guys a proper Alaskan dive snack. We got salmon eggs right here. You get a piece of bread.
24:51
Speaker A
You get some of your salmon row. Throw on some bread. This stuff I already marinated. Actually, we're going to need a little more.
25:03
Speaker A
Throw that on like that. And you got a proper Alaskan sandwich right there. That's so good.
25:20
Speaker A
Come here. Try something that I usually do. So good. Have you tried eggs before?
25:33
Speaker A
Mhm. Yeah. This is good. Salmon egg is like the most nutrient-packed omega-3 hit to the dome we could do. Super good, too.
25:45
Speaker A
I'm grabbing another piece of bread. That is delicious. Look at these eggs. For the soy sauce that I put in last night, I like to do a less sodium one cuz it's just a little too salty. But if
25:57
Speaker A
you just throw it over rice or something, it's it's so good. It balances out.
26:03
Speaker A
[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] When you have someone fillet a fish like me, you leave a lot of salmon on.
26:35
Speaker A
That's just from mine. I've heard from multiple people that this meat right here, the stuff closest to the bones, is the best tasting part of the meat. I don't know if that's true or not to be honest with you, but the
26:45
Speaker A
dishes I do prepare with like the scraps like this are usually Yeah. So good.
26:50
Speaker A
All right, man. We'll see you out there. Uh I I should be ready to go at 10:00, maybe even a little earlier. So, all right.
26:57
Speaker A
So, I haven't really talked about it yet, but we got some insane plans for this video. Mike is on the phone with a float plane captain, and he's meeting us tomorrow at 10:00. We're going to take a float plane, load it up all our stuff,
27:08
Speaker A
and we're going to go out to some very actually remote grounds. We're going to be camping out there, spear fishing, catching our own food. This might be the first ever fly out flow plane spear fishing adventure. The real adventure
27:20
Speaker A
starts tomorrow. This was just kind of like a little pregame to what the next couple days hold for us. So, we got cribs on chef duty. Crews, what do we got going on in there?
27:28
Speaker A
Chef duty. I got some teriyak coho salmon. Cooho. I don't really like like floral.
27:38
Speaker A
I didn't get to quite film the dinner cuz we got to talking. But phenomenal dinner. It's already 8:17 and the vibes are just vibes are high. Tide is low, but the vibes are high. Problem with people these days, specifically men, is they
27:57
Speaker A
drink too much diet sodas and not enough salmon eggs. Not right there. paired with a view like this will do a whole lot for a guy.
28:13
Speaker A
It's time to lock in. [music] [music] You guys already know this only means one thing.
28:29
Speaker A
Great things are happening. So guys, it was actually all a joke. We're going on an all-inclusive cruise for the next seven days.
28:39
Speaker A
[laughter] That's our weapon of choice right there. Don't slip. I'm hooked. [music] Bro, I'm honestly how much plane crashes I've crashed in the last two weeks. It's like the most ever in aviation history. Seems like I'm more scared about this than living in
29:08
Speaker A
remote Alaska for 3 days. It's like baseball. We're due for a safe ride. Pilot said he couldn't make it. So, um, Mikey's going to try to fly the plane today.
29:18
Speaker A
I played GTA, so I You think you know what to do? Yeah. How you doing?
29:26
Speaker A
What? Jackson. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. How we doing? Good. We're kind of stressing about this plane ride right now.
29:32
Speaker A
Why? I don't know. Are we in safe hands? Well, you are in safe hands.
29:36
Speaker A
What's this? That's what I like to hear. Case. I used to work for the airlines for 3 years stacking bags. So, maybe I need to lock in right now.
29:50
Speaker A
How's a CRJ 200's worst nightmare? Pilot said we're allowed 250 lbs of gear, and I think we're over that.
30:00
Speaker A
Anything fragile? No. Yeah. Yeah. This is why you can't watch the news cuz a week ago I wouldn't care to get in a plane then after seeing all the plane horizons. Just trust it.
30:18
Speaker A
All right. Well, go ahead. Turn. Go pilot today. Yes, sir. Can I fly the plane?
30:22
Speaker A
No, sir. Ow. All right. Couple things. I'll just ask you to keep these seat belts on for the flight today. If you need to exit anytime through my door or your door, glad to operate that door all the way
30:33
Speaker A
back and push. We'll open it forward is locked. I feel like that was a very proper Alaska Airlines introduction.
30:40
Speaker A
Oh, wow. First time in a float plane. [music] Come on. Come on. [music] [music] Got [music] [music] it. Got it.
32:06
Speaker A
We survived. We've arrived. That was so sick. I was actually like not even thinking much about the flight of this whole trip just cuz I don't know. I fly so much. I kind of don't like flying. But that was Yeah,
32:23
Speaker A
I forgot. It's a whole different experience. That was so beautiful. There's already a some sort of luxury charter yacht here. So, I don't know if I told you guys, but the reason why we're here is to spearfish sckeye. We're
32:37
Speaker A
allowed six sockai a day, which is like a lot more fun. Now, it's just a matter of finding them, finding where the school is. Hopefully they're here. It's pretty untapped territory for everyone here.
32:49
Speaker A
So, uh, take your, uh, I'll probably take my shoes off, get the dogs out.
32:57
Speaker A
The nice thing is the water's really nice and warm. Wow. Now, this is living, boys. Some would say this is exactly what the doctor ordered.
33:27
Speaker A
All right, Mr. Pilot Man. The giant yacht is really kind of taken away from this we're really out here feel, but we're really out here. There he goes.
33:43
Speaker A
It's just me and you here now, Mikey. It's the only way I'd want it.
33:48
Speaker A
Okay, so what's the what's the game plan now? Find food. Blowing up our little raft. And uh Mikey actually had one of his captains come out here. Uh not the guy that's coming later tonight. Who is this guy? Can you tell us about what's
34:02
Speaker A
going on? I didn't even know he's coming. Chad Chadam was uh across the bay. So, we changed the plans cuz the wind was gnarly where we were going to go and Chadam was in the area. So, we got a
34:13
Speaker A
boat. [music] [music] [music] Please don't tell me we have two mountain houses. That's all we got.
34:34
Speaker A
[laughter] So, I just threw the drone up and we found the school of Sakai, but it's literally like one school. I mean, they're right here. The water doesn't look clean. And I mean, you guys saw with the kings, like they're skittish.
34:47
Speaker A
Like, you'll spook them and they'll be gone. And they have so much area to hang around. So, might be a little more difficult than we had thought. Um, so we'll see. We're going to pop on the boat, put our wetsuits on, and get in
34:59
Speaker A
the water, try to land some dinner. So, they're saying that the best tide to fish for Sakkeye is high because they all just pile in and come in here. Right now, low tide was 20 minutes ago.
35:13
Speaker A
So, it's not ideal. And it's like a 16 ft exchange. Oh, there's jumpers right there. So, in a couple hours, the water will be this will all be underwater. Um, but the good thing is there's crapots here. Uh, and some of the guys have
35:27
Speaker A
caught crap here. So, I'm going to go in. This would be the best tide to dive for crabs cuz right where those pots are, it drops off here immediately to like 40, 50, 60 feet, his boat's anchored in 55 ft. Once the tide rises,
35:39
Speaker A
it's going to be, you know, another add another 15, 16 ft to that. So, I'm going to get in right now, try to find some crab. I also have my gun with me. It's a sakire there. In the meantime, since all
35:48
Speaker A
is going to get flooded, we're going to load our stuff onto that boat until our other captain comes tonight. Does it get better than this?
35:55
Speaker A
Yeah, especially peak. Oh, they're jumping right there. way past. This is our plan B, too. So, we got we got lucky.
36:02
Speaker A
Yeah, plan A didn't work out. I don't know if I've said it yet, but it was way too windy where we originally wanted to go. So, this is plan B.
36:09
Speaker A
I'm pumped on this. This is way better. We're like in a nice protected wind coat too.
36:13
Speaker A
You can see it howling and white capping out there. Ow. Not enough lube there.
36:42
Speaker A
I'll see you guys in the water. Like I said, six sockeye per day. I'd be stoked if I could just shoot one. I could tell there is not that many right now and they're pretty elusive. If I could get a
36:52
Speaker A
crab in a sckeye, I will be buzzing like a Guatemalan hornet. All right, Mikey.
36:58
Speaker A
Good luck. So, on one of my first drops down, I ran into this crap pot. And as you guys could tell, it is completely empty, which is not a good sign for a guy who's just getting in the water and looking to
37:20
Speaker A
collect some dungeonous crab. I did pretty quickly run into this hairy crab. We basically don't ever see them where I dive. I know in certain areas they do have them, but typically I never see them, and if I do, they're tiny. So,
37:33
Speaker A
that was the biggest hairy crab I've ever seen. And they also got these green sea urchin, which are pretty big here. I had to crack one open to see what they're dealing with because you already know that was going to be snack time
37:42
Speaker A
here in a little bit. And to my surprise, these guys are also very full, which typically in the Pacific Northwest whenever I dive any urchin we find in the summertime, they're for the most part very empty and dry because winter
37:55
Speaker A
is their spawning time, which means they're full of their gonads. That's already two different species of sea urchin I found in Alaska that were just chalk full of oonie. One thing that really surprised me about this dive is
38:05
Speaker A
how much giant sea cucumbers were just littered all over the floor. Typically where we dive back home, you'll see a sea cucumber there and here kind of rarely over here. They were just all over the place and they were some
38:17
Speaker A
serious tanks. I also found a cockal, which is pretty cool. We get them back home and they're very delicious, but we never ended up harvesting this guy cuz I still had high hopes for getting some sakkeye. As I kept swimming along, I
38:27
Speaker A
came across something I saw from the surface and I couldn't exactly make out what it was. And as I came closer to it, I picked it up. I realized I just had found something very special. This was a
38:38
Speaker A
whole underwater camera rig. And it looks like it's clearly been down here for a very long time.
38:45
Speaker A
That's pretty crazy that I just found this in the middle of Alaska. That's wild.
38:54
Speaker A
I definitely wanted to bring that camera rig back to the boat and show everyone, but I was pretty far away from the boat at this point. I've been swimming for already like an hour. So, I propped it up on some rocks and was going to grab
39:04
Speaker A
it a little later and very quickly got back into nerding out over different little sea. I think there's some sort of shrimp or something I just saw.
39:11
Speaker A
Honestly, I don't even know what that was. They look like little shrimp, which I've never seen before diving in the Pacific Northwest. And then I also couldn't get over these sea cucumbers.
39:19
Speaker A
They're just one of the craziest looking things, honestly, if you really pay attention to all the detail on it. What a very odd looking sea creature. And they are just everywhere as you can tell.
39:57
Speaker A
You guys got to admit this is sick. The water, obviously when we got in over there, the water was very brackish, like to the point where I couldn't even see my watch. But as soon as I got out here,
40:10
Speaker A
it's super nice. There's sea lions popping up all over me. I got a little distracted. I'm like nerding out over all the sea life. Brought you guys a cucumber to look at out of water. Look how cool these things are. There's so many down
40:25
Speaker A
there. I've never seen so many large sea cucumbers in one area. See cucumbers everywhere. There's oonie everywhere, too. I'm pretty pumped about I think I've tried these green ones like once or twice. Actually, these aren't that full.
40:38
Speaker A
Kind of grabbed them too small. They look a little bigger underwater. That'll eat though.
40:48
Speaker A
That's nice. That's smooth. Yeah, I went in here to the sandy area cuz I want to possibly see some crab and then also halibit. It's going to be a miracle if I see a halibit, but I mean the guys say
41:00
Speaker A
they do come here to the mouth of these rivers and hunt salmon. But I think that's more in the hall time when uh all the salmon have spawned and they die and they the their dead carcasses flow out
41:11
Speaker A
of the river. The halibet will stack up in here. I might be flying back here to do just that in like August, September.
41:19
Speaker A
Look at that. Yeah. Come on, babe. It's actually like really warm. I've dove way colder waters back home where I live. The water's warm.
41:35
Speaker A
The outside temp is warm. My watch is saying it's 52 in the water, which is very warm. We were diving like 47 48 at the King Salmon spot in the last two days. I'm going to go back and try to
41:46
Speaker A
start hunting some uh sckeye. I'm having so much fun. It's so beautiful here. Look at this, dude.
41:53
Speaker A
Looks like we're diving in the Bahamas. I got a new camera for us. Whoa.
42:01
Speaker A
This is going to be your new backup camera. What did you just [ __ ] Look how sick this thing is, dude.
42:08
Speaker A
That is so cool. You should hang that up in your log. Dude, that's so cool.
42:14
Speaker A
I don't know how old that thing is, but it looks old. Are we in the Bahamas or are we in Alaska, bro? Yeah, buddy. This little boat is sick.
42:30
Speaker A
You can see there's like four, five, six harbor seals hunting the fish as well, which is really bad for us cuz it just makes the fish very skittish.
42:39
Speaker A
Kind of doing a tuna running gun style right now. Trying to find where they're jumping and get me in the water next to them.
42:54
Speaker A
So, I spent hours and hours this day just diving all over the bay. Mikey would take me to a new spot. I would go clear it out, investigate, go swim the bottom, go swim the shoreline, look for sakkeye, try to look for crab, try to
43:07
Speaker A
look for halibit. This whole area is very promising for all those things. Just the only problem is the tidal's still coming in. You can tell the water's really dirty. There's sea lions and seals everywhere, which makes it very hard to hunt. Obviously, they're
43:20
Speaker A
faster than me underwater. They're getting to the fish faster, and I still have not seen a single sckeye, which is not surprising to me. With it still being about mid tide and the Sakai being scattered all over the bay, the chances
43:31
Speaker A
of me running into them and them getting close enough for me to see him and shoot him were unrealistically low. And I knew that the best shot we had at actually shooting some sckeye was when the tide rose. All the schools of salmon piled up
43:44
Speaker A
around the mouth of the river. And then we have a way more congregated area to hunt them in. But I was still loving it.
43:49
Speaker A
It was beautiful. The little harbor seals were really cute. And honestly, I was really kind of gaining faith in the chance of seeing a halibit. The ground there looked very promising. I've hunted halalibit a couple times in Alaska and
44:03
Speaker A
in Norway and this type of sand that we were diving it definitely looked promising to hold some type of halibit here which really kept me fired up.
44:22
Speaker A
I got a lot of competition with all you little seals. So, with all the sea harbor seals and sea lions in the water, these sckeye are so skittish. And obviously, there's not many of them. So, we're going to try to
44:34
Speaker A
resort to our blue and tuna ways, find where they're jumping, which they're not jumping often, and jump in right away.
44:43
Speaker A
They just said there's a they just saw a bear right there. So, brown bear or a grizzly bear right there.
44:57
Speaker A
Hey bear. We're going to go pay the bear a visit. This is exactly what you don't do when you see a bear.
45:04
Speaker A
We're in Alaska, baby. [laughter] There he is. Got the real tax man behind me.
45:11
Speaker A
Oh, there he is. I think he's just like purposely playing like he's chill laying around. He wants us to get closer. We're going to get closer and then so I got back in the water and I started diving, refusing to give up on my
45:39
Speaker A
sockeye dreams. Meanwhile, Mikey hiked up river to get into a little bit of fly fishing.
45:48
Speaker A
Smart to learn, boys. So, at about 2 hours before high tide, hour and a half, around the mouth of the river, I ran into my first school of sakkeye salmon. I wasn't recording at the time, but it gave me the biggest
46:05
Speaker A
boost of hope and I locked in. I realized that these sckeye like to hug the shoreline and they were basically just traveling up and down the shoreline near the mouth of the river. So, I started dropping down, slowly
46:17
Speaker A
approaching them. Um, and every like 10, 15 minutes, I would come across a school of Sakai, which I'm almost certain it was just the same school, or maybe there was one other school in here. I just kept circulating and doing the rounds
46:28
Speaker A
along the shoreline. But finding them was the first challenge. Now, the second challenge is actually hitting one of these. This was actually hilarious. I didn't know there was a rock stuck in my flopper. You can just see my shaft
46:38
Speaker A
completely go do its own thing. So, there was multiple factors that made shooting these fish pretty hard. First off, they like to stay along the shore, which was shallow water, which is very hard for me to dive only a couple feet
46:51
Speaker A
cuz my suit is naturally very buoyant, and I just want to float to the top, even with all the lead I'm wearing.
46:56
Speaker A
Also, the water's dirty. It's still brackish a bit, and the camera is picking up more than what my eyes can see. So, although you guys are seeing better detail of the fish, I'm kind of just seeing subtle shadow and the closer
47:07
Speaker A
I try to get to these fish, the faster they start swimming away. But after a couple missed shots, I got my first ever Sakkeye salmon. This is actually the last species of salmon I have yet to shoot. And I couldn't be more stoked
47:18
Speaker A
about it. This was literally, I think, hour 5 and 1/2, 6 of me being in the water, swimming all up and down the bay.
47:26
Speaker A
I was honestly very exhausted at this point. I was actually very close to going back to the boat right before I saw that first school of Sakai salmon, just because I was at like peak exhaustion, especially considering the
47:36
Speaker A
fact that we still practically haven't eaten anything all day. I was so smoked. But once I saw that school of salmon, once I missed a couple times, it just fired me up so much. And then once I landed my first sckeye, it was game on.
47:49
Speaker A
Your boy was buzzing like a Guatemalan hornet. This was Sakai number two, and it was an absolute tank. I actually could not believe how big these sckeye were. All Sakai I've ever dealt with in the past were literally a half or a
48:01
Speaker A
quarter of this size. I actually for a second was thinking maybe these were some coo salmon that I was shooting instead, just cuz of how big they were.
48:08
Speaker A
After landing a couple fish, I kind of learned how these fish operate, what works and what doesn't. I locked in my strategy and now it's just a matter of filling up the cooler cuz I love me some sckeye. So, enjoy these next couple
48:19
Speaker A
clips of me just having a heyday doing one of the funnest spear fishing in the world. I think there's very few times I've had more fun than this type of style of spear fishing I'm doing right here.
48:54
Speaker A
So, this was actually probably the coolest shot of the trip. There was this log that you can't see right now. And I laid behind this log without moving a muscle for like 10 to 15 minutes waiting for this school to swim by cuz I really
49:05
Speaker A
wanted to shoot a two for one. And that's exactly what happened. This school swam by. They didn't even see me coming. That's why they were moving so slow. And I had the perfect opportunity to line up on my first two for one kill.
49:21
Speaker A
Heat. Heat. I literally don't think I've ever been more cooked spear fishing than right now. I got in at 11:00.
50:34
Speaker A
It is 6:00 right now. That's 7 hours of non-stop kicking. But we got her done, baby. Let's go. I got to go get some. It's Mikey's turn.
50:45
Speaker A
Mikey's been slaying on the rod on the fly rod. He said he was catching trout back to back.
50:51
Speaker A
I need to hop in the water. I'm going right when I just What's that?
51:00
Speaker A
I'm going right. I went from a ripple to like big. Oh, that was exactly what I needed.
51:26
Speaker A
just drool all over the channel. It only took 6 hours, but we hit limits.
51:38
Speaker A
Spear fishing. Shakai was a great success. Some tanks, too. Some of the biggest sock eyes I've ever seen.
51:50
Speaker A
We still got the caution on. Mikey got new goss today. Caution, salmon. [laughter] Watch out. It's Mikey's turn to shoot some fish now. My face is so red. That's like from overheating. I'm pretty sure it is so beautiful out here.
52:03
Speaker A
They said they just saw a bear somewhere here. So, I spent like exactly 6 and 1/2 hours in the water. And it wasn't till like right about when high tide hit that they kind of like all congregated into
52:16
Speaker A
one area and it was a lot easier to hunt them. Other than that, it was super hard at first. Once they all built up around the mouth of the river, I was able to kind of like chase them around in that
52:26
Speaker A
pool. And even then, it was a lot harder. Recacity was rough and there's like this thick muck layer of I don't know what. It just a lot harder. And the fish are smaller and they're all moving fast. So, that's one thing about the
52:39
Speaker A
king salmon is although it was the same thing, uh they're a lot bigger. It was an easier target to hit. I I missed a lot of fish, reloaded my gun like 20 times, and literally all I've had to eat
52:50
Speaker A
today is a slim gym and a piece of cheese. And now I just had a protein bar and I'm drilling some candy. We're still waiting on uh on Senson, one of Mikey's captains. He just finished taking some clients out and he's making the ride out
53:02
Speaker A
here and it's like a three-hour ride depending on conditions. What made it a lot worse is in unlike regular spear fishing when you're just always looking down the whole 6 and 1 half hours today.
53:21
Speaker A
I got guys camping there. I don't know if they're shooting at a bear or what, but yeah, the whole time I was just looking up like this like my neck. Plus with the seven uh mm neopre, it's so
53:33
Speaker A
much resistance. My neck is so sore. Mikey, what happened? Where's the fish, dude? Even Kobe has bad games. Okay, it's not good, but we'll be there tomorrow. It just got dark. I couldn't see anything. I saw my first drop. I saw
53:55
Speaker A
school and I didn't shoot and then I They're jumping on my face and I couldn't see.
54:00
Speaker A
It's It's rough. It's a lot harder than it seems. The brackish water makes it so difficult. Very difficult.
54:06
Speaker A
They could jump on my head. I can't see. Yeah. Like you know they're there. You see their shadows. You see their movements. And the faster they swim, the more they stir everything up, that brackish water up. So it just makes it
54:16
Speaker A
10 times worse. It's all right. At least we got six. [laughter] It's vibes. This little boat is sick.
54:28
Speaker A
Got the dogs out. This tastes like heaven right now. Why everyone needs a poncho? So you're not junk out on the boat in front of the kids and everyone.
54:49
Speaker A
Get your poncho. Got the SD card out. Yeah, I think this thing is cooked, dude. But honestly, it would be cool if there's someone that knows how to do this stuff. That was in the camera. I didn't even see that.
55:03
Speaker A
This is the camera that came out of that. Dude, there's a serious thing happening in here.
55:14
Speaker A
Is that all salt buildup? That's crazy. There's Fenny. We'll do this side and we'll move them.
55:25
Speaker A
943. It's great to see you. Good to see you, too. We got a lose boat on the run. Mikey had one job.
55:35
Speaker A
I got it. I got it. Trying to make a cast on his hooker. Hunker rod is mad as Don't rip the wet suit, please.
55:47
Speaker A
Fish on. It's definitely in my wet suit. I got it. From a 7 mil to a 6 mil. [laughter] No, I got his wets suit. He's all ripping on him.
56:01
Speaker A
So, we're going to start processing the fish, clean them up, gun them, and uh I don't know if we're eating today. I was so tired. And we The guys kind of fed us some steak, a little bit of pasta.
56:25
Speaker A
Wow. We're going to need those. 22 20 21 as [ __ ] It was a [ __ ] point like 10 mill.
56:38
Speaker A
It was fun. Yeah, that the pork juice has so much. Our sakai is done. The generator's really loud. We're about to move. So that's why I'm talking here.
56:47
Speaker A
Let's try some fresh sakai. Skin and all. So good. Fire. That is actually very good.
57:00
Speaker A
And we're going to throw the salmon eggs right onto the skillet. Dinner was delicious. We're going to go drop anchor kind of further away from them so we're not bouncing boats all night. And then tomorrow we got a whole
57:15
Speaker A
another whole another program lined up that I'm stoked about. We're going to go dive a reef for halibit rockfish, stuff like that.
57:28
Speaker A
sleeping arrangements. I am so grateful for this. [laughter] So, we got Speedy here. I'll be here.
57:39
Speaker A
Got Mikey. [laughter] I'm out here with the team. That's why Mikey's out here. He got I got Let's roll the clips when we camped all together in November. What Mikey sounded like that night.
57:51
Speaker A
I had an allergic reaction. I cannot eat shrimp. [snorts] The worst night of my life. How did you do this, dude? My arm is [laughter] off.
58:09
Speaker A
Good morning, my son. [snorts] [laughter] Not again. Not again. I'm wide awake. [laughter] The the Mikey morning face is a face to be studied for generations.
58:28
Speaker A
He's a monster. [laughter] Face down on the legacy. Good morning, folks. Slept like a million bucks. Nice and comfy in there.
58:48
Speaker A
There's sockeye jumping all around the boat. Good morning. That was loud. He's back. Sakai jumping. Senny's off to go snag some more sckeye. They're jumping all over here. We wanted to go spear fish for rockfish and halibit. Um
59:05
Speaker A
the reef is right out there. But I don't know if you guys could tell, it's absolutely roaring in there. The wind is just howling. We're protected in this bay, but it's nuking like 20 mph. We're maybe hoping it dies down a bit.
59:19
Speaker A
Relaxes. Oh, dude. They're jumping. They're jumping all around him. Senny's in it, dude. Senny, they're tail walking all around your boat.
59:28
Speaker A
They're tail walking all around your boat. We're going to go try that reef. Going to see if it's manageable. This is how they pull anchor in Alaska. The anchor.
59:39
Speaker A
There's a ring on the anchor line and the buoy pulls that ring back until the anchor hooks into the ring. And then we just pull them with slack. We also have to pull in the chain, which is kind of
59:48
Speaker A
heavy, but makes it a lot easier than just pulling, you know, 150 lbs off the bottom. When it bounces, that means it's up. And now I'm going to feel Vlad teaching you how to pull it in.
60:02
Speaker A
Get closer. Here we go. Nice coils. Nice coils. Need to get another action. Look out for future self with nice coils.
60:12
Speaker A
[music] [music] There we go. That was a morning workout. All right, we pulled up. [sighs] It's actually not that bad here. Not as windy. It's a little bit protected.
60:34
Speaker A
Still blowing, but some pretty good reef under us. So, we're going to first throw the poles. See if there's any life in here. And if there's some sort of action, we're going to put our suits on and get in.
60:45
Speaker A
Going to grab this bait. This for rockfish or halibit. Hopefully. Let's go. All righty. Good to go.
60:56
Speaker A
Run it. What was the strategy behind that? [laughter] I can see bottom. Can you see bottom?
61:03
Speaker A
Dude, there's Hal down there right now. [laughter] It's murky. Yeah, I can tell. Doesn't look as clean here. Senny's on.
61:14
Speaker A
Oh, nice. Cabon. Cabon. Oh, no. This is a look. Actually, it doesn't look like a cat.
61:21
Speaker A
Irish lord. I've never seen that. He's gone. Oh, yeah. I got a fish. You got a fish or snag.
61:38
Speaker A
I got so excited. Got a fish. I got bottom. Unless I got a 200lb halibit.
61:48
Speaker A
Keep trucking that way. Mikey Mike, find us some fish. There's no fish here, Michael.
61:56
Speaker A
We're not happy about your performance right now. Go back. All right, that's enough. I'm not catching anything. Time to go catch something for real. So, it's definitely possible to get in. The problem with Alaska is their currents absolutely
62:22
Speaker A
ripped. It was a 17 foot exchange yesterday. So, that means between high tide and low tide, the water raised and dropped 17 feet. Oh, there's a lot of energy moving in and out of these canals, which if we get in on the reef,
62:36
Speaker A
we're just going to blow right past it. Low tide is supposed to be now, but it's still like with us fishing, our lines are scoping way out. What's the word, Mr. Buzzing?
62:47
Speaker A
Optimism. [laughter] The word of the day is optimism. It's going to be a great day.
62:52
Speaker A
I will tell you one thing for sure that's going to happen today. Sakkeye will get whacked. Spendy's getting in the water, too. Yeah.
63:00
Speaker A
Yep. You got your gun? I don't have a gun. I'm going use yours. Oh, heck yeah.
63:06
Speaker A
I got mustard mayo, too. E, I hate mustard. [snorts] What kind of season? I said I love you, too, Mether.
63:35
Speaker A
emergency situation. Oh yeah, buddy. I'm going to eat this right here. Be a little wind protected.
63:43
Speaker A
But I took the Bert one, but this still looks majestic. I'm actually starving. Oh, bears beware.
63:57
Speaker A
We're going to go on a little hike right now. Considering all the lack of seasoning and everything we have, this tastes great.
64:08
Speaker A
The Alaskans are saying the sakai taste. Well, you guys usually can it? Smoke it and can it?
64:14
Speaker A
Why? So oily. Very oily fish. So good though. It's good anyway you want it. But I'm buzzing right now. I'm ready to go whack them.
64:24
Speaker A
We're going to finish up this lunch. We're gonna go get after it. That Sakai was so good. We have to run it back. I cut out the belly. That's going right on.
64:40
Speaker A
This belly tastes incredibly good right now. The skin cooked in the butter. Feel like sometimes the crispy skin is better than the actual salmon itself.
64:53
Speaker A
That tastes so good. Are you going to hop in on the salmon? Saw you boys.
65:07
Speaker A
Welcome back to another video. In this episode, we are hunting grizzlies off our inflatable kayak. All we got is a 10 mil vanilla and a fly rod. Now, this is exactly how our parents describe going to school every day.
65:24
Speaker A
What's up, big dog? You going trout fishing? Somewhere I'm walking right now, it was all submerged underwater. I dove throughout this whole area yesterday and it was like deep here.
65:43
Speaker A
Croc down. Croc down. Oh boy. Got the best workhorse in the game. It's so beautiful here. I don't know where the guys are.
66:15
Speaker A
That looks like some very healthy bear poop. Very fresh, too. We saw bears up here yesterday.
66:25
Speaker A
I think I even just heard like a snout like just like a minute and a half ago, but I don't see any bears.
66:35
Speaker A
In an hour, I think this will definitely all be underwater cuz the tide's coming in right now. We're uh we're going to spearfish them later, but we're just waiting for the tide to come in. So, we're kind of just killing time,
66:47
Speaker A
exploring. Going to do a little fly fishing, catch some trout. Yeah. Big man almost down. Mikey's a trout whisperer.
67:08
Speaker A
Mikey's going to show us how to catch trout. He's about 25 cast in. No, I'm not. [laughter] Spenny first cast on the spinning lure.
67:16
Speaker A
Wow, they whacked that thing. Does this just mean that regular fishing is better than fly fishing?
67:23
Speaker A
First cast. First cast. Mikey, that does not look good on you right now. I like part of fishing is just enjoying time with my friends. [laughter] Mikey on. And Annie lost it.
67:39
Speaker A
And Spenny's on. I don't know. Mikey, I think uh regular fishing is a lot more efficient.
67:46
Speaker A
A lot more sustainable. I mean, he's killing fish. He's got a triple hook on him. I'm going to catch back up here.
67:52
Speaker A
It's two zero right now. Benny just released that, bro. Well, we're playing a game. I'm going to do whatever it takes to win. [laughter] All right, it's 2-1 now. Mikey's on.
68:06
Speaker A
Spveny's about to be on very soon again. I feel like Mikey on again. Are you cheating, Mike?
68:14
Speaker A
She's just being better. You want to take a picture with this? Aren't you supposed to put the rod behind your shoulder and take your picture like that?
68:23
Speaker A
Mikey is officially in the leaderboard. That's 32 if he lands this fish. Love a comeback story, baby.
68:32
Speaker A
Not going to lie, we had our doubts with the fly fishing. Optimistic. That's a Danny.
68:42
Speaker A
All right, Mikey's officially smoking the competition. It's 42 for Mikey. It's fencing. I don't know. I don't know if I'll be okay with that. Do I need to take over your jaw fencing? You might need to.
68:56
Speaker A
All right, put me in. Coach, I'm going to get a couple casts. Do you want to you want to catch one of this?
69:01
Speaker A
Can I? Sure. Mikey's saying I should fly fish. It's first time for everything. And he's on.
69:08
Speaker A
Is that Frank the tank? Oh, that's a nice one. Oh, yeah. And he's off. Let's go try this fly fishing stuff.
69:21
Speaker A
That was only a matter of time. Before the dogs have to come out. Dogs are out. We're ready to fly fish.
69:34
Speaker A
Wow. Ow. Nice, slick, and sharp. How you guys like my new fly? It's going to be the lucky fly today.
69:48
Speaker A
Oh, there's some sckeye in there. Some nice sockeye. Flow plane. Oh, yeah. You can see. I don't know if you guys have seen it, but there's some nice chromemers in there.
70:02
Speaker A
Mikey's going to try to whack a Sawkeye on the fly. Try our best. You want me to hold you right here, Mikey?
70:15
Speaker A
If he catches one on fly, that'd be sick. You can literally see him right there.
70:30
Speaker A
Oh, he bit Got him. You got him. Oh, popped off. Oh, no. That was sick, dude. Land him.
70:47
Speaker A
Oh, we got fish on. No shot. No shot. No shot. Yeah baby. He's peeling rail, boy.
71:08
Speaker A
Come on, Mikey. Make Alaska proud. Don't let him peel on you like that. Let's go, baby.
71:20
Speaker A
First Sakai on the old fly rod. Oh, he smoked that thing. He smoked that thing.
71:31
Speaker A
That's a beauty, bro. Oh my goodness. That's a beauty. He's not stoked about what just happened.
71:42
Speaker A
He's alive. Yeah, boys. Yeah, boys. Yeah, I'm dragging this. You going tight it on the right side if you pull it.
72:00
Speaker A
Oh, he's going. Might have to run run up underneath. Hold on. He's probably not ready.
72:22
Speaker A
Am I doing it right? Is the fly fish community proud of me? Oh yeah, buddy.
72:30
Speaker A
Oh, how do the fly fishermanmen do it? They put it like this. You get it.
72:34
Speaker A
I'm done. Yeah, I don't do it either. Nice. This guy put up a fight actually. Very fun fight on the fly rod. Did you see him come up and grab it?
72:46
Speaker A
Yeah, I did. We were able to literally watch them bite it in 4K. You guys see him over there?
72:53
Speaker A
Yeah. This is a small school. All right. Nice. Yo, that was a lot of fun.
73:06
Speaker A
All right, as much fun as that was, the tide is rolling in. That means it's time to put some wet suits on and go get some sockai for real. We were just walking, minding our own business halfway through
73:18
Speaker A
the water. Realized there's a bear right there. Mikey was already on the island. He just stood up and stared at me.
73:27
Speaker A
All right, we're kind of stuck cuz we got to go straight there. There's a bear.
73:35
Speaker A
It's too deep to cross here. Go around there. He's still going to be there.
73:40
Speaker A
You want to go around? Well, when we're walking past him there, we're going to be very close.
73:47
Speaker A
The 3 in of water between us and him is not going to deter him.
73:52
Speaker A
He literally does not plan on moving anytime soon. Just in case. Not for kids.
74:00
Speaker A
All right, we have no other choice but to walk. Oh, well, I think he's going to walk.
74:13
Speaker A
Yep. And he's moving right towards us. All right, we got to figure something out here.
74:24
Speaker A
It looks like he's contemplating whether he should charge us or not. I know. I saw you can see in his eyes he has devious plans. Yeah, he's not liking us.
74:36
Speaker A
It looks like he just wants a nap. It's live. I'm filming just in case you get charged.
74:47
Speaker A
All right, let's keep going. Someone someone tell him he's a good bear. Good boy. Good boy, Yogi.
74:58
Speaker A
Good boy. He's looking at you, Mike. You guys got your guns in your hands?
75:08
Speaker A
No. But he don't care. Literally. I think the bear could care less about us. But it's pretty wild. If you're not paying attention, you're just walking, walking the way he's laying right now.
75:24
Speaker A
You could easily just walk until you look up and he's laying right in front of you. Kind of what just happened to us.
75:31
Speaker A
That's so cool. My fly fishing days may be over. [laughter] One and done. That's probably as good as fly fishing will ever get.
75:40
Speaker A
It's massive. Where? Oh, yeah. Salmon right there. All right. So, the tide is definitely coming in. We're going to go quickly change to the boat and get in. It's looking good.
75:50
Speaker A
We're so back. And it's so shallow. So, there's literally a bear right there and a bear right there.
76:16
Speaker A
[laughter] That's wild. Hey, bear. We're surrounded by bears. If there was ever a day to really keep your head on a swivel while in the water, it's today.
76:42
Speaker A
So, we got in basically right before high tide. And when we were taking the boat back, the little inflatable boat back to the big boat about an hour and a half ago, we saw multiple big schools of salmon piled up around the mouth of the
76:55
Speaker A
river. And then once we got in, a lot of them were just gone. I think they already shot up river. So, I'm just including all the highlight clips from this dive. The action was definitely slower than yesterday. And right after
77:05
Speaker A
high tide, the water got very brackish and it was like impossible to see. I was missing a lot. I was having fish tear off and we definitely had to work for it a lot harder today. I did shoot another
77:16
Speaker A
two for one, but I'll be honest, I definitely wasn't trying to on this one.
77:19
Speaker A
I could barely even see where I was shooting. But it did lead to one of the coolest catches of the whole entire trip. I saw the salmon swimming and you could tell like his guts or gills are hanging out cuz he ripped off earlier.
77:31
Speaker A
And I was actually able to catch him by hand and grab him by the tail.
77:34
Speaker A
Obviously, he's injured. He probably bled out. He wasn't hit himself. And that's the only reason I was able to catch this fish. But it was still really cool. But the coolest experience of this whole trip so far starts right here. As
77:45
Speaker A
we were spearfishing, we had this big grizzly bear just come down to the water and just chill and do his thing. He would eat grass and then he would just lay there and watch us spearfish.
77:54
Speaker A
Hey bear. This was truly what I imagine when I think of spear fishing in Alaska.
78:04
Speaker A
We bring you peace offerings. As soon as I put my head back in the water after hanging out with the bear, I saw one of the other salmon that had tore off earlier, and I was immediately able to pull the trigger on him. Not
78:18
Speaker A
only do I love getting fish back that I injured and had ripped off, but I also literally did it just a couple feet away from a grizzly bear.
78:36
Speaker A
Hey bear, brought your salmon. Someone's telling me he wants my salmon. Is this the first ever spear fish in front of a brown bear? Live salmon kill in 4K. We're bleeding the salmon right in front of the bear.
79:06
Speaker A
[laughter] Let me know if he starts charging me cuz my gut isn't loaded. I got to swim for dear life.
79:20
Speaker A
I fish with all sorts of taxmen, [clears throat] but this guy right here, that's a scary tax man. [laughter] He's just been hanging out, eating grass, watching a spearfish salmon from right under him.
79:39
Speaker A
He's just like a little puppy. Should we go pet the dog? I almost feel like he wants us to go pet the dog.
79:51
Speaker A
This is sick. [laughter] Yeah, this is sick. This is so sick. This is exactly what I think of when I think of spear fishing in Alaska.
79:59
Speaker A
Let's go, buddy. Look at the way he's looking at me. I know. I probably got the gun out now.
80:15
Speaker A
I know. Why is he acting like that? Don't like it. Guy dying. He wants to eat nonchalab.
80:27
Speaker A
Hey there. Hey there. Ah, that was a mission. Sakai are not easy fish and these conditions are not that easy. Really having to work for it.
80:42
Speaker A
I had to have swam another four miles. Let's go. Oh, Cast Alaska is prospering right now.
81:03
Speaker A
It's so beautiful. Difficult as that was, that was absolutely insane. The bears and all, really feel like we're peak Alaska living right now. That was wild.
81:35
Speaker A
Wow. These are the biggest sock I've ever seen in my life. These are some tanks. They look like co-host.
81:43
Speaker A
Couple bombless slobs. Dude, that was so insane. I'm so buzzing about that. Where did all the real food come from?
81:55
Speaker A
What is this last night? We're going to feast. I've caught in coho way smaller than those. Is this a normal Alaskan sckai?
82:07
Speaker A
No, those are huge. Like those three are massive. sto we caught and they caught like bright red like this. Which by the way, if you want to be watergu.com, Benson brought some canned sakai from home.
82:31
Speaker A
Wow, look how red that meat is. That's insane. That's really good. This is like it's real meat. There's no pigment added or nothing.
82:52
Speaker A
Feeling a little smoked right about now. The guys went over to the other boat.
82:59
Speaker A
They're grabbing some dinner and whatever else, hanging out. I uh we have Starlink here, so I just got some work to catch up on. I've basically neglected everything going on in my life when I do these trips cuz we're just out. I mean,
83:10
Speaker A
it's good to get away and take time off and really appreciate these trips, but here I've kind of been forced not to. There's no service, nothing, minus some Starling on the boat occasionally. So, it's been amazing. This trip's coming to an end.
83:24
Speaker A
We got We're going to leave tomorrow morning, do some fun things in the morning possibly, and then if all goes to plan, we're going to come back to the lodge and then try to get my one last king salmon that I could get for this
83:38
Speaker A
year at the same spot we've been hitting them just cuz that that is just so much fun. And I'm flying out the next morning. So, might as well really take advantage of everything Alaska has to offer cuz this is just amazing. It's literally
83:51
Speaker A
11:00 p.m. right now. We have dinner laid out. We have some moose that Mikey shot. We got some other food there.
84:02
Speaker A
We're just so tired that no one even wants to cook. And we had some like smoked salmon and some other snacks, jerky sticks, stuff like that. So, [snorts] kind of feeling different about dinner.
84:20
Speaker A
Mikey is so back. Nice thing about camping is literally anything you make out here tastes like a million bucks. Great work, Mikey.
84:32
Speaker A
Yes. Yes, that's valid. Something other than fish for the first time this camping trip. We're calling it quits. Mikey's out.
84:48
Speaker A
Good morning. The boys aren't buzzing this morning. He is. He's alive and well. You guys don't look too good.
84:59
Speaker A
Where are we going, Mikey? What's the game plan? All right, guys. So, the game plan here, we are going All right, guys. We're going up the river. I really want to be like you guys.
85:15
Speaker A
Hey, what do you guys think of uh Mikey as a vlogger? Should they continue vlogging? Let me know in the comments.
85:22
Speaker A
Vlog update. The boys are not buzzing, but I am. I'm going to go get them.
85:28
Speaker A
Mikey. Yeah. If you come back with even one sock, I'll be very proud of you.
85:37
Speaker A
We're back. I stopped by for a little coffee visit at our neighboring boat, but now we're out of here.
86:05
Speaker A
We're going to begin our voyage home. It's about a 3-hour boat ride home. And uh we're still gonna do a little bit of wakeboarding on the way back. And by we, I mean Mikey. Mike, are you ready to
86:16
Speaker A
make Alaska proud by landing the first back flip behind a fishing boat? Yeah. Yeah. If you guys don't remember, Mikey attempted to land a back flip last time. Yeah.
86:27
Speaker A
November when we did the hunting trip out here. He threw it about 50 times, never landed. So, he's back for redemption. He modified the boat this year. drill some holes to have a proper uh we got the tower, we got a better rope,
86:45
Speaker A
and we got a better attitude. So, that's the dirtiest I've ever seen a buzzing hat. It only took Mikey 3 days. It's impressive work.
86:59
Speaker A
[music] I didn't finish my tower mount. It's about that time. It's time. Mikey Gogggins reporting for duty redemption here.
87:23
Speaker A
What have you done differently to prepare for this moment in the last 12 months? Uh well, I haven't trained, but I've I've been uh mentally visualizing this moment after my failed attempts last year. I have a better rope, a
87:37
Speaker A
better uh my Yeah, we just got a better system here. So hopefully uh we can land a a flip.
87:44
Speaker A
So you've done zero training, zero physical activity, just manifesting in your mind. Yeah. And first hit first hit I'm doing I'm going to do a back flip. First hit, I'm not going to even train.
87:58
Speaker A
[music] [music] On a scale 1 to 10 right now, let me know how cooked do you think Mikey is?
88:14
Speaker A
I'm going to get it, guys. It's It's going to It's going to happen. All right, I'm back, baby.
88:20
Speaker A
Mikey Gog is out. [music] Get out there, big dog. [music] [music] [music] I'm actually impressed.
89:11
Speaker A
First rift. I really didn't think he had that. He didn't even do like a practice jump.
89:18
Speaker A
He's back, boys. He's back. I respect that. He's going to be buzzing so hard right now. He's literally been talking smack about this ever since our last video. He's so back.
89:31
Speaker A
I'm back. [laughter] Bro, I love how you went no warm up into that. I respect that.
89:38
Speaker A
No need for no warm up. Are you done? Yeah. [laughter] That's it. He just wanted it done.
89:44
Speaker A
Dude, I'm gone. That was a lot over. That was sick, bro. That was honestly when you took off, I was like, "Ah, he's eating it." I don't know how you pulled that one out, dude. That was sweet.
89:57
Speaker A
I feel bad. Be honest, Finny. You did not have faith in him. No, I didn't have faith in him or his Ubolt up there. [laughter] I got people coming to watch. I got to go back.
90:06
Speaker A
That was significantly better and faster than anyone could have expected here. Looks like all that manifesting paid off for Mikey. First rip is the most impressive part about that whole thing.
90:16
Speaker A
[laughter] Considering when was the last time you even landed a backflip, dude? 10 years. [laughter] It's like riding a bike, baby. I got the wind knocked out.
90:26
Speaker A
He's back. You ate it on the last one. Whiplash hard. Was good. I'm back, baby. I told you guys. Thanks for the people that believed.
90:35
Speaker A
No one believed in you, Mikey. I'm not going to lie to you. Well, it's time to start.
90:45
Speaker A
[music] And we are back. Something really worth mentioning is how insane this weather's been. To get one day like this in Sikka in the summertime is not that common.
91:01
Speaker A
They say like they get like 15 days a year like this. We just got like three days in a row, four days in a row of just straight perfect weather.
91:09
Speaker A
This is as good as it gets here. Look at how pretty those cut, dude. Wow.
91:20
Speaker A
That is the brightest red salmon you'll ever find. That is gorgeous. Mikey's really feeling like him right now.
91:40
Speaker A
I know you're feeling like him. Landed the Vakie, flying through the fillets like clockwork.
91:48
Speaker A
He's really having a him moment right now. It's 10 minutes of work and you got the A team on board.
91:54
Speaker A
Let's go, man. Till next time, Spy. Till next time. Yep. If this video gets 10 likes, a running back with Fenny for King Crab in the fall.
92:05
Speaker A
There we go. I like it. We're so back. If you're wondering why I'm sitting under the staircase, it's cuz we came back and cribs gave us some good news and put us straight to work.
92:15
Speaker A
The chef, we got two coolers full of some goodness and we got to prepare for dinner tonight. I'm going let you guys guess what it is. You have 5 seconds.
92:23
Speaker A
Write in the comments what you think is in these coolers. Dungeies, baby. Some nice dungeies here.
92:36
Speaker A
These are some tanks. There's way your minimum size here in Alaska 6 and 1/2.
92:39
Speaker A
Yeah, 6 and 1/2. The best way to do it might seem a little gruesome. You take it down the middle. Kills them instantly.
92:51
Speaker A
You break a half. Take all the guts, all its gills. Just like that, you have a clean half shock.
93:04
Speaker A
Toss. All this comes right off. We got two very clean, pretty halves. So, let me know when you are ready.
93:37
Speaker A
I guess it helps if you got propane. Yeah, that would help a little. Oh, this is exactly [laughter] What a guy likes to see.
93:55
Speaker A
Someone say this exactly what the doctor ordered. Thank you. What's your plan with them?
94:00
Speaker A
Simple as is. Boil them up. We got a bunch of fat juicy steaks. I'm going to grill.
94:05
Speaker A
You don't need much. Steak and crab legs. That sounds like uh like one of the best meals you could have. If you guys go fishing at Cast Alaska, this is how you're going to eat every single night. Is that right? when
94:15
Speaker A
the crabs are in. [laughter] Our commercial buddies, give us a call and we try to cook it as much as possible.
94:24
Speaker A
I will say out of any lodge I've ever stayed at, the lodge here at Castle Alaska, they eat better than anything I've ever seen.
94:29
Speaker A
The chef up there, I don't know how much they're paying her, but Cribs knows what she's doing. She's a she's a weapon in the kitchen.
94:36
Speaker A
She's going to have to buy me a bigger wet suit if she keeps feeding.
94:39
Speaker A
[laughter] You already need a bigger wet suit. One last mission before we call this Alaska Bender a wrap. I still got one more salmon to go. Mikey obviously wants us, too. I fly out tomorrow morning. Mikey goes back to work. All the captains go
94:55
Speaker A
back to work. They got a full lodge. Fifth day of diving in a row in Alaska.
95:09
Speaker A
This is the last and final suit up at least for this trip, guys. So, this was pretty funny. The first two days, you guys obviously saw what it took to shoot one king salmon.
95:22
Speaker A
It was a lot of work. We had to time it. Uh, these fish were smart and elusive, but there's a certain boundary line that we stayed behind the first two days, and we thought that applied to spear fishermen. And both days we dove,
95:35
Speaker A
there's other Spirros that came and were diving like right up along where I'm at.
95:40
Speaker A
Um, and then Mikey ended up calling fishing game and they said that yeah, spear fishermen are allowed to dive this whole area, which is where we are right now. And you could tell like it's actually just shooting fish in a barrel.
95:52
Speaker A
Like there are just king salmon everywhere. And honestly, I'm glad I didn't know about this the first two days because the way we did it was a lot more challenging. It felt a lot more fair and ethical and it was just a lot
96:05
Speaker A
more rewarding. I spent like 20 minutes in the water here and I just kind of hung out with the salmon. It was really cool. If you just hung out and chilled and didn't move, they would just fully surround you and it was a cool
96:14
Speaker A
experience. I've never experienced something like that. You have these nice big chrome salmon and they would just fully engulf you and it was really sick.
96:22
Speaker A
And also, I was really being patient and try to shoot a really big king salmon.
96:27
Speaker A
Something else I was trying to be very mindful of is to not shoot two for one.
96:31
Speaker A
It was actually hard to not do that because you could see they're just walls and big schools of king salmon and I'm only allowed one per day. So after about 20 minutes in the water, I didn't really see any giant salmon that stood out more
96:44
Speaker A
than the others. So I decided to just pull the trigger on the first nice king salmon I see. And the camera was kind of above the water because I shot it from the surface. So I missed the shot. But I
96:53
Speaker A
did still end up hitting a two for one. And luckily for me, the second salmon was a chum, which is a different type of species of salmon that is kind of considered like dog food. They're not great eating, but their eggs are great.
97:05
Speaker A
And the boys use it as chum for halibit bait. Oh, boys, that was insane.
97:46
Speaker A
We got some slabs. I don't know if you guys saw that last one. I got a two for one. I smoked a king and behind it was a chum. When I first saw the second fish on, I was like, "Holy smokes. I really
97:56
Speaker A
hope I just didn't shoot two kings." But we're in safe hands. It was a chum. And this is a very nice. How much you think that weighs?
98:06
Speaker A
Over 20. Yeah, I think so. That's a nice kingy right there. Probably like All right, guys. I think that is the definition of a legendary trip. Alaska trips don't get much better than that.
98:20
Speaker A
And what a way to end it. Couple of slabs. We got some meat. Beautiful day. Sunset.
98:30
Speaker A
I got to say a big shout out to Cast Alaska. If you guys ever want to do any type of fishing, halibit, any type of salmon. I think they're one of the best charters I've ever been to, period. Um,
98:41
Speaker A
but definitely in Sika. The food is good, the lodging is great, the guys are great. It's a good time. It's a good vibe. This is my fourth time here in the last 365 days. So, I'll definitely be back soon. So, check them out. Cast
98:54
Speaker A
Alaska. And honestly, guys, uh it's going to be hard to beat this one. I don't know how long this video is. I have a feeling it's very long. But I'll be back in Alaska next month for a different adventure. So, thank you so
99:04
Speaker A
much for watching and we'll see you on the next one. [music] Hey, [music] hey, hey.
99:28
Speaker A
[music] [music]
Topics:spearfishingwild salmonAlaskaking salmongrizzly bearsfloat planewilderness adventurecold water divingBig Water Guyremote fishing

Answers

Frequently Asked Questions

Is spearfishing wild salmon legal in Alaska?

Yes, Alaska is one of the few places in the world where spearfishing wild salmon is legal, which is the primary focus of this trip.

What are the main dangers faced during the spearfishing trip?

The biggest dangers include freezing water temperatures, large sea lions, salmon sharks, and especially grizzly bears that protect salmon in the rivers.

How does the team access remote fishing spots?

The team uses float planes to reach remote waters and lives out of boats to stay in isolated areas for the duration of the trip.

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