Kobuk River
The world's biggest whitefish
Kobuk River
Alaska is a very large place, and a great deal of it is water. There are lakes and rivers all over the state. Some flow into the Pacific, some into the Arctic Ocean, and in between, there are those that flow west into the Bering Sea. The Kobuk is one such river. It is a big river, not perhaps for Alaska, but for a poor boy from Britain, the Kobuk is certainly a big river.
You quickly realise this as it takes half a day to fly its length, and then another half day to motor up the river to your fishing spot. A great sense of peace settles on you as you soak in the wilderness and remoteness. There are no man made noises. Very few noise at all, other than the river itself. We had come to fish for sheefish and, well and anything else that lived in the river. It turned out a lot else lived in the river. So we caught round whitefish, Dolly Varden, arctic grayling and chum salmon.
But we had come to catch sheefish. These members of the whitefish family are also known as inconnu, which in some respects is a better name as they are a somewhat mysterious animal. They grow large, and run the length of the river to spawn in autumn. Our job was to temporarily delay and detain them. They were powerful fish, lovely to look upon, and I have to say delicious to eat. A few were sacrificed for the camp cook.
Kobuk River
The world's biggest whitefish