LAST FRONTIER LOVE AFFAIR

Lindsay and Dave Agness are fly fishing fanatics (and authors) based in Rochester, New York. And while they love their Great Lakes fisheries, the ’bow-catching beaus have a special affinity for Alaska. In an excerpt from their latest book, Dave recaps a memorable 2021 salmon, trout and Arctic char adventure – and stick around for our interview with him!

Summer and catching trout go hand in hand. But what about cooking up your catch on your campfire stove or backyard grill? Scott and Tiffany Haugen’s latest From Field to Fire feature shows you how to handle and then clean your prize to ensure the best taste from that filet. Need a recipe idea for your fish? Try Tiffany’s trout dip appetizer!

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

9 The Editor’s Note

11 The Alaska Beat: Alaskans get behind embattled Southeast trollers

For 34 years, the Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby was an institution in this fishing-crazed Kenai Peninsula port. But after the tournament run ended following 2019’s event, the Homer Chamber of Commerce planned to stage a smaller shindig that celebrated one of Alaska’s best halibut fisheries. After Covid delays and other factors, the city is finally ready for its reboot. We preview the month-long Homer Halibut Tournament.

54

The Gulf of Alaska can be an unforgiving body of water, but the depths of the sea holds some hard-fighting lingcod and other bottomfish species that will test your stamina – and tempt your taste buds. Our California-based Cal Kellogg has been a regular visitor in the Last Frontier to battle these big, bad bruisers and provides some tips for those hearty souls who also want to take on the challenge.

Ikind of figured that as my lengthy interview with fly fishing book author Dave Agness unfolded, we’d go offtopic a couple times. Indeed, between discussing he and his wife Lindsay’s Alaska adventures, we mused about his love of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, Atlantic salmon fishing in the Canadian region of Labrador and his personal bout with prostate cancer.

But we also discovered a shared background of working in the newspaper industry. Like me, Agness got his college degree in journalism and worked at publications around his hometown of Rochester, New York. For a time he even worked jobs at two local newspapers, barely making enough money to survive. We shared stories about making little money at our earliest jobs in the industry. Then again, most of us in journalism likely didn’t pursue these careers to get rich.

“Right out of college I got a job for a weekly newspaper. It was a single-section newspaper and, of course, I was writing everything from crime to politics to wedding announcements, and especially