I just got home from our annual AK trip. Like last July, we spent the whole trip in Katmai NP and Preserve. This trip we split time between camping at Brooks Camps and a week at Kulik Lodge. I’ve done a version of this report for a few years now, so I’ll try and highlight some of the unique aspects of this trip. We’ll start with our time at Brooks camp.
Bear Viewing
Brooks Camp is heaven for a bear lovers like my wife. It’s such a unique place for wildlife observation, like few others in the world. With that comes both good and bad though.
The “bad” are the crowds and associated poor behavior that tends to come with it. Brooks Camp is not a secret and its popularity has grown exponentially over the last 10 years. The Explore.org bear cams and annual fat bear contest has made Brooks a popular designation not only for campers and folks staying in their limited cabins, but also for day trippers coming over in float planes from places like Anchorage and Homer. Over the course of the few days I was there, I saw lots of examples of poor behavior that if continued, will eventually lead to a very bad day for a human or bear in the future. Folks getting way to close, people pushing bears down trails towards other groups coming in the opposite direction, photogs and fisherman in the river pushing boundaries, people arguing with rangers over rules, etc. tough spot for staff there, especially with funding cuts to contend with.
The “good” was the bear viewing and some rather unique behaviors observed this year. The Brooks river is having a hell of sockeye run. This was my 7th visit in July and I have never seen a run like this. Bank to bank salmon that made the fishing easy for the bears, which in turn resulted in some cool behavior on their part. Relaxed mothers and cubs playing/wrestling. Big boars wrestling/play fishing even with mating still happening. Groups of sub adults/newly emancipated cubs roaming the trails and river wrestling and wreaking havoc (in a good way). We have never come across so many bears on the trails around Brooks. I assume because less time was needed to feed which left more time for leisure. The prevailing theory we heard on why the sockeye run was so big, was the limited commercial fishing that occurred for sockeye in 2020. The majority of the fish we were seeing were 5 year fish (they did seem like larger fish). That and just that the timing of the run meant commercial fisherman may have missed this cohort (the run did seem to show a little earlier at Brooks this year). Whatever the reason, it was impressive to see and the bears loved it.
Sockeye in the river. My pics don’t do it justice.
View attachment 161268
If you do have an interest in visiting Brooks, I’d suggest camping. It’s a much cheaper option than the cabins and the campground’s not bad. It’s got a gear and food cache, pit toilets and nice sites. There is also a public bathhouse near the lodge where you can purchase showers if you wish, and the lodge itself is open to campers to warm up by the fire or get food if you decide not to bring your own. Like the cabins, it’s competitive getting sites. Be prepared to be online the minute sites open each year to get prime dates.
Typical site at the Brooks Campground.
Bear wandering by one morning beyond the electric fence surrounding the campground.
Bear on the trail…
Overall, I enjoyed my time at Brooks, poor homo sapien behavior and all. There are a lot of places to view bears in AK,
including the up close and personal experience you get at Brooks. As my wife says though, those bears are awesome but they are not Brooks bears! If you are someone like her who is an avid viewer of the cams, can identify dozens of Brooks bears by sight, knows multiple bears backstories and their unique behaviors, it’s worth a visit. Even someone like me who can maybe identify 2-3 bears will enjoy it, especially a first visit. As an FYI Brooks is also a great rainbow river too. I don’t fish it anymore myself. Every outing I’ve done previously resulted in 75% moving out of the way of bears and 25% fishing. So, I fish elsewhere.
A few random Brooks Bear snaps from my wife.
The Fishing
This year, I fished the Kulik River, Upper American River, Lower American River, Moraine Creek, some smaller feeder creek mouths and a couple of pike spots. Overall fishing was similar to years past. Lots of solid rainbows, char and lake trout through with the earlier sockeye run and our slightly later trip, fewer lakers were caught this year.
I’ve amassed quite the collection of Katmai trout and char over the years, so only took a few pics in 2025. This year I was able to catch solid fish on streamers (majority of fish), nymphs, dries and even a handful on beads in a spot where we found some paired up sockeye. I also put in a couple hours mousing but unfortunately it didn’t pay off. Quite a few follows and nips, a couple short term hookups but no landed fish. I did catch a little 17-18 incher on the mouse with it hanging below me 10 feet while chatting. So, technically I guess I got one mousing too!
My longest rainbow (27.5”). It was skinny though, with a girth only 12”. Caught some heavier fish including one that was 24.5 with a 15” girth. Sorry no pic. Seemed to have lost it.
Edit: found the pic of the chunky 24.5 incher.
Also caught a good number of other 20+ inch fish across multiple rivers as well as some smaller sub 20 inch fish.
Char were also targeted. No monsters but a good number in this class.
Lakers were also caught. Again, no monsters but 12-14 in the 2-7 lb or so range. Fun on a fly rod!
This year, the new target was Pike though. This is my 6th visit to that lodge. They fly my wife to Brooks daily while I stay back and fish, so we keep going back. We’ve also gotten know a good number of the guides and employees which is great. Great staff overall and a lodge you definitely get spoiled at comfort and food wise. Especially considering its location. This was the first trip we have targeted Pike. We did it in two spots as tag on to some earlier in the day trout fishing. We fished one of the spots for about 45 minutes and there were tons around. Mostly smaller but fun nonetheless. A good number of violent strikes from fish in this class.
We spent a couple hours a different day at the second spot. It was a spot some of the guides had scouted a month or so earlier and found some bigger fish. They hadn’t been back since so I was the first guest to fish it in 2025 and it paid off. Landed some really solid fish. The boils and violent takes of a big pike are quite addicting. My first time targeting them with a fly rod but it won’t be my last. A couple of the bigger fish from the second spot. We only fished about 1/3rd of the shoreline at this spot. I bet there are some true giants there!
Once again, AK is over for the year. Can’t wait until 2026! What an amazing place…
Edit…I hate typing on my phone ….plus, yes the girth on the trout mentioned was 12 and 15 inches not feet
.
Bear Viewing
Brooks Camp is heaven for a bear lovers like my wife. It’s such a unique place for wildlife observation, like few others in the world. With that comes both good and bad though.
The “bad” are the crowds and associated poor behavior that tends to come with it. Brooks Camp is not a secret and its popularity has grown exponentially over the last 10 years. The Explore.org bear cams and annual fat bear contest has made Brooks a popular designation not only for campers and folks staying in their limited cabins, but also for day trippers coming over in float planes from places like Anchorage and Homer. Over the course of the few days I was there, I saw lots of examples of poor behavior that if continued, will eventually lead to a very bad day for a human or bear in the future. Folks getting way to close, people pushing bears down trails towards other groups coming in the opposite direction, photogs and fisherman in the river pushing boundaries, people arguing with rangers over rules, etc. tough spot for staff there, especially with funding cuts to contend with.
The “good” was the bear viewing and some rather unique behaviors observed this year. The Brooks river is having a hell of sockeye run. This was my 7th visit in July and I have never seen a run like this. Bank to bank salmon that made the fishing easy for the bears, which in turn resulted in some cool behavior on their part. Relaxed mothers and cubs playing/wrestling. Big boars wrestling/play fishing even with mating still happening. Groups of sub adults/newly emancipated cubs roaming the trails and river wrestling and wreaking havoc (in a good way). We have never come across so many bears on the trails around Brooks. I assume because less time was needed to feed which left more time for leisure. The prevailing theory we heard on why the sockeye run was so big, was the limited commercial fishing that occurred for sockeye in 2020. The majority of the fish we were seeing were 5 year fish (they did seem like larger fish). That and just that the timing of the run meant commercial fisherman may have missed this cohort (the run did seem to show a little earlier at Brooks this year). Whatever the reason, it was impressive to see and the bears loved it.
Sockeye in the river. My pics don’t do it justice.
View attachment 161268
If you do have an interest in visiting Brooks, I’d suggest camping. It’s a much cheaper option than the cabins and the campground’s not bad. It’s got a gear and food cache, pit toilets and nice sites. There is also a public bathhouse near the lodge where you can purchase showers if you wish, and the lodge itself is open to campers to warm up by the fire or get food if you decide not to bring your own. Like the cabins, it’s competitive getting sites. Be prepared to be online the minute sites open each year to get prime dates.
Typical site at the Brooks Campground.
Bear wandering by one morning beyond the electric fence surrounding the campground.
Bear on the trail…
Overall, I enjoyed my time at Brooks, poor homo sapien behavior and all. There are a lot of places to view bears in AK,
including the up close and personal experience you get at Brooks. As my wife says though, those bears are awesome but they are not Brooks bears! If you are someone like her who is an avid viewer of the cams, can identify dozens of Brooks bears by sight, knows multiple bears backstories and their unique behaviors, it’s worth a visit. Even someone like me who can maybe identify 2-3 bears will enjoy it, especially a first visit. As an FYI Brooks is also a great rainbow river too. I don’t fish it anymore myself. Every outing I’ve done previously resulted in 75% moving out of the way of bears and 25% fishing. So, I fish elsewhere.
A few random Brooks Bear snaps from my wife.
The Fishing
This year, I fished the Kulik River, Upper American River, Lower American River, Moraine Creek, some smaller feeder creek mouths and a couple of pike spots. Overall fishing was similar to years past. Lots of solid rainbows, char and lake trout through with the earlier sockeye run and our slightly later trip, fewer lakers were caught this year.
I’ve amassed quite the collection of Katmai trout and char over the years, so only took a few pics in 2025. This year I was able to catch solid fish on streamers (majority of fish), nymphs, dries and even a handful on beads in a spot where we found some paired up sockeye. I also put in a couple hours mousing but unfortunately it didn’t pay off. Quite a few follows and nips, a couple short term hookups but no landed fish. I did catch a little 17-18 incher on the mouse with it hanging below me 10 feet while chatting. So, technically I guess I got one mousing too!
My longest rainbow (27.5”). It was skinny though, with a girth only 12”. Caught some heavier fish including one that was 24.5 with a 15” girth. Sorry no pic. Seemed to have lost it.
Edit: found the pic of the chunky 24.5 incher.
Also caught a good number of other 20+ inch fish across multiple rivers as well as some smaller sub 20 inch fish.
Char were also targeted. No monsters but a good number in this class.
Lakers were also caught. Again, no monsters but 12-14 in the 2-7 lb or so range. Fun on a fly rod!
This year, the new target was Pike though. This is my 6th visit to that lodge. They fly my wife to Brooks daily while I stay back and fish, so we keep going back. We’ve also gotten know a good number of the guides and employees which is great. Great staff overall and a lodge you definitely get spoiled at comfort and food wise. Especially considering its location. This was the first trip we have targeted Pike. We did it in two spots as tag on to some earlier in the day trout fishing. We fished one of the spots for about 45 minutes and there were tons around. Mostly smaller but fun nonetheless. A good number of violent strikes from fish in this class.
We spent a couple hours a different day at the second spot. It was a spot some of the guides had scouted a month or so earlier and found some bigger fish. They hadn’t been back since so I was the first guest to fish it in 2025 and it paid off. Landed some really solid fish. The boils and violent takes of a big pike are quite addicting. My first time targeting them with a fly rod but it won’t be my last. A couple of the bigger fish from the second spot. We only fished about 1/3rd of the shoreline at this spot. I bet there are some true giants there!
Once again, AK is over for the year. Can’t wait until 2026! What an amazing place…
Edit…I hate typing on my phone ….plus, yes the girth on the trout mentioned was 12 and 15 inches not feet
.
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