The expression “North To Alaska” has been used quite a bit in the past by pioneers and adventurers.  There has been a popular song by that name and a John Wayne movie called North To Alaska.   Today there is a website and TV show about North to Alaska with Larry Csonka.   It seems there has been a migration North To Alaska from this country ever since the US acquired the territory in a treaty with Russia in 1867 and purchased it in 1868, see the actual receipt here.

Today some of the migration is due to the fantastic fishing and the lure of a wilderness adventure that is available in Alaska.  Modern fishing lodges are scattered throughout some of the best fishing areas in the state and most of them will cater to the fly fishing enthusiast.  A few of our members have had the chance to experience the wonder and thrill of a fishing trip to Alaska.  One of our own, Ben West,  will be migrating to Alaska for the summer and we hope we can follow along with him.

Ben’s first passion is fishing and he is good at it, we say he is “fishy” because when we fish it’s Ben that catches the first fish…always and he usually gets the most fish.  He is also an accomplished fly tier and always seems to know what the fish like.  Well, Ben is on his way to Alaska to work and guide at one of the remote fishing lodges of Deneki Outdoors.  We hope to follow along with him in his travels and maybe even get some fish pictures and fishing reports straight from the wilderness.

Ben is also a very good artist and plans on taking lots of Alaska pictures as well as fish pictures for his collection of art resources.  Hopefully we can share some of the pictures here in a “North To Alaska Gallery”.  Ben’s artwork is featured on his website at West River Artwork and he recently had a showing and sale at the King Family Vineyards in Crozet, Virginia.  He is very talented and his paintings feature his passion, fish and fishing.

We’ll post more links and information from Ben as soon as he is able to send that information on to us.  For now Ben is on his way North To Alaska!