Naknek River is a 56-km-long (35 mi) river in the Bristol Bay Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It flows westward from Naknek Lake, draining it into the Kvichak Bay arm of Bristol Bay. The river and lake are both known for their salmon.

The village of King Salmon is located near the head of the river; Naknek and South Naknek lie at its mouth, on the north and south banks respectively. The head lies within Katmai National Park and Preserve.
King Salmon - King Salmon is located on the north bank of the Naknek River, about 15 miles up river from Naknek. The two communities are connected by the Alaska Peninsula Highway. King Salmon is the regional transportation center, with many airline flights in and out daily.

At the beginning of World War II, the U.S. government constructed an air force base in King Salmon. The base was maintained throughout the war by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The base was closed in 1994. In 1949, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the road connecting King Salmon to Naknek. A U.S. post office was established in King Salmon the same year. Other developments that occurred around that time included the construction of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game quarters, a weather bureau office, and expansion of the FAA.  red - http://www.theborough.com/area.html

Note:  Since 9/11 the base has been reactivated.  It is the first line of defense from an attack from North Korea.

Naknek Lake is a lake in southern Alaska, near the base of the Alaska Peninsula, at about 58°40′N 156°12′W. The lake is 64 km (40 miles) long and 5-13 km (3-8 miles) wide. The lake drains west into Bristol Bay through the Naknek River.

The earliest Russian explorer reported the lake's name as Naknek, but a later one said its name was "Akulogak". Ivan Petrof named the lake Lake Walker, for Francis Amasa Walker, Superintendent of the 1880 United States census.

The lake is famous for its sport fishing. Brooks Camp is located on the lake's shore; brown bears may be viewed catching salmon while standing in a waterfall.

Brooks Lodge - http://www.katmailand.com/

Area Map - http://www.katmai.national-park.com/map.htm 
Jim's place is marked on the this map as Lake Camp.  Margot Creek is located just above the word "mount" in Mount Katolinat... Margot Falls is also marked.  There's a road from Brooks to Margot Falls we heard about and is marked on the map.  Crew from the camp travel over and fish the river alot... we heard.

Naknek River Camp -

On the 'dock' cleaning salmon.  Can see one of the cabins above.  They have 4 cabins on the river and a dining/shower house 150 yards up the hill... and yes there's a reason.  You don't sleep where you eat- bears will come visit you in the night... or day!

Their dock and boats.

Jim tossing the remains into the river... only to have "junior", the resident bear, come and clean up later in the day.

Jim heading upstream from a trip.  We fished the 'rapids' several days which is wadeable, full of salmon spawning and rainbows, dollies and grayling feeding on the eggs.

This is a smelt- one year old salmon that was hatched out last season.  They stay in the lake till summer and then migrate to the sea.  Rainbows LOVE smelt.  In June, rainbows chase smelt like white bass chase shad on the river.  The largest rainbow for Jim is 12 pounds but they get as big as 20 pounds.  Mine was about 6 lbs.  I REALLY wish I took up my jigs!!  I know I'd do extremely well on them.

I took Tana and Hunter with their mom, Phyliss, drift fishing thru the rapids one day while the rest of the crew went to Brooks.  We used spin tackle, 8 lb line, a 'bead" pegged 2 inches from a bare hook and a split shot to get it down.  They had no problems catching fish on every drift including these.  The first pics is of a female sockeye.  The others are rainbows.

This was another day- I hooked this silver on a.... swimming minnow!!  3-inch silver specs and I used a black magic marker to color the back.  There were silvers lining a bank in slow current.  He landed the silver, it was his first silver... about 8 lbs.

"Silver Point"  this is where the silvers seemed to stop and hold before continueing on upstream and were easy to catch. 

A guide boat on the river.  They use only jet drive (too many boulders esp early in the summer when the river is lower).  Most have 150's with a small 10 hp 'kicker'.

Bill Cutler with a silver.  My lense was foggy.  Fishing Silver Point, wading along the bank.  Dead drifting black or purple wooly buggers #2 with a bead slid on the line against the wooly (egg sucking leach pattern).

Mike with a nice silver.  He's fighting one in the pic above.

My attempt to take a pic of a grayling I caught.  Not very big- about 14 inches.

Pink or humpy salmon.  They only run the river every other year.  They get about 10 pounds.  Some say they aren't good to eat while others lover them.  This is a male- the females are slinder and more colorful.  They don't make the long hard runs, the use their wideness to work you hard though.

This is the barge at the River Camp Access.  It takes supplies to Brooks Lodge, 36 miles over Naknek Lake.

Pic of the crew we took over the first week to Brooks.

This bear was our first sighting of the trip.  He was walking the beach of the lake as we pulled into Brooks Lodge.

Walking thru a marsh to get to the bottom of the river at Brooks.  Brooks River is just a couple of miles and connects Brooks Lake with Naknek Lake.

Bill with one of many rainbows caught in Brooks River.

This guy stepped out from the brush just behind me while I was fishing.  I was about 25 feet from the edge of the bank and heard a twig break.  He came out, I starting to "talk" to the bear as a high-tailed it across the river... talking to the bear is what they tell you to do.  We walked upstream to the others.

Margot Creek- this bear was fishing in the mouth of the river as we pulled up to the beach.

Jim showing us the way.  Margot remided me of Swan Creek... may be a bit smaller.

Decent rainbow- not my biggest though.  But they were all fun to catch.  Again, drifting beads- eggs.

Funny confrontation.  The bear really wanted to fish this riffle. But these 'humans' were fsihing it!  So who blinked first?  The humans.  The bear looked thru the riffles and moved back to another side stream to fish.  He let the humans live... this time!

This guy fished the same stretch 2 different days we were over at Margot.  He was fun to watch.

Jim with a Dolly.

Pod of sockeyes.  Any place there was an eddy- they stacked up.

Lauree, a Scottish gentleman who resides in England, fishes a great stretch where he hooked and landed a dozen rainbows.

About a 20 inch dolly.

George with a 24 inch rainbow.  He caught over 20 rainbows out of one stretch, this one being the biggest.

Nice rainbow.

Bill with a very nice dolly.

George in his honey hole.

One of the many float planes fly about.  This one was picking up 3 people who had fished at Margot that day.  $450 per hour for this service.

The next is a sequince of pics of a bear fishing, catching and eating a sockeye right in front of me.  I was only about 25 feet away but across the river.. I guess safe.

(he was shaking his head)

The rest of the guys were on the same side of the river but downstream about 75 feet.  They couldn't see the show because of some brush blocking their view.

The following pics were taken by Phyliss Johnson's brother, Gary. 

At Margot Creek.

The res of the bear pics are from Brooks earlier in July.

Hope you enjoyed these pics as much as I did taking them.

I am going back next summer, God willing.  I've booked 2 weeks in June if anyone is interested in going.  I will have further details later this fall as to costs and exact dates... and availability.

Phil