Six high school students found plenty of rainbows, and quite a bit of sunshine, during a float trip down the 16-mile Pungokepuk River at the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge's science camp.
Four days. Three rafts. One inflatable kayak. About ten fishing rods, four water filters and a seemingly unlimited supply of snacks. That’s what it takes, more or less, to get six high school students and five adults chaperones down the 16-mile Pungokepuk River in the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge.
Audio Transcript:
Bristol Bay is known for fish, and the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge is no exception.
During the high school float camp on the Pungo river, it was rainbows and resident fish, not reds, that lured anglers to keep casting.
"Good day, I should be tallying up what fish I catch," Savanna Sage said, catching yet another a rainbow, while Refuge Manager Susanna Henry rowed our inflatable blue raft down stream. Prior to the trip, she had caught just one rainbow this summer, up at Lake Alegnagik.
A day into the trip, her tally was up to more than half a dozen, and climbing.
The Pungo stretches 16 miles from Pungokepuk Lake to the Togiak River. The sun was shining nearly the entire time we were on the water, and until the final day, a light breeze kept the bugs away.
And while 16 miles might sound like a short trip – there’s enough fish in the Pungo to make every mile last. It took us four days, with plenty of stops for fishing.
Drew Wassily caught his first rainbow on the trip. But he said it was his tentmate and fishing partner, Carleton Small of Twin Hills, who was the most prolific fisher.
"He's the rainbow slaying machine," Wassily said.
On the last day of camp, Small says he had caught about 30 fish over the course of the trip.
That doesn’t include the smolt caught by the whole group.
Campers set out minnow traps before bed on the first night, baited with bacon. The next morning, refuge education specialist Terry Fuller helped intern Connor Ito and the campers ID the smolt they found waiting for them.
"I've got a little bit of white and black look," Fuller said.
"Yes," Ito said.
"So this is a silver," Fuller said.
"There are silvers to be found," Ito said.
Camp wasn’t just about catching fish. Students put on a dry suit to snorkel with fish. And there were non-fishy activities, too – fire-building, berry-picking, a leave-no-trace activity, and hours on the river identifying plants and birds.
But Ito, a former camper herself, offered perhaps the most important lesson of all: how to roast Twinkies.
"Now you want to very slowly roast the Twinkie until it is crunchy and golden brown on the outside, more than it already is, and the filling is bubbling out of the holes on the bottom."
The verdict?
"It tastes more buttery," Sage said.
And over by the lake, it was back to fishing for the boys.
"He caught another rainbow," Wassily called out.
In Dillingham, I’m Molly Dischner.
