Getting to Big Ku

Day of Arrival to Anchorage:

On the day prior to your arrival in camp, you should plan on traveling to Anchorage and overnighting at one of the many fine hotels there. Information and recommendations on Anchorage hotels are in our Alaska Pre-trip Tackle Planner, which you will receive with your deposit receipt statement. The following morning (Friday), you will take a wheel- plane charter flight from Anchorage to the bush village of Igiugig, where the lodge will meet you and transfer you to their floatplanes for the short flight to the lodge. In Anchorage on Friday morning, please catch a cab or hotel shuttle to the Branham Hangar. Their terminal is located at Anchorage International Airport; take the Lake Hood Seaplane Exit, then proceed to the Branham Hangar, 4701 Aircraft Drive (adjacent to the Aviation Museum at Lake Hood). Any hotel shuttle or cab will know where the museum is, and the Branham Hangar is immediately adjacent to it. There you will be met by the planes that will be transporting you to Igiugig – the Branhams use Dena’ina Air Taxi for this part of the journey. This air charter transfer is all part of your package price, and is pre- arranged for you by the lodge – you just need to show up on time – but should you want to contact them for any reason, their contact information is as follows:

Day of Arrival at Lodge:

The Dena’ina charter planes depart Anchorage at 11:30 AM, and arrive Igiugig at approximately 1:00 PM. Please be at the Branham Hangar no later than 10:30 AM, in preparation to meet the air taxi planes. Big Ku Lodge will reserve space for everyone on the charter, as it is part of the package price. Soft-sided baggage is strongly recommended, with a maximum weight of 60 pounds per person. The charter and float plane pilots would prefer two smaller bags, as opposed to one large one. Arriving at the Branham Hangar, your baggage will be weighed, and you will also be asked for a close approximation of your weight. When you arrive in Igiugig you will be met by the lodge float planes and taken to the main lodge where you will be served a full buffet luncheon. After lunch you will have time to get settled, unpacked and get your equipment in order, and if you would like, wander down to the river for a bit of unguided fishing.

Loading luggage into the small Alaska bush planes for the final leg into the lodge is a learned art form. As a result, the allowable baggage weight per person is either ONE 60 pound maximum bag, OR two bags of no more than 30 pounds each. The latter is preferable: two small, soft- sided bags fit in the airplane better than one big bag. Bag length may not exceed 36” and rod cases may not be longer than five feet.

Full Fishing Days (Saturday through Thursday):

For the next 6 days, you'll be fishing in one of the most famous fly fishing regions of Alaska. From its location in the heart of the Iliamna-Katmai drainage, the jet boats of Big Ku Lodge will help you access a combination of streams and rivers that are often literally choked with fish.

Departure Day from Lodge:

On the departure day of your trip – Friday, a non-fishing day – the lodge will fly you back to Igiugig in their floatplanes, where Dena’ina Air will meet you at 1:30 p.m. Depending on the commercial air schedules in effect during 2011, you should be able to continue on towards your home destination (this charter is due back into Anchorage at 3:00 p.m.), but do not schedule any flights out of Anchorage earlier than 4:30 p.m., as weather delays are always a possible factor. Should you need to depart Igiugig earlier on Friday, you would need to make separate air charter arrangements (the lodge is happy to help with this – typically it will run in the neighborhood of $300-$800 extra, per person).

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