Advice For Traveling Anglers: When It Comes to Transport, Don't Push It

Karl Johnstone’s article in the Anchorage Daily News about the pressure lodges feel to to get their guests out to fishing locations serves as a reminder that many accidents happen when you combine bad weather with financial incentives. You’ll see parallels in heliskiiing, hang-gliding, and hunting — just about any guided sport where employees can’t prove their worth by sitting around and waiting for the weather to get better.
As Johnstone notes: “Pilots are sometimes under subtle but serious pressure to fly in bad weather and to load up the aircraft to avoid a second flight. If a pilot balks too many times, there will always be another who is willing to chance it.”
So here’s a quick bit of advice: if your guide or pilot seems uncomfortable about conditions, assure them that you are perfectly happy waiting it out. After all, your number one goal is to be around to fish another day.