At Lake Marie Lodge we use rafts in a variety of ways to enhance your Alaska fishing adventure. We use rafts as a means of transportation to access several sections of creeks that would otherwise be almost inaccessible. We also use rafts for short trips which might be 1 to 2 hours, or for longer trips which might be all day, depending upon what type of fishing we are doing and which creek or river we are fishing in. Rafts allow us to float several shallow back channels near the lodge which harbor small schools of spawning salmon, which in turn attract many Rainbow Trout. We also use rafts in the evening to leisurely float down river from our boat landing in order to enjoy the peace and solitude of the wilderness.
Rafts are very quiet and therefore very effective for wildlife viewing, especially in the evening.
Moose rarely pay any attention to a raft as it floats by, as long as everyone is quiet. Last summer we added a new way to combine fishing and rafting. If we were headed upriver to fish one of the streams which flows into the main river, we would carry a raft with us in the boat. After the day's fishing and when it was time to go, we would split up and several of the party could leisurely float back down to the boat landing. This usually took about 1 to 2 hours depending upon how far upriver we were.