Clay Duda

Posted on January 8, 2024February 14, 2024 by Clay Duda Posted in Mostly Alaska

My First Time Snowboarding at Alyeska Resort and How I Almost Got Careened by a Backflipping Skier

Taking the Glacier Bowl Express to the top of Mount Alyeska. Photo by Clay Duda. — ^{Taking the Glacier Bowl Express to the top of Mount Alyeska.}

On my first trip ever to Alyeska Resort it was dumping snow the night we pulled into town. And when I say dumping, I mean DUMPING snow. Big fat flakes fell in sheets as we sat inside Girdwood Brewing and amped ourselves up about our the next day on the mountain.

I was a little nervous, I’ll admit. It was my first time at Alyeska — a mountain known for being “steep and deep” — and also my first time EVER snowboarding at a real ski resort. I was still leaning to snowboard, and the steepest hills I had seen thus far were the mostly kid-friendly slopes at the Homer Rope Tow. Even then, I was shying away from the toughest runs, which are smaller than Alyeska’s bunny hills.

When we woke up the next morning, there was nearly 3 feet of fresh snow at the top of Mount Alyeska. You could hear avalanche bombs exploding in the distance as the sun made a slow ascent above the peaks, and we were stoked.

Posted on November 26, 2023November 26, 2023 by Clay Duda Posted in Fish Stories, Mostly Alaska, Mostly FIlm

Tips and Mistakes Spearfishing Whitefish on the Chatanika River near Fairbanks

Spearfishing whitefish on the Chatanika River, September 2023. Photo by Clay Duda. — ^{Spearfishing whitefish on the Chatanika River near Fairbanks, Alaska, September 2023. Photo by Clay Duda.}

I didn’t even know what a freshwater “whitefish” was when I applied for a permit to spearfish them. I’ve lived in Alaska for 7 years now and never drawn a tag. I’ve put in for moose and mountain goat and Kodiak elk and a bunch of other things with no luck. So I figured my chances of getting a whitefish tag was slim to none.

Then, in August, I got an email back from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game awarding my first ever Alaska draw tag: to spearfish whitefish in the Chatanika River near Fairbanks. Me and my friend Dan were the only 2 people on the Kenai Peninsula to earn a tag.

Posted on September 16, 2023September 16, 2023 by Clay Duda Posted in Mostly Alaska, Mostly FIlm, Toy Cameras

Pew Pew Portraits with the Boys from Pig Problem, Inc.

Hog hunting guides with Pig Problem, Inc. in Americus, Georgia. — ^{Handgun drills in Homer, Alaska with the Pig Problem, Inc. guides from Americus, Georgia.}

It is September in Alaska, which means the fishing season is finally slowing down for us fishing guides in Homer. It also means that we have more time to hang out and goof off with friends since we’re not offshore fishing seven days a week.

A few days ago I caught up with some of the guides from Pig Problem, Inc. and went out for a little target practice. Most of these guys do thermal night hunts for hogs out of Americus, Georgia during the winter months and work on fishing boats in Alaska during the summer.

Ring leader Maximus Maximum was training up a new recruit and refreshing skills with handgun drills to put down charging boars or cardboard hitmen or something like that. I really just tagged along to take photos and smell gunpowder.

Posted on September 1, 2023September 16, 2023 by Clay Duda Posted in Just For Fun, One Shot

One Shot: Your View Driving into Homer, Alaska (If You’re Completely Color Blind)

A view of the Homer Spit and Kachemak Bay from the High Bluff west of town. Photo by Clay Duda. — ^{A view of the Homer Spit and Kachemak Bay from the High Bluff west of town.}

It’s one of those iconic moments few people forget when you come over the top of Baycrest and the grandeur of Kachemak Bay and the Homer Spit come into view.

Posted on August 22, 2023September 10, 2023 by Clay Duda Posted in Fish Stories, Mostly Alaska

That Time We Caught a 100-Pound Halibut Hooked in the Tail

^{Two very happy anglers holding their catch aboard the Storm Petrel in spring 2020.}

A light, icy breeze blew down Cook Inlet at we headed out of Homer, Alaska in the spring of 2020. The cloud ceiling was high, but the air was still filled with a grey morning light. A slight chop rippled the smooth, deep green ocean water as we throttled down in a thicket of kelp blooms north of Homer.

Fishing those areas can often be slow, but the fish are usually plump and healthy, and sometimes there are lunkers cruising the shallows looking for an easy meal.

It was early morning, maybe 7:30 a.m., when I threw anchor over the side of the Storm Petrel in just 30 feet of water. The stern of the boat pointed south with the gentle pull of an outgoing tide. My guys took their rods and dropped bait to the bottom — it didn’t take long to get down.