On the nights before those childhood fishing trips I remember being so excited that I couldn't sleep because of the anticipation of getting to go out fishing with my dad. I was so excited because I knew that I would finally be able use a big fishing pole like just like him and actually be allowed to touch and use all of those cool lures and colorful things he kept secured away in his tackle box. From that time on I looked forward to any chance I got to go fishing, especially if it was with my dad.

From those earliest days I was hooked on fishing. By the time I was 8 or 10 years old I would get myself up at 4AM on Saturday mornings and ride my bicycle 10 miles across the city to Howarth Park Resevoir to fish for trout with dry flies and clear slip bobbers on the glassy calm lake. It seemed I could never get enough. I was constantly getting in trouble for coming home way too late after dark which always made my mother furious. She could never seem to understand why I just had to stay long enough to fish that last 15 minutes of light as it vanished off the water. I tried to clearly explain to her that this was the best bite of the day but all I can remember is that I was constantly amazed at the fact that she could never seem to appreciate the experience as much as I did.

As a kid my favorite shows were fishing shows. I especially liked "Fishing with Virgil Ward". It was one of those early fishing shows when the guy travels all over the country getting paid to catch fish. I remember thinking that Virgil was so cool. He was always wearing his fancy chest waders, his fishing vest that was perfectly adorned with all kinds of awesome gidgets like snippers and flies, and he always wore those special sunglasses that allowed him to see into the water. Most of all, it seemed like he always caught MONSTER fish!

It seemed like every other T.V. fishing show I watched was somewhere in Alaska where they were catching big bright shiny salmon or lunker trout. They always made it look so easy. They would set the hook on a huge salmon, fight it right up to where they were standing, grab it by the tail, take the hook out, and then hold it up for a picture just before reviving it and releasing it back into the water. I remember yelling out one day saying, "Why are you releasing that huge fish!" I could never understand why a guy would let something that big go. The largest fish I had ever caught up to that time were 10-14 inch trout, bluegills, and suckers. I remember thinking back then that Alaska had to be the ultimate fishing paradise. I thought if I could ever go there to fish someday it would be the ultimate dream come true.

In those days I spent many hours fishing in the small creek that ran through our neighborhood. It was in the middle of Santa Rosa, California, which is a medium sized city just north of San Francisco. This creek was host to fair numbers of small blue gills, suckers and an occasional trout. I used to pretend that I was on TV like Virgil catching big Alaska salmon. I remember saying out loud to the imaginary camera, "Now Pat is catching a world record salmon", while I was really only reeling in a 4" blue gill. I dreamed of one day going to Alaska and catching a big fish like the guys on T.V. I was only 10 years old.

Then, 16 years later, I found myself fishing a popular salmon stream in Alaska catching king salmon with my 8 wt Orvis fly rod. It was a sunny beautiful Alaskan day and my family and I were enjoying a weekend campout at Montana Creek, which is about 100 miles north of Anchorage. I had long forgotten all those childhood dreams about fishing in Alaska, in fact, it never occurred to me that I had ever had them. I was simply enjoying what I love to do. I was catching king salmon and releasing them just for fun. I was wearing my cool chest waders, my fishing vest that was adorned with all kinds of gidgets and snippers, and I was wearing my special sunglasses that allowed me to see into the water. That day I hooked several kings, (30-50 pound class), and each time I played them out, grab them by the tail, removed the hook, and then turned them around for the video camera that my wife was holding and smiled for the camera just before reviving and releasing the fish.

Then, suddenly, as I released one of those fish that day, the realization came over me that I was doing exactly what I had dreamed of doing when I was only 10 years old. I was blown away and was instantly overcome with emotion. All of those childhood dreams and experiences that I had came flooding back to my memory. In that moment a strange sense of destiny came over me and I heard the voice of the Lord speak to me and say, "See Pat, from the time you were a little boy, I was preparing you for what I wanted you to do. I have prepared you to live in this land." That was an amazing revelation to me of the process and purpose of God in my life. As I stood in the river that day with tears in my eyes I realized that God had a plan for me all along and had been preparing me all my life to live in Alaska.

I thought of Psalm 139:16 which declares that all the days The Lord planned for me were written in his book before one of them came to be. He knew what I was going to be doing before I was ever born! I realized that the steps of a righteous man really are directed by the Lord and that He really does give us the desires of our heart. WOW!

I realized that day that while I was plodding along in life, trying to follow the ways of the Lord as best I could, He just snuck up behind me and ambushed me and caused me to walk right into the very things that make me the happiest and the most fulfilled. He created me and He knows what causes my heart to soar. John 10:10 says that Jesus came to give us abundant life and at that moment I had a whole new insight into what that means. What a day!

I said to myself, "This is so ironic!" Most of my younger life I was convinced that God wanted to take away everything that was fun and that walking with Him would be horribly boring. I spent much of those years running from Him until I was 19 yrs old. At that time I had an encounter with Him where He changed my life forever. That is when I chose to follow Him and when I gave my whole life and future to him. Eventually I was led to become a minister. It was that decision that eventually opened up the opportunity for my family and I to move to Alaska. In 1989 I accepted a ministry position in Anchorage to be a youth pastor. I thought I was simply obeying God, but little did I know that following Him would cause me to have a head on collision with my best childhood dreams!

Since that time I have had the privilege of taking hundreds of people out to enjoy the great places in the great land that I have come to love. One of the best benifits of that is that I have had the priviledge of meeting wonderful people from all over the world and sharing in their Alaska experience. For me, being a fishing guide is more than a job, it is part of a dream come true. Now I fish Alaska just like Virgil did. Hey, iFishAlaska, that could be catchy!

So, I want to thank Jesus Christ for rescuing me from the destructive life I was living and the wrong direction I was heading. He forgave me and washed away all the guilt and shame that I had for the wrong things I had done and He set me on a good path. That path led me here where I am privileged to enjoy some of the best of His creation as well as all of the blessings of living life with Him. I pray that you too can experience a relationship with the Lord and enjoy the beautiful creation that He prepared for you.

If you would like to go fishing in Alaska or learn more about a relationship with the Lord please contact me anytime. To reserve a date to go fishing with us you can click on make a reservation and use our on-line registration process or call our office at 907-357-0131.   You can Email me

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