Reuben Hastings – KING Guide at Bear Trail Lodge

I may get myself in trouble for putting Reuben Hastings up on a pedestal, per the title, from his boss and from Reuben himself, but that’s how I think of him.

Pete and Keith Combs met Reuben in 2019 on their first trip to Bear Trail Lodge. When Pete got home it was a constant stream of “Reuben said this…he knew this…he showed how to fish this way…” and the consensus opinion was that I needed to get the full Reuben experience for myself.

I went to Alaska (state number 48 for me) the following year and luckily I got time in the boat in the float plane and on the water with KING Reuben. He was fun, smart, patient, soft spoken, and yet bigger than life and you could tell he loved his job.

We just returned from my second trip to Bear Trail Lodge and YES, we fished with the KING. It just wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t get to fish with Reuben.

He’s a native of Alaska, and since graduating from the Bristol Bay Fly Fishing and Guide Academy https://bristolbayriveracademy.org/ he’s guided at BTL for 13 years. Most importantly, he really likes to fish. He said he likes his job because it doesn’t feel like a job. He gets to fish every day, so he is always happy.

Not surprisingly, Reuben’s favorite fish to fish for and eat is KING salmon.

If you’d like to fish with Reuben and the other amazing guides at Bear Trail Lodge, contact me and we’ll get you set up asap. If you don’t have a group to join you, we’d love to have you on one of our future trips – we’ll even let you fish with Reuben.