Alaska fishing guide says Stevens enjoyed good fishing day before fatal plane crash

Guide: Stevens in good spirits before fatal crash

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A fishing guide says the day before former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens died he was in great spirits — enjoying some fishing for silver salmon at an Alaska fish camp and raving about the spinning lures he was using.

Byron Orth says the fishing was so good, Stevens was planning to return the next day.

Instead, the 86-year-old Republican and four others died when their floatplane crashed en route from a corporation-owned lodge to the Nushagak River camp. Four others on board survived and are being treated at an Anchorage hospital.

Federal investigators have finished much of their work at the site of Monday’s crash in rugged, mountainous terrain about 20 miles north of Dillingham.

Now the focus shifts to interviewing survivors and hoisting the wreckage from a steep mountainside.