First off you should understand that Bristol Bay is not a bay…It is a +10,000 square mile, right arm of the Bering Sea. It was so named by the great seaman and navigator Captain Cook, who hailed from Bristol, England. He of course did not “discover” it. The Aleuts, Y’upik and Inupiat made it their home thousands of years before Cook arrived on July 9, 1778. He was looking for a northeast passage back to England..what he found instead was the most prolific salmon fishery in the world. His log reads…”It must abound in salmon, as we saw many leaping in the sea before the entrance; and some were found in the maws of cod which we had caught. The entrance of this river, distinguished by the name Bristol River, lies in the latitude of 58degrees27 minutes, and in the longitude of 201degrees55minutes”….Cook happened to arrive at the peak of the summer salmon season, off the entrance to Nushagak Bay.