Alaska Trip Pictures 2008
Chris and I did our annual September Alaska excursion up to the Kenai Peninsula (KP) from 2-14 September and the fishing was very good. As usual, we flew up to Anchorage and rented an RV, then drove down to the KP. After picking up the RV at 8 AM, buying supplies for the trip in Anchorage, and getting our fishing licenses (yikes, $80 for a 14 day non-resident!) we drove down to our first fishing stop on Quartz Creek, where we spent about three hours fishing this beautiful little creek.
QUARTZ CREEK
Quartz is always our first fishing stop since it’s located right next to the Sterling Highway on the way to the Kenai. This wonderful little creek (little by AK standards!) is chock full of dolly varden char, and a few rainbow trout, in addition to the regular salmon runs that make their way up the Kenai (however, the creek is closed to salmon fishing). Access is fantastic, with many pullouts along the road big enough to accommodate an RV. Sight fishing is the rule, and as you walk the stream banks looking for spawning salmon, you can see the dollies/bows below the salmon eating salmon eggs. In the past years, we were able to sight fish to large dollies, but this year the larger fish (22” +) were noticeably absent. But we did score quite nicely on dollies and rainbows averaging between 16-20”. There were noticeably fewer spawning sockeye this year (the sockeye run was very low this year on the Kenai and its tributaries) and many of our usual spawning beds held few fish.
RUSSIAN RIVER
After fishing Quartz, we moved over to the Russian River (about 15 minutes further down the Sterling Highway) to check on the fishing for future dates. The Russian is a fantastic rainbow trout river with an added bonus of hosting a late silver salmon run that peaks in early September. The Russian was very crowded with anglers, and after hooking up with about half a dozen rainbows from 16-20” we went down stream in the campground area and found a nice pod of fresh silver salmon that wanted to play. Chris and I quickly hooked up with silver’s, and after a good battle on our 6 WT rods (we were targeting trout not salmon!) we landed the fish and gave them rock shampoo’s as we wanted to throw them on the barbie for a later lunch. Since the limit is only one fish on the Russian we ended our day and drove the RV to Walton State Park which would serve as our base for the float trips on the Kenai River for the next few days.
After fishing many other places, we returned the following week to the Russian, to fish my favorite spot, in the canyon beneath the falls. Unfortunately, heavy rains raised the river to record levels, and the poor sockeye runs led to poor fishing success with only about a dozen rainbows landed from 8-14”. That is incredibly poor for this stretch of river. While we saw very few sockeye salmon, the silver salmon run was going strong and we saw plenty of them. Unfortunately, the high water made it impossible to reach them, or they were in sections of river closed to salmon fishing. We detoured to the Russian River Falls for the sights of tons of silvers leaping the falls, and there were over 100 silvers at the base of the fish ladder (but you can’t fish there!). After blowing the morning on our 5 mile walk to the canyon/falls, we returned to fish the lower river between the confluence and the campground in the afternoon/evening. We did quite well in this stretch of river that we normally avoid due to crowds, but the average size was small with most fish in the 14-18” size. This leads to fishing story #1!!! We were fishing a stretch of river that still had good numbers of spawning sockeye, but the crowds were intense. All of a sudden a small grizzly bear appears in the river (actually followed a fisherman down the access stairs!) and started “fishing” for sockeye. Someone yells “BEAR” and everyone leaves the river for the safety of the boardwalk. The bear hung out “fishing” for a few minutes and all of the other anglers left the area for greener pastures. Chris and I hung out, because we knew the bear wouldn’t stay long (and this was one of the few active spawning areas) and after the bear ambled safely downstream we started fishing the area that all the other anglers (and bear!) had been in before. The fishing was off the charts!!! We had the area all to ourselves, and probably each landed 30 rainbows before we pretty much cleaned out all the active trout from the spawning area. After about an hour or so of non-stop fishing, other anglers saw us just ripping the trout and joined in, but by then we had caught all the fish we wanted and called it a day! The moral of this story is: find active spawning areas and you will find the trout, even if a bear is sitting on it!
Russian River Falls
Silver salmon stacked up beneath the fish ladder. How many can you count?
Find the jumping salmon!
My favorite bear!
Typical rainbow from the “bear” area
MIDDLE KENAI RIVER
The Kenai River is divided into distinct areas, each with its own pluses and minuses, and the “Middle River” is my absolute favorite since this is trophy rainbow trout and dolly varden water. IMNSHO, there is no better place in the world to catch a big rainbow! So we spent four days floating from Skilak Lake to Bings Landing/Walton Park with guide supreme, Matt Duncan of X-Stream Alaska Fishing, 907-223-0381, madmattduncan@alaska.net Matt is the hardest working guide I know of, is a fantastic angler, and a blast to fish with (ask him about the “muffin fish”)! The fishing was somewhat inconsistent; due in part to rapidly fluctuating river levels and clarity due to heavy rains, but check out all of the fish pictures and you will know why I’m here. To give you an idea about the quality of this fishery, we didn’t even bother to take a fish picture unless it was over 24 inches! The downside of the Middle is that you need a boat to fish it (wading access is virtually non-existent) and it’s very crowded with boats.
How big is this pig? Chris landed the largest Kenai trout this trip!
A close second place for me!
Sunrise over Skilak Lake
UPPER KENAI RIVER
I’ve been trying to get into the Canyon section of the Kenai for three years without success. Due to a long and hazardous boat ride in Skilak Lake of about seven miles at the end of the float, if it’s windy, you don’t go because drift boats can’t handle the 8-10 foot waves that frequently occur. To get into the Canyon, you have to float down about a mile of Class 3 whitewater, and in addition, you need a special permit to access the Canyon, so most guides are not willing to do it. Matt Duncan is one of the few guides that will float the Canyon. In respect to the other sections of the Kenai, the Canyon is relatively unfished. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s not crowded, because it still gets a lot of fishing pressure. There are not a lot of fishable areas in the Canyon, so everyone hits the same stretches. We hit the Canyon on a bad day when the fishing was not all that good and it was quite crowded. However, even despite the conditions I still managed to land a personal best dolly.
A calm evening on Skilak Lake made a nice boat ride out
My personal best dolly after fishing AK for more than 20 years!
DEEP CREEK
The KP hosts several streams that have fall steelhead runs, and my favorite is Deep Creek. Located right alongside Highway 1, Deep Creek features easy access, and spectacular fishing for steelhead and silver salmon. We were a little late in the season for salmon fishing, and we did manage a few silver salmon, but the highlight of the trip was the steelhead. As in most steelhead fishing, the fishing can be spotty, as if the fish aren’t running at the time it can be tough fishing. We started off with a bang our first day when we hooked 10 steelhead, but we didn’t catch any steelhead the next day (but we fortunately found a few Coho’s that wanted to play). And that leads to fishing story #2! I hooked up a nice steelhead along a rip rap wall above the Sterling Highway Bridge. Fortunately, the fish first ran upstream, but it then abruptly changed direction and headed downstream at a rapid pace. My luck was not good as it took the far right channel under the bridge, and that is the only channel that is impossible to wade (of course!). I was now faced with the dilemma of being unable to chase the fish downstream so I called out to Chris, and our friend Tristan (who was able to fish a few days with us while on his honeymoon, what a wife!). I handed the rod to Chris who first tried to “swim” under the bridge but it was far too deep and swift. Meanwhile I ran downstream to hold the backing off the bridge support so it wouldn’t abrade as the steelhead was still running downstream. Tristan waded out to the far side of the bridge, and then crossed over the bridge to the other side where Chris was fortunately able to pass the rod to Tristan. Tristan waded down to where I was holding the backing off the bridge and passed the rod to me where I was able to chase the fish downstream. After about 150 yards of backing was reeled up, I finally landed the fish about 300 yards downstream. After all that I still managed to land the fish!
Steelhead landed in the last light of the day!
The longest fish of the trip at 32”
Fresh from the salt with live sea lice!
The long chase!
TACKLE & FLIES
Tackle and flies could not be simpler in Alaska at this time of the year. While we carried 14 fly rods from 5 – 9 WT, we really only used two basic rods for the trip. More than 80% of the time we used 10 foot 7 WT rods (Orvis Helios, Orvis Zero Gravity, and Sage Z-Axis), and the rest of the time we used 9.5 foot 6 WT rods (Orvis Helios, Orvis Zero Gravity, and Sage XP). All fishing was done with floating lines. The 7 WT rods were used for salmon, steelhead, and trophy trout (on the Kenai), and the 6 WT rods were used on the smaller streams (Russian & Quartz). Flies were even simpler! All of our fish were caught on 6, 8, 10, & 12 MM beads in various colors to imitate the prevalent salmon spawn. That’s all you need!
SUMMARY
This was a weird trip in that the fishing was very inconsistent. Some days we just hammered the fish, and other days we had to work our butts off. Part of this was based on the weather, and it rained each day were there. River levels and clarity were rapidly changing from day to day, but we didn’t have any days that I would consider the rivers/creeks to be “blown out” and we fished (and caught fish) each and every day. In addition, the sockeye run on the Kenai and its tributaries was a 10 year low, so many of our usual spawning beds were devoid of fish and we had to do a lot of walking/exploring to find the few active spawning areas. Chris and I each hooked the rainbow trout of a lifetime (Chris’ rainbow probably was around 15-20 pounds), but neither of us could put our fish in the net, so bad luck was also a factor.
On the other hand, when you look at the pics, you can definitely see that we experienced great fishing. Coupled with the cost of this two week adventure, it was an absolute bargain, at about $1,250 per week per person for this trophy fishing opportunity. Most of that was guide fee’s, which you really only need if you plan on floating the Kenai (a must for the Middle Kenai for trophy fish). If you take off the guide fees, the trip was dirt cheap costing about $500 per week per person. I don’t know of any place in the world where you can do a fantastic fishing trip as cheaply as this one.
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