Fishing Report Week Ending 7/17/22

The fishing was better this past week, but not by a lot. The daily king and red salmon sonar counts accurately reflected angler success rates.

I started the week fishing with Michelle, Melissa, Sean, and Hayden. I’ve known Michelle and her daughter Melissa since the 90’s when I coached their son/brother, Matt, in hockey. It was fun getting caught up on all of our life changes. Also, it was enjoyable getting to know Sean and Hayden as well.

On day one, I fished the guys, Sean and Hayden. Nada. No action at all.

On day two, Michelle and Melissa joined us. I always say women and children catch the most fish. Well, Melissa had the hot rod and caught a king and a red salmon. We almost had another king salmon when Michelle’s got off at the boat. Sean had an opportunity with a red salmon but we lost that one too. Rats.

If there were any red salmon moving through, they didn’t stand a chance with this crew. That’s Michelle in the forefront of the flipping line. 

Thursday was a better day on the river, but it was still on the slow side. Here’s Katrina, Chase, Sydney, and Anthony posing with their red salmon.

Friday, wasn’t great fishing, but it was a very good for Tara. Again, women and children catch the most fish. She started the morning off with a nice red salmon that was fooled into biting a jumbo king salmon lure.

On the next pass, she caught a nice 25lb buck.

After the morning action, we spent the rest of the day in search of anything that would bite. As we were about to end our day, Tara caught this beautiful 35lb hen.

Here are Mike and Tara doing what all good king fisherman do…waiting for a bite. I wish Mike would have caught a salmon, but he was content that Sara was able to. I really enjoyed the day, it was a great way to end the fishing week.

The coming week should be interesting on the Kenai River. I expect the red salmon run numbers to jump up dramatically, but I’m not as optimistic about the run of king salmon. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if ADFG closes the fishery for the season. I hope I’m wrong.

Come back next week to see what’s going on the world famous Kenai. I anticipate I’ll have a lot of photos to share.

UPDATE. After I finished writing this report, ADFG announced that Kenai River will be closed to king salmon fishing effective 12:01am, Sunday, July 17th.

Long live the kings.