The best run of salmon in the Kenai River in 2024 was the red salmon run. Specifically, the late run of red salmon from mid July to early August. It was an incredible time to be fishing. Let’s review the data. The early red salmon run (Russian River) had an escapement goal of 22,000-42,000 fish. The final weir count …
Fishing Report Week Ending 9/1/24
This was the first full week of a reduced silver salmon limit. I was hoping that the run was late, but clearly ADFG made the right call. The fishing this past week was steady. Steady slow. Day 1, Blinn Week 3. Larry, Steve, Jo Ray, and Josh. The extra fish is a bonus red salmon. Day 2, Blinn Week 3. Robert started out with …
Fishing Report Week Ending 8/11/24
Usually, the transition from red salmon fishing to pink and silver salmon fishing is seamless. Not this year. It’s been a struggle to find good numbers of salmon all week. Rising and dirty water doesn’t help either. I’ll start out the blog post with the first silver caught this year from the boat. I think Dennis …
Fishing Report Week Ending 7/28/24
There were a lot of fish in the river this past week, except for Monday. I have no idea why so few came in that day, but that’s just the way it goes. On Sunday, it wasn’t fast fishing, but boy was it steady. Here are Greg, Rick, Hunter, Tanner, and Quinton with their haul. I have no fish photos for Monday. Instead, I’ll …
Fishing Report Week Ending 7/21/24
It was a fun week of fishing. Great people and a strengthening run…what’s not to like about that? The week began with a trip with my son Mac, and his friends Hellen and Vern. What cracked me up about this trip is a fellow boater yelled at us and said, “hey, if you guys don’t settle down, Fish and Game is going to cite you …
Fishing Report Week Ending 6/9/24
Tuesday was the first day I ventured out on the Kenai River to try to catch a fish. The target species: Russian River bound red salmon passing through the lower river. Hellooo! Winner, winner, salmon dinner. It only took me three flips(casts) to catch my first river fish of the year. Yeah!!! The rest of the …
2023 Fishing Season in Review
Let me start out by saying it was an awesome summer for temperatures in Alaska. We had three days in Kenai/Soldotna where temperatures broke 70 degrees. Three whole days! And, would you believe I wore wool socks every day on the river? Lower 48 triple digit temperatures versus wool socks. Hmmm, I think many of you reading this …
Fishing Report Week Ending 8/6/23
Transition time. The red salmon run is up and down right now, and the silver salmon are just starting to show. It’s normal. We’re between the salmon runs and it’s hard to predict the action. On to the weekly fishing report. I fished a lot of long time guests/friends this past week. That never gets old. I was also …
Fishing Report Week Ending 7/23/23
They’re heeeere…at least in the beginning of the week they were. The day after my last blogpost, the Kenai River red salmon sonar count jumped to 20K. The day after that, 54K. The numbers had been solid all week, but unfortunately the success rates didn’t always reflect that. It makes you wonder about the accuracy of the …
Fishing Report Week Ending 7/16/23
This past week we were in the catch enough fish for dinner phase of the run and not the fill up the freezer phase. We caught fish every time we were out, but so far the run has been small. Since July 1st, the lowest daily count of red salmon crossing the sonar counter has been 2,598. The most has been 8,064. Very soon the bulk of …