REPORT: Well folks, the weather was again agreeable for getting out on KBay on Saturday, Christmas Eve day. I don't have any particulars to pass on at this time (maybe update later this evening) but here is what was in the email Inbox entitled "Noon Report". I guess the photo really tells the story. By noon they had NINE kings in the box, plus a halibut and one Pacific cod to sweeten the pot. You all better get out there before Shane cleans them all out. HAHA. I was trying to get out with him today but had some high priority items to finish up so had to pass. Dang! I'll be down there one day soon with the cameras for all you folks to see firsthand what the action is like. Merry Christmas to all.

REMEMBER: BUY YOUR 2012 FISHING LICENSE AND KING STAMP BEFORE FISHING AFTER THE FIRST OF THE YEAR! Fish cops just love that first couple weeks to fill their ticket books. :-)

REPORT: I had a hunch this weather would create a bite and it sure did, but all small trout and landlocked salmon. There is 18 inches of ice on the lake and no snow anymore. If anyone can tell me how to find the bigger fish, I would appreciate that.... Mile 37.3 Glenn Hwy. Paved parking area on south side of highway with public access trail to lake. Fair population of 7" - 10" landlocked salmon; a good population of 7" -18" rainbow trout and a good population of 8" - 16" Arctic char.

[AOJ: I don't know if you employ this tactic or not but laying flat on the surface and peering down the hole at your jig or bait may reveal larger fish present that just aren't in the biting mood. That's always a good excuse for having Santa bring you an underwater camera to drop down an adjacent hole to see what's actually going on. For big char they frequent deep water. Don't be afraid of moving into the 20-40 foot zone and jigging white scampi-tail leadheads on the bottom.]

REPORT: So the forecast is for BAAAAD weather. But in December, that means 33 deg F. Got on the lake around noon to see some folks in the area I usually fish. But as I was unpacking, they took off. Too bad! I only fished till shortly after 3pm with the rain.

33 deg F means it was 50 degrees warmer than at 6am Last Sunday at Big Lake. Too be honest, I prefer the 17 below! The drive back was INSANE! I counted at least a dozen ditch divers in the hour drive from Wasilla to Anchorage. But no one cares about the drive, let's talk fishing.

I set up in the other folk's hole and its about 20 feet. Too deep to try the underwater videos. The water was a bit dingy as well. So I decide to set the gopro on top and see if this "gift" hole will produce.

First 5 minutes, I impale an immature salmon about 8 inches long. Remarkable considering I was using a 5 inch long spoon! Well you can't keep salmon so back it goes.

After a few more minutes, I decide I really want to see the fish so I prop my rod on my chair and go punch some more holes shallow. I know better than to prop up my rod like that. But I am using a spoon and nothing is going to hit it while it just hangs there right? WRONG! Well you are just going to have to watch the video to see the outcome. If you recall last weeks video had me dropping my rod down the hole. Will history repeat itself???

I did manage two rainbows, 14 and 16 inches long. Once again remarkable given I am using a 5 inch spoon. The 14 incher was hooked badly so I kept it. I released the 16 incher.

It's nice and comfy until the wind picks up. Then comes the freezing rain! So I did pop up the shelter eventually.

The horror story of the day is I managed to impale a big gamakatsu single siwash hook THROUGH my fingernail of my index finger. OUCH! I thought it was going to end the day. Just gripped and ripped since I had no choice. I didn't have a knife and there was no way I was going to a clinic with a fish attached to me...no need for details since its on video. But I managed to keep my nail and so I kept fishing! Not to sound like a wimp, but I am ALLERGIC to PAIN! OWIE!

Not a bad day except for the drive and the impaled finger. Not sure if I will venture out tomorrow with the road conditions! Speaking of road conditions, big trucks and trailers now driving up and down the Big Lake with many of the sections plowed.

Here's the day's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onn79blR670

[AOJ: Well, gotta say you continue to entertain us all. GREAT VIDEO! I was amazed. But the owiee, yowch. Made me cringe more than when I broke my hip three weeks ago. BTW, modern miracles, been walking the dog a half mile a day on one crutch for the past week and a half and getting around the house with no crutches. Should be out ice fishing this week without the sticks. You guys sure won't be making any more ice on the lake for the next week. Sure hope no one goes through on Big Lake. Conditions can change under these weather patterns. My truck with no load in the box weighs in at 8560# curb weight and I'd be wary of venturing out on the hardwater until at least after the next cold snap. Its no biggie to walk out for now. I guess you will need to hang a spoon on a tip up or second rod nearby from now on, eh? I sure would!!! Nice Fish!]

REPORT: Another day on the water with some clients. This was nearly a repeat of two days before. They had quadruple hits, triple takedowns, doubles, and well, it was just hot action to the end of the trip. Limits on winter kings were filled (and a ping pong paddle) and will provide some good eating in the future. Here are a couple of the anglers fishing this day. Sorry for the Low Light blurry exposure. Shane fishes to get fish for his clients. If it takes a long day and he needs the deck lights on to capture a picture, well, cell phone pics aren't the best under those conditions.

REPORT: An unbelievable day on the water. And truly a day that none of the anglers or skipper will easily forget. Fishing action from the first dropdown was nonstop and it was tough to get all four rods and downriggers to depth before something got hit. Four anglers plus a proxy fishing today. Had two quadruple takedowns, 3 triple takedowns, 1 double and a number of singles all in just 1 1/2 hours of fishing. Shane had Steve Walli, Butch Leman and Lynn Whitmore onboard this day. All longtime experienced anglers who knew how to put fish in the net. A number of kings were released before deciding to fill out the proxy with two for Marie. And a sweet bonus was a couple of ping pong paddles that will make excellent halibut fish sandwiches. This was a trip with the postcard saying, "Wish You Were Here!"

REPORT: Two of us walked in to Egumen to check out the early winter 'bow fishing. Ice was about 8 inches in most spots. Fishing was pretty slow but steady enough to keep us around for a few hours. Most fish were running in the 12 to low teens. Kept two for the dinner table. Fish had lots of parasites on their gills as usual.

REPORT: For those who look forward to the annual opening of the NLRA snowmachine trails the wait is over. Currently there is 19 inches of total snow depth on all trails. Pike fishing in the lakes further down the Nancy Lake Parkway road is only accessible during the winter by skis or snowmachines beyond the closed gate. Here are the current conditions.

REPORT: Went to see how the ice is doing out on Hidden Lake yesterday. Checked ice periodically to about 100 yards out from the boat launch. Clear new ice 4 inches in all spots I checked. Still needs a bit more time before I would feel comfortable venturing any further on foot. Just playing the waiting game for now. Be safe venturing out on any of these larger lakes.

REPORT: Went to Forrest Lake on Friday 11/25 with the day off of work and we caught six rainbows. The ice was 6-8 inches. Went to Arc lake on Sunday to try out the new Eskimo ice shanty and we caught six little rainbows, it is a good place to take the kids right now but the fish are small. Arc Lake has 6 inches of clear ice and 2 inches of overflow ice. I believed they planted grayling in Arc Lake also, but we didn't get any of those. Keep your stick on the ice and good luck fishing.

[AOJ: Indeed there were some grayling fry stocked in Arc Lake but they are definitely elusive. I fished for them last year with a camera downhole and never saw any. Fished the lake twice this summer from my pontoon boat for about two hours each time and caught lots of trout but only a single grayling. It was about 8 inches and healthy. They may be hanging out in a different part of the lake maybe.]

REPORT: Some buddies and I got out to Harding Lake for our first ice fishing trip 2011-12 this last weekend. The ice is about 6 inches clear and 3 inches cloudy. We dragged our sleds out just to be safe. Lots of noise the ice made, its a deep lake and there was evidence of overflow all over the surface. None the less we made it to a spot, saw 4 other huts ot on the lake.

We fished in about 110 feet. It was not long after Ron got his first mark of a fish and "Fwham!" his tube jig got smashed. He ended up bringing up a nice Arctic Char that measured out just shy of about 30 inches. Fishing remained slow (as normal) when I marked I fish and "Fwham!" It felt like a freight train smacked head on to my jig. This time a laker and at about 70 feet. The fish went just longer than my "stick of knowledge" which goes about 30 inches.

Our buddy Jeff finally had a fish slam his jig about an hour later "Fwham". The Laker was brought to the surface and was also about 30 inches. Ron added another Arctic Char (about 24 incher). I call it all an Alaskan Ice Fishing Tri-Fecta since we each got a fish, and each fish went at or about 30 inches long. Good first trip for a lake we sometimes call Hardluck Harding. Cant wait to return!


[AOJ: That's amazing that such a relatively small lake (2 miles in diameter with max. depth=178) right along the highway system and so close to Fairbanks has such a fine fishery. With a start to the season like that, I'd go back and get skunked six more times before becoming even the slightest bit discouraged. You already know what the potential is on a hot day. Thanks for the ice report and pics.]

REPORT: You have your good days, and then you have your bad days....

Today was the latter. Hit the ice about 11:30am. Finished at 5:30pm. 6 hours...

I was all excited since I got my new GoPro2 and the flat lenses. Well I tried a side by side comparison. My GoPro 960 (old one) footage was...well...black exposure. The new one was better but grainy. It sure seemed dark for noon. Hopefully a better review of the differences sooner than later.

The only thing to report today is I saw an F350 with a plow come off of Big Lake at the Polaris dealership on the south shore. So they are driving on the lake though the ice wasn't too much thicker than last week (12 inches). Maybe a tad over a foot but more clear ice.

The minute and a half video pretty much sums up my day... you just have to watch the video. Too tired, too bummed to talk about today. I actually saw a few fish...too bad I didn't get them on video. I guess it wasn't THAT bad but still...

Good thing I am a firm believer in the law of averages. It is a "law" you know...not the theory of....

Video 1 minute 38 seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2HVgM7E8EM

[AOJ: Well K_84 I must say you may not have been very successful today but you continue to be entertaining. ROFL That's why I keep one of those telescopic $3 magnets with me when I ice fish or spear. Of course under the right conditions that would have made a great ROLEX commercial. I guess the lesson learned today is ALWAYS take your GPS to mark your exact fishing location for possible future open water references. (snorkel snorkel) Thanks for the "truck on the ice" report.

I think things might turn ugly on some of our lakes as this next storm comes in. NOAA is forecasting a significant heavy snowfall for the Valley area and that weight could initiate some major overflow again on some of the lakes. Expecting blizzard conditions late Tuesday into Wednesday for Portage and Turnagain Arm if high winds and snowfall occur simultaneously. Heavy snowfall on the Kenai Peninsula on late Tuesday turning to rain as far up as maybe Kenai on Wednesday. Significant tropical moisture is being drawn into this next low pressure system moving into western Alaska that will hit Southcentral with appreciable amounts of snow and/or rain. Get ready for another extreme.]

REPORT: I went to the lake which is in my yard and tried and caught 15 landlocks. All released. I fished there for five years and never saw that many. Perhaps last year got some silvers in the lake. This last Sept. there were 15+ silver spawners and that lake gets what ever the little creeks offer. The ice was six to seven inches. I lost two rainbows both around twenty inches. If you go, use powerbait on small crappie jigs.

[AOJ: Thanks for the ice report too. Silvers are a very resilient species and besides those fry that hatch out from lake spawning all the silver fry that were spawned in the creek will migrate to the lake for rearing during the wintertime too. So in a way they wouldn't be landlocked and probably go to sea in the Spring as smolt. I checked the ADFG records and there hasn't been any stocking on Reflection Lake so that is all natural. Kardinal_84 has seen a lot of salmon smolt in Big Lake this winter too. Hopefully its a good sign we might see some good returns in 2013 when these fish come back.]

REPORT: Well folks, I've known Shane for a great many years and he is the one who initially taught me everything I know about winter pike fishing and pike spearing as well as helped me put together the first ADFG Pike Fishing video. Plus we've spent a number of days in the goose blind and duck blind together over the years as well as some times on the river. And most of you readers that are "AOJ regulars" know that the few advertisers I have on AOJ are folks I stake MY OWN reputation on as being upstanding and outstanding longtime Alaskans who are dedicated to giving their clients the best possible experience even under the most challenging conditions.

Shane will be coming on board shortly as the latest AOJ sponsor who has met my personal qualifications. And anyone who has been reading these private fishing reports since the beginning of AUGUST this year are well aware of all the fishing trips and photos I've posted on Shane's saltwater adventures out of Homer for rockfish, lingcod, halibut, migrating silvers, and feeder king salmon. He has produced some very impressive results for his clients as the photos prove. And consistency is a major component in Shane's fishing equation.

I could go on and on about this person I highly respect as a true Alaskan outdoorsman in every aspect of the definition, from hunting mountain goats to digging clams to finding fish in the salt or fresh. But enough for now.

Shane had a group of four hearty anglers out fishing on the day after Thanksgiving....the first day this cold spell has offered for any boats to even get out of the harbor lately but still the temperatures were not friendly. You will be able to assess that assumption for yourself from the photos attached! It was a tough day of fishing with a major ground swell, sometimes to nine feet, washing through the fishing grounds and causing freezing spray but the anglers were all up to the task as well as the skipper.

The boat had a QUADRUPLE TAKEDOWN!! Four rods went off within 30 seconds of each other resulting in 3 solid hookups fought to the boat (the fourth a shake off) and two landed with the third throwing the hook. More trolling resulted in one more king in the fish box before the water conditions were becoming a major factor. The group was all for continuing to fish in calmer waters so Shane pulled the gear and headed for the islands where some shelter from the swells could be found. It didn't take long to put another fish on the hook and in the fish box to give each angler a fish for the trip home. Where else can you go KING fishing in Alaska in the middle of winter and end up with something to take home?

REPORT: So I decide to try somewhere other than Big Lake. I've had success at this lake before in past years. Though the fish don't seem to be as large as the ones in Big Lake, there typically are more of them...usually. Found ten inches of nice clear ice.

Set up the shack and in the first 7 minutes, I hook a char that I estimate to be 22 + inches...twice! Didn't ice him though. Both times, the hook just fell out at the hole. I am surprised he stuck around after getting hooked and pulled all the way up into the hole the first time.

Notice in the video I posted below how interested he is in the lure but only took it in his mouth two or three times. Keep in mind I am looking from directly above so I can tell if he has the hoochie in his mouth or not. Except for the time I hook him and one miss, he came by and just swatted at it. I am surprised to see from the side video view that he was actually opening his mouth. From above it just looked like he came cruising up to it and swatted it with his head. Notice the fish didn't fight at all either. Not sure what was going on. The initial charge looked aggressive but after that, it just seemed super lazy.

Well after that fish, I only saw a few more fish and none were char. All the fish I saw after the char were after it got dark. So how could I see them after dark? I got to test my underwater LED lighting system! Worked great...except I didn't catch anything. In the video, you will notice all the little dots. they looked almost like brine shrimp and as soon as I turned the light on, they were just swarming around it. Maybe I watch too much National Geographic, but I thought for sure something would come feasting on them like small trout or even sticklebacks. But NADDA. It also allowed me to sight fish in another hole about 4 feet away. That was pretty cool.

I did manage to ice a sucker on a spoon tipped with shrimp. Kept him for lake trout and pike bait. Cut him up into smaller strips so I can tip my jigs. I saw a HUGE sucker after it got dark. I was all excited thinking it was a big char but on closer inspection, it was definitely a sucker. Did not know they got so big. I bet it was well over 25 inches.

I also had something else on after I tipped my spoon with a small piece of sucker meat. Stepped outside, came back in and peered down the hole and couldn't see my spoon. Set the hook and I saw something medium size, maybe 14 inches or so take off.

Hmmm.....

So for 5 hours on the ice, I see one nice char, two suckers, a mystery fish, AND 5 muskrats. Who knows it could have been the same one but it was starting to irritate me popping up in my hole so often. I even moved my shack once into deeper water but I could still see it whizzing by my area. First it scared me, then it was just a nuisance. I almost forcefully relocated it, but didn't want to deal with a pissed off muskrat in the confines of my shack. I've tried looking for it on the video but I couldn't find it. I was surprised that it was still active after dark.

I also got my gopro hero2, a eye of mine flat lens housing, AND a mako flat lens kit. I ordered the gopro from Mako so the lens was free. I can't wait to try it out!

Here's the video 2:45 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OY8CUfk_Gc

[AOJ: About the Char: noticing the fish's belly was very emaciated and smaller diameter than the fish's head there was definitely something affecting the fish and probably causing the lethargic movements...lack of energy for lack of food. I saw a condition similar to this in a Dolly Varden we caught many years ago at the outlet of Skilak. 28 incher but its head was bigger than its stomach and it didn't put up much fight. Seemed heavy too for being so skinny. This was before the size limits so we boated it and proceeded to clean it. Inside its stomach was a belly full of ROCKS. This big Dolly had been sucking up loose salmon spawn in the gravel (it was late September) and a big pebble had plugged its intestine thereby preventing any contents from passing through. It had continued to feed on the eggs in the gravel and ended up with a belly full of gravel and a slow death by starvation once the belly was full. Your fish doesn't appear to have the same malady but it was definitely sick from something.

The copepods are what fuel the food chain for all the tiny salmon fry that rear in our lakes. Great protein and calcium for the little fish. They are kinda like shrimp since they prefer to come out at night to prevent getting eaten especially if you live in a lake with 10 million sockeye and silver fry growing up.

Good on for the GPII and the Eye of Mine clear focus housing. You'll be amazed that in crystal clear water the sharpness is as good underwater as top side. Definitely hang on to all those suckers. Gold!

Well I couldn't resist the shopping urge Friday myself. Was at Trustworthy and they had a Fri-Sat-Sun only sale on Eskimo Quikfish 3 tents for $139. Oh geez! At that price I just couldn't pass this up even though I have the Cabelas version already. But its great for a buddy tent so friends can go along and spread out on the lake when we fish. What I am curious about is my Cabelas is 72 inches x 72 inches and the QF3 is 70"x70" and perhaps I can slide my Cabelas OVER the QF3 to give me a dead air space insulation layer (like a rain fly) for staying much warmer during those super cold days. If it fits up and works its definitely a two man setup though since you must lift the outer tent up and over the QF3. The hubs sticking out on the QF3 might end up being a problem but they are flexible and I may be able to pop one side IN temporarily to give the outside tent enough room to drop right down, then pop the hub back out. I'll keep everyone posted if this method works. Condensate frost and ice on the inside of fishing tents is a real pain when packing up for the trip home and one should always set up the tent in the garage or shop or basement to dry out to prevent mildew and mold or just a frozen tent when you go to set up the next time. ]

REPORT: I took a first-time ice fisherman out on Matanuska Lake this past Sunday and he caught a limit of 5 rainbow trout, perhaps 8 landlocked king salmon, and two small arctic char. The two largest fish were both rainbow trout of about 13 inches. Ice depth seemed to be about 6 inches in the first area we fished, but when we moved to a second area ice seemed to be only about 4 inches. Ice was creaking, cracking and making a lot of noise even though the weather was quite cold. Temperature was about 5 degrees below zero when I left my house and felt cold the entire time we were on the ice. Cold enough that I baited hooks, released small fish, and took keeper fish off the hook -- but my hands were numb enough that I did not bother to bait any hooks for my own use. The landlocked salmon were definitely larger than last year -- perhaps 8 inches, but still on the small size. I'm anxiously awaiting the new ADF&G hatchery in Anchorage putting out some larger stocked fish once again -- but from what I've heard that may not occur in any quantity until next summer or beyond.

Enjoyed a decent day of ice fishing, but would recommend for those anglers who fish out on the ice without shelter it is definitely a more pleasurable experience on days when the temperature is at least 20 degrees or warmer! With that thought in mind, I'm planning to let temperatures warm up before I try it again. On the plus side these cold temperatures are making stronger ice.

REPORT: This is my second trip out ice fishing this year. The ice was 8 inches, 4 inches of clear and 4 inches of white ice. Jigging in the shallows we fished 2 hours and caught 5 nice rainbows about 18 inches.

REPORT: With the recent deep freeze, I figured the ice would be ready on Big Lake so I thought I'd give it a try. A secondary reason was to test a new set up for some underwater videos from a little different angle.

Got off to a late start and hit the ice around 1pm. Knowing that Big Lake had only recently frozen over, I decided to stay really close to shore. Ice felt solid so I dug two test holes about 30 ft from shore. Found about 12 inches of ice with 6 of it being clear ice and the other 6 inches a much weaker white ice. Still that's plenty of ice so I set up my portable shelter and turn on the propane heat and despite it being -1 deg when I started, it was nice and comfy.

What surprised me today was the number of small salmon I saw, We used to see them maybe 10 or more years ago, but about 5 years ago, they just seemed to completely disappear. But they are back in force now. Not sure if they were silvers or reds but the one I accidentally snagged was about 8 inches long. I was amazed when I looked at the video how many were actually in the area. The day was cloudy so not much light and I didn't see anywhere near that many looking down the hole even though I was in a dark shack.

Ended the day with two rainbows 15 and 16 inches long. One caught on a pearl krocodile spoon and the other on a dodger and jig with a mini hoochie.

I'd say the underwater footage was okay but will need to work on additional lighting or another angle. Next time, I plan to bring my underwater lights and give it a go as well. I had to lighten up the video so its a bit grainy. I will work on that. I guess it's not a bad first effort. Will be better on a sunny day. I hear the new GoPro 2 cameras are much better in low light conditions. I guess I will have to pick one up!
Here's the video link for the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKTBrnQHkDs

[AOJ: Thanks for the ice report. Looks like Big Lake is back to producing LOTS of pike food. Just think of all those ten pounders lurking in the weed beds waiting for those schools of juicy morsels to come swimming by. I'll have to pass on the GoPro II for a while since I haven't put my two Version I cams to the test much yet. Getting close though. Plan to attach one to the underside of my AquaVu camera so I can have a top side view of what the high def camera is recording in color. I'm already down to one crutch part of the time so it won't be long now!]

REPORT: Just an ice thickness report. A good 8 inches of ice on the lake today. Went out to test the new indoor propane heater (worked like a charm), made sure the power auger was still in good form, and the Eskimo 3 person portable pop up shelter(acquired from Costco last spring for $69!) popped up correctly. Happy Fishing :)

[AOJ: WoW! Killer price on a $200+ pop tent. Good Score! I've added one more item to my equipment list this year for safety. Lots of times when in your ice shanty, spearing darkhouse, or fishing shack you have the heater on which can pose potential low oxygen levels or carbon monoxide poisoning. For $28 on Amazon I bought a KIDDE battery-powered combination Smoke/Fire detector and Carbon Monoxide detector that has an alarm and voice warning messages. Buddy heaters are great in fishing tents and shacks because they have an automatic shut off when sensing LOW Oxygen levels but have no safe guards for CO. For $28 and free shipping I've added another level of safety to my wintertime fishing that takes up little space.

Thanks for the ice report. I'm going to test a few local lakes on Monday around Soldotna with Banjo George and report those.]

REPORT: Well I just had to show off my new SIX FIGURE Titanium Fishing Rod. Great for fly fishing, trolling, bait casting, back-bouncing, back trolling, mooching and ice fishing. Notice the exclusive one-of-a-kind extremely sensitive tip with strike indicator and the combo anchor pin and hook holder near the rod handle. This one will outlast me! Virtually rustproof, unbreakable and indestructable. My early Christmas present. Can't wait to get off the crutches and try it out!! It's getting close. Will be ready as soon as the cold snap(s) pass. May have to drill a few test holes at the beginning of the week for an ice update for the KP.

REPORT: The Interior lakes are frozen and ready for action. The ice is clear and any where from 6-9 inches thick. Deeper lakes are the thinnest. Went out to Quartz Lake this last Friday and caught some quality rainbows. Its fun to put up a hut and in the darkness be able to see all the way to the bottom. The biggest rainbow on Friday went 20 inches. We caught fish by jigging tube jigs at a mid depth and dead stickin bait near the bottom. Reports from Birch Lake I received seemed to mirror the experience we had at Quartz. Ice will continue to grow with temps around -30 and colder this week. Have fun and be safe.


[AOJ: Ah you Interior folks and your already thick clear ice. We just didn't have the same luck as you this year with an "in between snowfall" after the first inch of ice that caused a bunch of overflow to mess up our freeze. Its getting there but just not as fast as we want with the slush. Haven't been to IceShanty.com in a couple of weeks but I'll bet its starting to heat up on the Alaska board. I'll have to get by there soon to see if anyone is sticking any pike yet. LL is probably getting fished by now. Thanks for the submission. ~pikesticker~]

REPORT: Only fished for an hour. Slow fishing. One nice fat rainbow for the effort.

ICE CONDITIONS: Sunday 11/13 - Two inches of clear ice on the bottom, three inches of overflow slush in the middle and one inch of frozen overflow on the top.


[AOJ: Nice fish for the effort. I checked Sport Lake on Thursday 11/10/11 and had one inch of clear lake ice, two inches of partially frozen slush overflow and one inch of frozen slush on top. Hopefully this windstorm is blowing away some of the insulation on the lakes and finally freezing that slush layer in between. I still wouldn't drive a wheeler or snowmachine on any of the local Peninsula lakes yet, even if there were a few tracks. Give it another week for sleds and wheelers.]

REPORT: I guess it's just as important to report when you aren't catching fish as it is when you are catching fish. Catching is a LOT warmer and definitely more fun...

So not having fished past weekend and on my day off Friday, I HAD to go somewhere. Check the weather and its supposed to be above freezing but windy. Look at the weather station and no wind...hmmm. Well I am going stir crazy so I HAD to try it.

Launched at the Bridge in Cooper Landing. No wind, sweet! That is until I turned the corner. Then it was HOWLING! Holy Cow. In the slow sections of the river, I had to paddle downstream to actually move downstream in some spots. So I only fished for maybe 30 minutes as I just checked out the sites seeing as though this was my first time ever drifting this section of the river. Hard to believe.

The water levels have come down dramatically but I was disappointed to see the water was still silty with visibility less than 20 inches. Maybe a little over a foot.

Two bits of excitement. First going through the Princess Lodge rapids. Not sure if I got lucky but it was easy. No sweat.

Second didn't seem as bad on video but at the time, it was a shot of adrenalin for sure. The wind starts to pick up and it catches my paddle causing my body to lean over a bit, The yak starts tipping and another gust hits the yak and it sure felt like I was going over. Not good since I was in the middle of the river avoiding the sweepers and shallow stuff.

The lesson for the day was I need to upgrade my footwear. Probably just a few more wool socks. Standing in the river was miserable! My hands were fine just wearing disposable gloves. Even with the metal paddle pole. But my toes were freezing. Also I knew it from ice fishing but my Olympus Stylus tough 8010 is wimpy when it comes to cold. Had to shove it in my drysuit to warm it up a bunch of times and then it would only work for 10 minutes or so. Gopro worked great.

So here's the video of a few sections if anyone wonders what its like to float the Upper Kenai in November...here ya go.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3cZz8JM6dk


[AOJ: Brutal Wind Storm @ Headquarters: On 11/15/11 the windstorm began last evening and continues at HQ all day Wednesday with predictions on into tonight. And even though the air temp is 18°F today the chill factor is putting a fair amount of slush on the Kenai LONG before it typically freezes over in Soldotna (usually between Xmas and New Yrs). Normally at these temps the river would remain ice free. Nasty out there. Especially for the condition that I'm in now. You'll have to read the "report" I'll post at the top here to fill you all in. Its a doozy!]

REPORT: Well, the Kenai River continues to slowly rise. Should crest on Tuesday below July bank levels. Visibility is about 28 inches with some turbidity as the rising water washes the dried rocks. Water temp is a balmy 37 degrees. Unfortunately all the boat ramps have closed down for the winter with the exception of Skilak Lake ramps and the upper Kenai ramps. So all this good water is going to waste!

Well now for the big surprise. You all should keep track of the weather reports for the next day or two and if you don't have everything in the yard picked up and stored away you might want to put it in high gear right away. We have a doozey of a storm headed our way and it is LITERALLY OFF THE SCALE on the barometer. There are a couple of scenarios. If it remains cold enough it could dump a big load of snow on us. If it remains warm we might dodge the bullet and get a load of rain, basically eliminating our current accumulation and starting over for the winter. That's my preferred choice!

In the Tuesday National Weather Service chart BELOW you can see the Low Pressure area is 947 millibars at its core. So what? Well if you have a barometer laying/hanging around, check it out. You'll notice that 947 is below the end of the scale with 950 millibars as the last number. 947 equates to about 28.00 inches of mercury, again the last number on the barometer scale. Tuesday shows RAIN on Alaska's west coast. Might carry through and then again might turn white on Wednesday. Time will tell. Disclaimer: These predictions are for entertainment purposes ONLY. Your version may vary depending on mileage. LOL

REPORT: Not out fishing but checked the water levels at noon today and the water is flowing at it's mid June levels here in Sterling. Clarity is excellent and all is quiet. Eagles are scooping up the remains of the fall spawning run and still a few ducks straggling behind the large flocks that went through a couple of weeks ago. All the Swans have departed the Moose River and lots of their area is frozen over with a light coat ice. The light snow we had last week is prime for making snowmen as it is 35 today and balmy. Bears are gone for the winter - I think - and the moose are starting to show back up to do their winter trimming. We are still infested with rabbits!!

[AOJ: Snow Lake outburst peaked in the upper Kenai River in Cooper Landing @ 8am Friday morning, hitting 12.9 feet and 11,000 cu. ft./second flow rate. Water is still filling Skilak Lake and Soldotna level has only gained 1/2 foot so far with 7.8 feet on the bridge gauge and a flow rate of only 6890 cu.ft/second. So there will be another 1-2 foot+ in level and an added 2/3 more flow rate over the next couple of days. Viz at headquarters in Soldotna this morning was 24 inches, slightly cloudy as the increase in flow rate stirs up some of the settled silt and fines. Golden eye are moving from the lakes to the river now as ice over continues and the winter resident mallards are still waiting for the AOJ headquarters riverbank to become dry so the annual Cracked Corn Festival and Feast can begin for them.]

REPORT: Woke up at the Anchor Inn this morning. Looked out the window and noticed a dusting of snow. Packed up and drove north to Deep Creek. Cold and slushy. Hooked 2 steelies and landed them both.

[AOJ: Thanks for the steelie report BKMIsteelheader. Just to let you know, the reports are emailed to me rather than automatically posted. That gives me an opportunity to clean up spelling and grammar errors (I get some that you would have a hard time figuring out what they said. LOL) and occasionally add additional info related to the regs or other details. Since I'm on the computer 30 hours a day, rain or shine, I usually get them posted shortly. Once in a while I get backlogged or left town to go fish and they are posted a few days later.]

REPORT: I didn't fish Saturday so of course I had to go try on Sunday. Woke up, looked out side, rubbed my eyes, looked outside again. Hmmm something is not registering correctly. Open the door and "What is this?" Oh yeah, the term is "snow." That's not a good start to the day when you are trying to fish open water.

I decided to wait till it was lighter outside given the excitement of my trip on Friday. I was really looking forward to today since I can't recall not catching fish two times in a row this year. Well this has been a year of 'firsts' for me, and I can chalk up another first the first time I didn't catch fish in two consecutive outings. Bummer.

I get down to Cooper Landing and drop into the shuttle service I think about 12:30pm. The guy at the counter said they had stopped service for the day. ARGH! Tried to be safe and paid the price. I thought about calling Max at the other shuttle service but it was just too late in the day since he is based out of Sterling. Well I am here, I better fish. So I turn into the Cooper Creek Campground scramble down a bank and gave it a try. Visibility was less than two feet so I didn't have much hope. KK had warned us about the ice dam breaking on Snow Lake in October! Why do you have to be right so dang often, KK?? Threw flesh flies, beads, and big colorful leeches hoping for the cohos. Nadda

Tried the bridge. Lots of water there too of course. Visibility was worse at about 20 inches. Lost a few flies in the rocks and pilings so I didn't stay long. Another reason to leave was I noticed a steady sheen coming down the river. It was a silver sheen meaning it was a VERY thin sheen. Still you could smell it a little bit. Must be due to the high water picking things up off the banks. Not good.

So there ya have it. I hate having to post two "condition" reports instead of "catching" reports in a row. But at least for me, information from a bad day is equally as important as the information from the hot days. The only problem is that on bad days, you never know if it was the condition or operator error. I'd be curious to hear what others might have to say. How good is the fishing when visibility is so low?

Well, you have to put in the time I guess. Will try to have a better report sooner than later!

Video of the conditions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfz-1WxdNsw

[AOJ: I sure hope that was salmon oil sheen from carcasses along the shoreline. Well, I don't know the status of lakes up your way as far as open water and launchability. BUT, beginning November 1st, whole herring baits are allowed for pike fishing in BIG LAKE all winter. Readers SEE REGULATIONS as there are very strict rules for herring bait use in Big Lake during the winter now. This past summer a group trolled herring over the weed beds and nailed some very nice pike. You might consider dragging a flat line with a herring over the weedy coves. And there is always Hidden Lake which freezes late due to its depth and temperature for an open water lake trout experience. SNOWING at headquarters today. Tad over an inch of fine stuff so far. NOT ready for this.]

REPORT: I too had fun driving on the highway too but my adventure was on Sunday driving back to Anchorage in the snowed on roads, but first my fish report.

I got fishing around 3 pm and on my 5th cast I got a hit but when it jumped out of the water it looked like a dark spawned out silver but then when I got it near the bank it was one of them JUMBO RAINBOWS. Then I thought this monster must have chased all the silvers away, but a few casts later WHAM! a monster buck hits my vibrax and bent the heck out of it, then the first cast after that wham! a hen attacked that cast as it hit the icy river. I also had a good size dolly dancing on top of the water for 10 seconds but it released itself. And then after a break for dinner, NOTHING!

And Sunday morning in the snow NOTHING! But then I saw Mr. Seal and I knew it was time to pack it up. Now back to my ride home, I'm driving a few miles past Bings and I see 2 pickups in the ditch on the other side (don't know which way they were headed) so I slow down from 40 to 30 and that's when the fun started, my rear end just slipped, I was going sideways in both lanes (luckily no one coming the other way) but I was turning backwards so I steered into it but it over corrected and I spun the other way and hit the ditch feeling like I had to get flipped but didn't, just faced the wrong way somehow. I was lucky my truck was still running and drivable, so after a few failed runs I got out of the ditch and headed back home but when I got there and went to get the silvers out of the back in a trash bag only the big buck was there! So if anyone finds a silver on the Sterling Hwy. it was mine but you can keep it.

P.S. Somehow the Kenai was higher than last week, GO FIGURE!

[AOJ: I too had a close call tonight coming back from a barbecue. Was only doing 20 as I approached the last 50 yards to the stop sign at the end of Robinson Loop and noticed a lot of skid marks on glare ice. Hitting the brakes just started the slide but it was interesting to feel the pulsing of all four brakes independent of each other in an attempt to minimize the skid. I ended up with my nose on the fog line of the Sterling Highway with an oncoming truck just 100 yards down the road. Bet it puckered his you know what when he saw me slide out towards his lane.

On the Kenai level, looks like the USGS prediction that Snow Glacier Lake was due to outburst in October is coming true. The trend appears to indicate the Snow River glacial lake is starting to drain. If so it'll be a ten day or so cycle and probably come up 2-3 feet which means to the grass line in the lower Kenai again. Lots of navigation water for a short time. This is the gauge in Cooper Landing on the Kenai KENAI LEVEL @ COOPER LANDING.

REPORT: Well you got to report the bad with the good to have any credibility....except when you read the post from KK of the SAME DAY! I think the SAME PLACE. I guess I didn't talk to Shane's boat!

So I leave the house at 5:30am. It's definitely getting colder!

But the roads are dry so no problem...I thought! After I cross the Twenty Mile River bridge, my car starts wobbling. At first I thought it was the wind. But no, its different. Do I have a flat? No...then what the heck could it be? Then I see a thick bank of fog. OH OH...NOT GOOD...it's BLACK ICE! If you know the Whittier turn off, you know the lanes are divided there. I hit the brakes knowing I have my trusty anti lock brakes and...NOTHING! The car didn't slow down one little bit. After about 100 yards I would guess, I have it down to 35 mph. I am IMPRESSED with the Civic Si's traction control. Well too impressed, that's what let me drive so fast on black ice in the first place!

As the lanes divide, there is NO WAY I am going to make the corner. So do I slam into the poles and signs in the divider and risk impaling myself on a post? I don't really care about the car at this point. I have time so I look ahead and nothing is coming, I turn the wheel slightly to the left and I take the corner in the wrong lane! I'm driving south....One life down...eight left...

NOT good. But I make it. I pull over check the road and it is a skating rink. After regaining my composure, I head back down the road going about 25mph. I don't make it more than 400 yards when I come across a truck in the ditch with headlights on and still running.

I jump out, holler a few times and then dial 911. The operator said they were talking to the driver who had been picked up a few minutes earlier. I hope he is alright.

As soon we get off Turnagain Arm, the roads are fine. Well the roads are fine but once I hit Ninilchik, a cow moose jumps in front of me. By the time I hit my brakes, the moose was behind me. 2 lives down, 7 left.

Oh yeah, this is a fishing forum. Well that's simple, I started at 11:00am finished at 5:30pm and caught NOTHING...well two pollock but that doesn't count.

I had one good take down but it didn't stick the fish. I thought the consolation was that I spoke with quite a few boats and only one boat had one fish. Okay, it's slow for everyone. Then I get in my car and check my email. I pull up the AOJ reports and WHAT? recheck the date...DOUBLE WHAT?!?!?! Well Shane must really know his stuff because with the two fish, he out fished everyone I talked too! I guess the real consolation was that I feared the fish had moved off to greener pastures. Shane proved that they can still be caught close to the spit which is definitely good for me!

So the video for today is merely a boring video of the conditions. The wide angle gopro lens does not do the wave size justice. Too bad I didn't get the killer whales playing in the area!

Here' the vid. Once again there isn't much to see. But I know there are folks who are interested in the type of conditions a yak can handle. While fun, I wasn't at all concerned. This was fairly normal water when we were fishing Deep Creek area in the spring. Keep in mind that these waves were at least 3 ft with the big ones had to be in the 5 ft range. They weren't white caps but they were actually breaking off shore which made them even more dangerous. There is no way I would have taken a river skiff out in this area in these conditions. Having said that, for most of the day it was VERY nice!

While I didn't get any salmon, I did manage three snowshoe hares. Unfortunately it was with my car... there sure are a lot of them this year! Sorry bunnies.....

So today was a day to bank the hours. It just means the next fish will come that much faster. Got to keep at it! I'll be back!!!!!

Today's video of kayaking conditions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqrPeHf22DA

[AOJ: Well you definitely had a guardian angel along on that trip. It sounds like maybe that driver was pretty shook up and needing some medical attention to just leave everything all over the ground and the truck running on its side. No doubt it didn't run for long before seizing the engine with no oil lubrication. Didn't see an air bag deployed but looks like maybe it rolled. That black ice is really bad stuff.

Looking at your waves and mountain view it appears to be more or less looking in the same direction as the pic Shane took. But they sure had much nicer seas at that time. Glad you made it home safe. That email I sent you at 1:30am was early...I'm just getting this report posted at 3:30am!! Then again, YOU didn't send it in until 2am so I suspect you won't be getting up early and making another run to the beach. :-) Time for a nap.]

REPORT: Well these guys HAD to give up early so as not to miss the last game of the World Series. Too bad they couldn't have limited then I could have called the report, Seventh Inning Grand Slam. LOL Both were impressive fish, one at 23 pounds and the other at 25 pounds and 38 inches. They got something for the Barbie while watching the game....from the first pitch. Steve Wallie holding up one of the beauties he and Shane put in the fishbox. Good thing there is an endless supply of these "someone else's kings", eh? Nice going guys, looks like pretty nice seas too!

REPORT: Hey KK! Thanks again for all of the great info. I said it in my last post but I will say it again! YOU DEFINITELY HELPED MAKE MY YEAR!

So I set my alarm planning to hit the middle Kenai River. Because of that, I had my outback with me. Good thing! As I started rolling down the road, slowly but surely I convinced myself that I would drive the extra hours and hit the Kings in Homer. How could I not after yesterday's limit! I had no bait...wait, I smell herring in my car. I forgot to take it out so I had a day old herring in the car. Stopped everywhere looking for bait. Found none. So I did the next best thing and bought ziplock bags, pickling salt, and brined the old herring with additional herring oil, salt and water. Seemed to work okay!

I get down late and start around 11am. A few boats are hooking up but both fish and bait are a lot sparser than yesterday. I lose one fish in the first two hours and then nothing for the next three hours except Pollock until I hook the fish I eventually land. The guys in the inflatable I mentioned yesterday were HAMMERING fish. It was an impressive show of fish catching for sure. I think the guy even said he was working on his proxy fish.

Toward the end of the day, I screw up and somehow my line wraps around the spectra downrigger line. I pull it up and its all frayed up. No problem, I always carry a spare. Except my spare is a stiff fast action jigging rod loaded with braided line. Absolutely terrible for down rigging applications. As I was switching gear out, I drifted towards shore and into 40 feet of water. All of the sudden my sonar starts beeping (fish alarm) and my screen goes black. Whaaa? I even turn it off once. Same deal. Then as I clear the bait ball, I see fish everywhere. I even switch over to non fish ID and I see a bunch of classic arches. MOTHERLOAD! So I finally rig up and make passes over the spot with my jigging rod and braided line. three or four times the line pops out of the release and NOTHING. Hmmm...last pass the line just starts screaming out. Okay, this is a fish!!!!! As I reel in my downrigger, something is wrong. I first thought the downrigger drag was loose, but somehow I lost my ball. Dang clips, I know not to trust them. That's okay, I have decided 6 pounds is too light so I am going to start using my 8 pound weights.

I get it to the boat in short order, I look down and the hook pulls out and the line goes slack...for an instant! HEART ATTACK! The trailing hook lines the fish perfectly and I am back battling it again. LUCKY BREAK #1! Finally to net, the fish is over the net but somehow screams out. I can't believe the hooks didn't catch the net! LUCKY BREAK #2. I land it and its 34 inches so probably around 25 pounds! And to add to another first...it was a white king! My first one ever!

Of course as always, things are not always as easy as they seem. I got lucky yesterday going two for two. If it was that easy, I am sure there would be an armada of boats just scooping the kings up out of the Bay. It would be selling all of the charter captain's and people who have put in their time here short if I could just waltz in and think I could just keep hammering limits. So what are the lessons I learned today?

1. Perseverance pays off more often than not! If you read my logs, you know I say it over and over again. I'm not necessarily a good fisherman..I'm just stubborn and persistent! The fish I landed came as I was typing an email to you KK that one more hour and I am done...and I was already an hour past when I really wanted to get off the water but just couldn't do it. Yes, I was admitting defeat. I wish I had my other camera mounted facing me. The reason I missed the first part of the fight was I had the iphone in my mouth, but didn't want to bite down for fear of breaking the case so I had it shoved half way down my throat as I was cranking the downrigger (with no ball) and battling the fish!
2. Braided line does not work to well with downriggers. First the thin line doesn't stay put. Homer Dave gave me a great tip and said break a toothpick and put it in front of the line. But the other bad thing is with no stretch, you don't get the cushioning action when the line releases. So from here on out, its mono for all downrigging applications!
3. I've heard Steve the shrimp pot guy say it a lot but those longline clips don't hold all the time. I lost my downrigger ball somehow. Going to make it more permanent of an attachement.
4. 6lbs weight isn't enough. Too much blowback with big flashers and trolling 2knts plus.
5. A disadvantage of the kayak in this application is that I am trolling slower than others so I catch more pollock and cod than the power boats. Not sure what to do about this. Get in better shape or just suck it up and be happy I am catching something.
6. I definitely need to get new gear that is better suited for downrigging. Softer action, longer rod so i can take up slack better. I may use my flyrods but that means I need to get a different rod holder. Need to think about this a bit.
7. I have to figure out a lens cleaning system. I wear only wool or polypro on the water so I have nothing that can clean off water from my lens!

REPORT: The river went down a lot faster than I expected, over 2 feet in a week. But just as I hoped the fish were showing up again. Everything was on the bite. Above Bings should be the place to limit out this week.

FISH ON!

REPORT: Calm weather, flat seas, nice temps. Time to go fishing. Well at least for Shane and Steve. In less than two hours they landed a respectable limit of kings for themselves, shook off 4 or 5 dinks, saw another 5 on the UW camera that wouldn't hit and back at the dock before the third pack of troll herring had thawed!

I tell ya folks, the Homer Winter King Fishery is a SLEEPER and quite the fishery once you get it dialed. And from October 1st thru March 31st the limit is TWO per day, NO annual limit during this period so you don't record them on your license. But remember you DO NEED a King Stamp to fish for them! If you don't have a boat or don't want to mess with it just go out with a good skipper and leave your boat stored and winterized.

REPORT: I'll bet most Alaskans have probably seen the ADF&G Public Service Announcement about the killer that is stalking Southcentral waters and decimating local trout and salmon stocks. And I'll bet that everyone has seen that WANTED POSTER at the end of the video clip and wondered what it said since its too tiny and quick to be able to read it other than the $5000 Reward. Well, in browsing around on the ADFG website this evening I stumbled, literally, upon a single tiny link that points to the full size poster. So for those who might interested in what it said, just click the thumbnail here.

Oh and for those who would like to see what a $28,260 PAYDAY looks like, here is Chad back at his home after receiving the Homer Halibut Jackpot Derby Grand Prize. Dang, that's gonna buy a lot of bait next year!

REPORT: Somewhere between Potters Marsh and Portage on 10/15/2011 around 9:00am I had my fly rod, reel and case blow out of the back of the truck I was riding in. Please give me a call if you happened to find this road kill item Saturday morning.

After discovering my flyrod was gone, I continued to the upper Kenai for a couple of hours of trout fishing. Tried fishing beads, had a couple strikes but very little success. Switched to dirty flesh fly and FISH ON....All Dollies and very good size to them all. One of the large Dollies pushing high 20's.
Thanks for the help,
Kory
phone #907-244-7736

REPORT: Hit the upper from Sportsmans to Jim's. Started at 9am and had to be off the water by 1pm to catch a flight.

Today was a day of "should have" beens. Right away lost a couple smaller rainbows on my new 6wt Echo. Love the rod but it's twice as heavy as my 4wt. Sure bangs out the larger flesh flies well. So as soon as I stop being a wimp it will be sweet.

Switched to my 4wt and 6mm mottled pink bead and landed a feisty fat 16 inch rainbow. So having the skunk off, I really wanted to see the new Echo Flex so I decided to toss some big leech patterns and ESLs.

No love from the cohos so to give my arm a break, switched back to the 4wt with the 6mm bead and 6lbs tippet. Second cast my line screams up river even before I had a chance to set the hook and a huge coho comes out of the water. Looked to be in pretty decent shape. Line breaks without even tightening up on it. Must have had a nick.

All I lost was the hook so retie and two casts later another silver explodes on top of the water. This one screams around for 10 seconds and I break it off again. Argh. I'm better than that with light line.

Not sure if I lined them or what but I can't see why they would ignore larger flies and seem like hammer 6mm beads.

Still have not seen a dolly in 4 trips. Rainbows, whitefish, and now cohos. But no char...hmmmm.

I have short video ready for the one bow I landed for those who might be interested in water level and color. Water was low and very green. Not dirty but visibility seemed down. Would the spike in the snow river levels do this?
Well I suppose you have to document the bad and mediocre days with the good to get a good history down!
Here's the video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcLWS1TG4c4

REPORT: When we got to the river it was "July High" and looked like it was over the bank a few days ago form the Skilak glacier spill. The Silvers were back and fresh (hitting spinners) and so were the (BIG) seals, still not as good as the last several years for this time of year. "Better luck and water next week."

[AOJ: As of Sunday morning, 10/16, the river level is dropping from its peak and remains very clear from Skilak to the lower river. Levels are below the top of the banks now. USGS is expecting Snow River glacial lake to initiate an "outburst" and drain sometime this month. Both Skilak Glacier and Snow Glacier have been on Two year dump cycles since 2000 when before that they were on 3 year cycles with an occasional 4 year cycle thrown in. Another indicator of warmer conditions on the Peninsula this past decade? Anyway, upper river rafters and drifters should monitor the River Gauge level link I posted below in another report to see what the stream conditions are doing. I may be doing some steelhead fishing later this week with Mike Tuhy at Tower Rock Lodge (one of AOJ's longtime sponsors who help keep the lights on here at headquarters and online!) and if so will have some fresh info on that fishery. Maybe even some video too. BTW this may be a PERFECT TIME to take the kids out for some lake fishing with eggs under a bobber. Stocked fish are very hungry now that the insect hatches have ended.]

REPORT: Had to take the boat over to the lake to do a trial run on a new electric fuel pump (recall) on my yammie 40 and decided what the heck, while I'm there maybe I'll try to bag a few stockers for dinner. Lake was calm and no one else there. Single salmon egg under a bobber was killer. Landed about a dozen very fat landlocked salmon and rainbows up to one pound. Kept two for the skillet. Oh and the motor worked fine.

BTW, for those weekend Kenai River anglers the SKILAK GLACIER lake started dumping on October 7th into Skilak Lake. This has raised the lake level and the Kenai River downstream TWO feet and it has crested last night at 10pm and dropping very slowly now. The water is really super crystal clear at the moment with over 4 feet of visibility and perfect for fall rainbows and dolly fishing for those with a boat wanting to fish from Sterling up to Skilak. http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ak/nwis/uv/?site_no=15266110&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060

A second notice: The Snow River Glacial lake is also expected to burst and dump sometime this October. The receding upper Kenai River may exhibit a reversal literally overnight and rise back up to full summer levels or even minor flood stage. So rafters hitting the upper Kenai during the next few weeks should check the USGS water level chart http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ak/nwis/uv/?site_no=15258000&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060 to see if there is an outburst event in progress which might make fishing very tough.

Oh yeah, you might have seen a bit of footage I helped with on the Pike PSA you see airing. ADFG is working on another production in final edit now that will be distributed to all the schools for additional education of our young anglers about how illegally introduced pike can have very bad impacts on our natural fisheries they currently enjoy.

REPORT: Fished the last two weeks, water high and colored but very fishable. My buddies and myself probably caught 50-60 fish between two or three of us on different days. Some Reds still in the river but going fast. Had the most luck with 6-8mm blush orange beads.

REPORT: I've been hunting and fishing the Nest Lake area for many of years, packing my canoe back and forth. 4 years ago I decided to leave my canoe there with fishing poles, paddles, etc. for me and other people to use. I have had notes from people saying Thank you we used you're canoe, had fun, people left beer under it, and other things. I went to do some fishing yesterday my canoe was gone,with everything I had in it. Me and a friend scoured the woods, could not find it!

What I'm saying, to thieves that took it, enjoy my $1200.00 18ft canoe that is made in Canada, green fiberglass with white interior, with reinforced Black Keel that was done at Rhino Linings. Didn't your parents teach you anything, Don't Steal! Idiots!

Enjoy it, Thieves!
You're Day is coming!
Pissed off Gene
262-1826

REPORT: The river water level was just as high as last week or higher, not the normal 2 feet lower. And there seemed to be about the same low numbers of fish, rainbows included. I heard there are more seals than ever at the lower end of the river feasting on the silvers and trophy rainbows. I wish TALL NATIVE would get his PEOPLE to do what his ANCESTORS would have done way back then to protect their food source before the KENAI RIVER becomes like Ship and Fish Creeks.

TORQUED LINES!

[AOJ: With the Federal Marine Mammals Act, indeed, only indigenous residents of Alaska are able to harvest polar bears, seals, sea lions, walruses, whales and even sea otters. Its a shame that some of our local tribe members don't capitalize on this resource and make some traditional dance masks, mukluks and hats from the hides and fur of these every increasing numbers of predators. Even eskimo Yo Yos are great presents at Xmas! All those items command a very hefty price tag on the markets and its too bad more folks don't realize that could be a very good source of additional income. (Two Yupik grass baskets only 12" and 14" in diameter went for $356 each on eBay two weeks ago!) I had a friend whose wife was from Anatuvik Pass who made "eskimo" dance masks from seal hides she harvested in Homer and couldn't make enough to meet the demand once the word got out. I wish I had some blood in my family line to qualify!]

REPORT: Well I had a half day so I hit the Upper Kenai again. Only fished three hours but the weather was nice and I caught some quality fish!

Started with an 8mm mottled pink bead and landed a whitefish and lost a small rainbow. Frustrated that I couldn't hook anything on flesh flies, I decided to stick with a flesh fly until I caught something. Well what do you know! They work!!! Landed two nice rainbows with the biggest going 25+ inches. Second largest non steelhead rainbow I have ever caught!

I can already tell this flyfishing thing is going to take years to master. I bet 2/3 of my casts are ineffective with drag and placement. I have no idea what I am doing or even trying to do. I seem to fish where others don't. Not sure if that is a good thing or not. I see a lot of folks fishing faster water and my casting isn't good enough that I get about a 5 sec drift and I have to cast again. So I seem to look for the slower moving water wherever I can find it.
A little longer than my normal videos...apologies in advance!
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMSxtr5WLFc

[AOJ: Bead drifting definitely needs to "match the hatch" not only in the size and color with the free drifting natural eggs but also matching the speed of the current - probably as important as the size/color factor. With millions of eggs on the drift the trout don't go out of their way to grab the unusual piece of food acting peculiar and not nature. Mending your line is a technique used to help prevent the surface and upper water column currents (which are moving faster than lower level water) from dragging your fly or bead at unnatural speeds along the bottom. Remember that down on the stream bottom the current can be several times slower due to the drag imposed by rocks and irregular bottom shape. Mending your line back upstream adds some "slack" in your line and drift allowing the presentation to be more natural. I'm sure there are a number of Youtube how-tos illustrating that technique. As far as flesh flies, remember that there is no longer a "blizzard" of bright orange fish trimmings drifting down the river from thousands of sockeye being cleaned by anglers. At this time of year and thru spring white and beige colored flesh is what is breaking apart from carcasses in the river now. Also flesh in smaller pieces from natural decay now than in summer with man-made big chunks on the drift. You're learning fast! Oh one other thing, if you bring along a large aquarium style sampling net and see what is drifting down the river from the spawners and then match the closest color you have it will improve your odds. Fish tend to stick with what is most abundant. They wouldn't grab a stone fly during a caddis fly hatch. Same for eggs and the various colors they change to as live eggs, dead/unfertilized eggs, or deteriorating eggs. And different species spawn different colors too.]

REPORT: Went down from last report and all the fish being caught by the seals were at least a couple weeks old or more. Caught two on a spinner and they were all very close to dying. Very glad to see a wild stock come into Ship with at least 20 fish at the dam being double the weight of an average stocker. I hope the wild run gets stronger than the farm salmon being put into this beloved creek because my ancestors used this creek for thousands and thousands of years the Dena'Ina. Just imagine what the run used to look like this time of year before anchorage was built. Just like fish creek that runs in my backyard and runs up 36th ave. That fishery used to produce the biggest salmon runs according to my family. Its a shame what we trade for this. It makes me want to move back to the vil so much more and defend what is mine and what is the future generation holds.

[AOJ: Ah, but a wise man thousands of years ago once said "Man cannot live by bread alone." There are always trade offs. I'm sure many/most of the villagers of today would not trade in their gas engine-powered snowmachine & ATV for a 20 dog team of hungry mouths to feed 365 days a year or give up their outboard motors for a paddle again or trade in their gun for a spear or harpoon. Things are just as "civilized" in the villages as in most other places in Alaska and they too see changes in their own communities as they are themselves their own present day impact on the land and resources around them. When efficiency in harvest methods go up the resources have a breaking point which may be reached, even in the vil. I'm sure the elders can cite many examples of what has been lost (or intentionally sacrificed) over the years as modern conveniences are adopted and replace traditional "ways" of life.]

REPORT: Second time ever on the Upper Kenai River. Last time I got skunked. This time I managed to hook 7 fish and landed 2. Nice chunky rainbows. The largest was probably around 20 inches. Took me over 6 minutes to land it on my 4wt. Most likely due to the fact that I rarely use a flyrod. So the fishing is probably pretty hot for those who know what they are doing. Considering its my second time on the Upper Kenai and I rarely use a flyrod for anything other than flipping reds and kings with straight mono, I think the results were decent.

I threw everything I had and I got hits on a light pink 6mm bead and a mottled pink 8mm bead. I couldn't buy a hit on flesh flies. I still have not caught anything on them.

It's enjoyable, and on a 4wt, the rainbows definitely battle. Might need to step up to a 6wt as casting more than 30 ft is tough. I'm still not convinced that this is better than fishing Kings! But considering it's mid October, this is a nice float with potential for decent fish. With my mini-x kayak that weighs 38 pounds, it's an easy trip to prepare for and get on the water.

I used Wildman's shuttle last week and this week and it worked out perfectly. Going to hit it again tomorrow for a half day then I got to run back and put on a tux for the Mayor's Ball...waders and drysuits are so much more comfortable.....

video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1wgirdRQ0E

REPORT: Well there are always a few folks that take advantage of the weather when it turns nice (and flat) and go fishing in the late fall. This was one of the kings taken on Shane's boat on Thursday by a happy young woman angler. All in all this group of 3 anglers got six kings in the box and a small chicken halibut on the troll as a bonus. Plenty of happy campers in that group!

The great thing about this feeder king fishery is the fish are there 24/7/365. You just need to know where they hang out during certain times of the year as the baitfish supply moves from area to area. And with Homer being in the Banana Belt of Alaska the weather during most of the winter allows a few dedicated, hardnosed saltwater charter skippers to keep their boats in the harbor and ready to fish when the weather is right and there is someone wanting to go. Its something to think about when there isn't enough snow on the ground yet for trail riding and you can round up 2 or 3 other willing anglers to make a party out of it.

As the years have passed by the Homer winter charter fleet has slowly expanded and their knowledge of the area and where the fish are likely to be has increased by an order of magnitude over the old "hit and miss", "stab in the dark", "let's try here, let's try there" approach. Now with a small dedicated group of charters pooling their information base of where they are hitting fish from day to day the odds of anglers having a successful trip are much greater than in the old days. This Fall (Aug-Oct), of all the photos I've received from Shane's trips targeting kings, I can't recall any of them that didn't show a one fish limit (in the northern zone) or two fish limits in the southern zone as well as the bonus of chickens picked up on the troll too. Of course as winter progresses the odds of picking up those chicken halibut as a bonus diminish considerably because the flatties migrate back to deeper ocean waters for the winter. Still there are always the odd fish now and then. And even a chance to target some black (bass) rockfish sometimes. Shorter daylight hours usually means focusing on one target species first and then see how the day progresses.

If you have already bought your KING STAMP for the year you might as well capitalize on getting a few more kings. From OCT. 1st thru MAR. 31st, the limit is 2 kings per day (south of Anchor Point) and you DON'T need to punch them on your license as part of the summertime 5 Annual Kings for Cook Inlet fisheries.

REPORT: It was such a nice sunny day in Anchorage today I made a quick stop down at Ship Creek today for some reason (knowing that the silver season is long over) but to my surprise I saw what I first thought was a huge king salmon swimming down stream but I thought I saw little feet where the tail should have been, and sure enough a seal head popped up halfway to the old C street bridge. Then it started making waves swimming around and then it popped up again with a good size silver in it's mouth and chewing on it with a big smile on it's face. This was at high tide going out around 2:30 pm so if one had the time off tomorrow they could go there around noon and see if the silvers and the seal are still around for a late hook up right Down Town.

FISH ON!

REPORT: First time EVER I fished the Upper Kenai river. Kind of sad, considering I grew up in Kenai. I consider myself an expert on the Lower Kenai River but I have NEVER fished the Upper or Middle Kenai until this trip.

Launched out of Sportman's at around 11:00am. I used my 9ft mini-x kayak and what a PERFECT platform for getting down that river. Water wasn't clear as I expected but visibility was still decent.

I tried everything I had...beads, flesh flies, leeches, and nymphs. Nothing. I could see rainbows rolling in front of me and see cohos darting upstream on occasion but just could not get anything to hit. This is definitely a case of operator error and my unfamiliarity with the area and flyfishing in general. Well that's easily solved! Just hit the river more! Other people said it was slow but they were catching a few fish!

I ended up at Jim's Landing by 2:30pm when I was targeting something more like 5pm but getting off early was a good thing!

So not a very useful report other than to warn all those traveling between Kenai and Anchorage that the snow can come down hard enough at anytime now to make it very treacherous if you are still driving on summer slicks!

From now to the end of November I think I will be focusing on feeder kings and when the weather isn't perfect (which is VERY rare that it will be good to go) I will hit the Kenai! Hmm...need to throw in a Lake Louise trip as well...still busy!

The video is terrible but for those that know the area around Sportman's, you can get an idea of water level and color. Link: http://youtu.be/guEIIOqlX0I

Picture was taken just north of Seward/Kenai Junction Sunday at 4pm.

REPORT: Lots of rain in the mountains again on the drive to Bings which turned to snow on the drive back. The lake was looking high and the river was getting cloudy. All we saw was small Rainbows no silvers or even boats or seals. Bears still leaving half eaten Kings on the banks.

Not much of a fish report but it was cool to see all the waterfalls along the highway again!

REPORT: As you can see by this Sunday photo the derby contestants finally got a break in the weather and actually had some sunshine and flat seas. Better than Soldotna which rained all morning, afternoon and tonight. Back to the derby, Shane and his "crew" ended up taking 3rd and 4th Place in the standings. Between the two days they landed 19 kings to the boat and kept 16. Limits all around yesterday and the girls ended up with a limit each for today. All in all the derby was a good time had by all.

REPORT: Well folks even Captain Shane Blakely opts for a little free time to show he too enjoys fishing as much as the next angler. He could have taken out clients for the Two Day Elks King Salmon Derby event this weekend but for the last couple years he and the boat owner chose to take their wives and daughter out on Derby Day to make a Fearsome Fivesome to be reckoned with.

So here are the "stats" for their first day of fishing and the unofficial leader board after Saturday's fishing. The Misty had 14 hookups. They landed 12 to the boat and released two of those. They kept 10 kings, a limit for each of the girls and guys. From October 1 to March 31 the limit is two per day and you don't have to mark these fish on your license since the Five Annual King Regulations are only from April 1 to September 30. Jeannie Blakely poses with part of their catch for Saturday. And wouldn't you know it, the biggest fish on the boat was caught by Shane, here posing with a beautiful feeder king just over 20 pounds and filling the 3rd Place Slot on the leader board after Day 1. The largest fish entered was a whopping 31 pounder and is going to be very tough to beat. Second place was somewhere between 20 and 30 pounds.

Seas were kinda rough, hitting 3 foot chop with a 20 knot NE wind for the first half of the day and forcing everyone to fish the southern side of KBay where more sheltered waters were to be had. Some of you may recognize the landmarks in the background. Rain was the order of the day too so most fishing was done from inside warm cabins and looking outside for a strike.

Weather today, Sunday, is more of the same. Bands of heavy rain are pelting the anglers again on the salt chuck and winds continue to make the seas lumpy and crowding the fleet into tighter areas. At least you can see what the competition is doing! I'll have the final results late Sunday once Shane gets off the water and gives me another report...and maybe some new photos.

As they say, "Wish You Were Here!"

REPORT: Fished with Ben from Drifters and caught alot of Dollies and Bows. I keep hearing about all the seals being spotted at Bings. Well we had to push the drift boat the last couple of hundred yards when Skilak got a little too choppy and when I looked up here is a seal about 40 yards away probably wondering what the hell we were doing! I guess they like the lake too.

[AOJ: Although its been long documented that a seal has been spotted as far up the river as Kenai Lake, anyone who has been fishing the Kenai this fall for silvers, especially below Soldotna to tidewater will attest to the HUGE NUMBERS of seals packing the lower river every day hunting silver salmon and if those aren't available they are wolfing down some mighty big Rainbows to satisfy their appetites. I've been hunting the lower Kenai for 40 years in the fall for ducks and there were always maybe a dozen or so seals working from Cunningham Park to the mouth. But this is getting ridiculous as I reported some days ago one evening as I watched 9 seals drift by AOJ headquarters in Soldotna just before dark, all heading back to Cook Inlet after a full day of feasting on the river's resources. We may be approaching numbers that are actually having a biological impact on the numbers of silvers and trout surviving this onslaught. Much like the Washington and Oregon coastal rivers were encountering with sea lions eating all their hatchery returning steelhead and salmon at dams. The US Government, in an unprecedented move, granted the USFW Service (or maybe the state F&G) a huge number of permits to KILL those sea lions. This was contrary to the Marine Mammals Act but obviously those fisheries and economic "engines" were being severely impacted to the point of needing emergency procedures never before initiated. Seems like it was over 100 kill permits were issued to thin down the invasion across a number of river systems. Might have to do that up here at some point??]

REPORT: I have fished above Bings twice a week all month, water is a little high but visibility is good. As long as the sun is not on the water the fishing has been great. Early mornings or evenings are best. I have limited every time using #5 Vibrax with dark green body with silver blade, also blue body. Fishing will only get better I think, all were dime bright. I have noticed what seem to be white pusstuals for lack of a better term; I wonder if they are some sort of parasite? Anyone know anything about this? A couple years ago it seemed every Silver I caught had them. I'm wondering if they are okay to eat or smoke?

[Hmmm, I'd say you should contact the Soldotna F&G office and speak to a biologist there. Most likely its something that commonly occurs in cycles or out of the blue and is probably not harmful to humans. However, in the event its something undocumented it could be a clue as to our disappearing kings and coho salmon stocks. Best to touch base with them and even retain a sample from your next fish just in case.]

REPORT: Well folks, over the past couple days I received a few reminders of a NEW COHO regulation prompted by the latest Campbell Creek report. And since this regulation is BRAND NEW beginning April 2011 most Alaska anglers, including myself, may not have "adjusted" to remembering the new rules or even knew it exists until now. This year especially I'll bet there were a lot of folks who did catch and release on older blushed silver salmon and made the same HONEST mistake. So there is no criticism to the anglers regarding this 5 month old regulation which really wasn't even an issue until the end of summer when the coho finally arrived, what two months ago? This is a clip straight from the book. But I must also add a comment referencing the CONTINUED confusion ADFG BOF interjects into our regulations where consistency in rule making seems to go by the wayside when new laws are put on the books. Listen up BOF & ADFG.

REPORT: Decided to follow up on the report that FishOnBruceAK posted regarding silvers at Campbell Creek. Fished for about an hour walking the creek checking holes and saw about 20 blush silvers. Saw maybe 3 fresh looking fish. Picked up five blush silvers on the flyrod. Did catch and release on all. Here's a picture of a silver my son caught. Fishery closes October 1st so better go get em while you can.
MDS

REPORT: Looking for a report on river water level and coho fishing for the Bings Landing Area, thanks.

[AOJ: Here's part of your request. http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ak/nwis/uv/?site_no=15266300&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060 That's all I can help with. Fishers over at Centennial have been doing poorly the last few days with lots of fishing and very little catching. Some folks begin at 5am in the dark.]

REPORT: Well definitely slower than yesterday. With Schools beginning to slow down in a day is pretty dramatic. I could say the run was topped out Sunday night. I will try again Wed. but will prolly be cut with another 3-4 hour fish. But in good news smoker is full with the pressure cooker at full blast, my complaints of running to Whittier for a fall fish is well above par. With weather being at full sun and tight lines the past two trips have made my 32 dollar runs to Whittier well worth scouting for weeks!!!!

Pretty sad that all of those fresh fish have almost pale meat, makes me want to just fish in the vil for all of my fish. Even really blushed fish in the vil have red meat still? Why don't these dime brights have at least orange or red meat? Even my 0 dollar runs to Ship on a bike have darker meat than these do. They almost taste the same with half smoke, garlic, habaneros and canned, but nothing like a smokehouse on the kusko. Should I ditch the whole road fishery? Because I can taste the difference and I know other village folk can just the berries around here.

Ahh, how much an old way lifestyle feels so much better than the Iphone fisher MAN.

[AOJ: I think its all a matter of run timing. Whittier silvers typically become available much earlier than this and at that point in time I'm sure the fish are solid as a rock and bright orange. From your photo it looks like at least a couple fish have lost (absorbed) their scales which indicates a fish which would typically be arriving near the spawning grounds in its freshwater stream now. Since they are held in saltwater til they bite the dust the external spawning color change may be slowed down but the physiological changes within their body and hormones may be ongoing (biological clock keeps ticking), thus the pale flesh at this point in time...as well as the developing kype on the males' noses. We are getting down to "the last game in town" for salmon fishing.

There is an advantage or two in today's world for the iPhone angler. Its very apparent each summer on the Kenai River in Soldotna during the first half of July. Maybe one or two anglers in sight on a half mile of riverbank all day long. The first big school of reds begin to push through Soldotna and within one hour its turned elbow to elbow in many spots along the river. A successful angler can spread the word without missing a single cast and with multiple recipient texting capabilities a dozen friends and relatives can get the word instantly. They too have their communication network to spread the word to and within an hour 5000 anglers know the fish have arrived. Oh not to mention the AOJ Report posting realtime progress from its many sources too. Poor Fish, they don't have a chance. :-) ]

REPORT:

   

REPORT: Went down and it took me 20 minutes to get my six. Pretty good I have been down there 5 times now and have been skunked every time but this one. It was a blast, going again today!


[AOJ: Ah that sure is good news. Most folks have been striking out on this fishery. Good to see some healthy fresh-looking fish are finally milling around. Won't last long. Get'em while they're hot.]

REPORT: Around Bings, the catching is picking up, we got a few more silvers and a rainbow bigger than the silvers and more rainbows and dollies than the last few weeks, the water flood level was peaking and showed signs of going down by Sunday, hopefully the lower water level will bring better fishing as the weekends go by. I did see lots of jumpers at the Cooper Landing Bridge,

FISH ON!

REPORT: Did a trip down Turnagain Arm to look for silvers. Fished Ingram from the highway down to tidewater with no sign of anything. Tried Alder Pond off the Portage Road - no action there either. Hit Glacier Creek and fished from the RR down to the highway - nothing. So back to Anchorage to the Costco Hole on Campbell Creek. Peering over the hole from the pedestrian bridge we saw a half dozen colored silvers and three or four fresher looking what I thought were silvers.

I used a pink bucktail streamer fly I made up and had a blushed silver on the bank in about two minutes. A few minutes later, I landed a much brighter and skinnier fish about 24 inches long. After discussing it with other fishing folks, I pretty much believe it was a steelhead, though I had never really heard of any in Campbell Creek. It had a nice iridescent topside with a graying and starting to blush belly.

I wouldn't think rainbows in Campbell would get that long, but... Any thoughts??

[AOJ: Steelhead have been known to stray from established fishery streams and end up with a new run in a stream where they were not native. Example: the Kenai River steelhead run came from the Crooked Creek steelhead hatchery program on the Kasilof River. You will notice that quite a number of years ago ADFG changed the wording in the Southcentral Regs booklet to read Rainbow/Steelhead trout for all streams now just to cover both instances of these fish possibly being present. There is always the possibility of a steelhead run in the Big Su tribs or somewhere up Knik Arm as a possible source. I believe one or more have been documented in a stream in Turnagain Arm too.]

REPORT: Headed down on Saturday to try some fishing in Whittier.

Rain rain rain! A few folks were fishing at Smittie's Cove and doing fairly well by snagging the fish as they looped around the area. Looked like a lot of fun actually.

I trolled in my Yak and managed only one silver on a fire tiger mag wart near Smittie's Cove in 6 hours of fishing.

I have to admit, I am starting to not like Whittier. This time, we pay our $20 for parking and kayak launch. It's cold wet and as we head in, a landing craft takes up the whole ramp and stays there loading and offloading for well over an hour. Doesn't seem like good etiquette if the city allows this AND charges for the launch.

So if you want to add a few fish to the freezers, they are in Whittier still. Might just have to snag them for more consistent action.

Finally, I got an email from the webmaster here that an eagle eyed reader caught an error on my part fishing the streams up North. I did use a treble hook AFTER reading the regs twice...and I was STILL wrong! So a big thanks to the reader for mentioning and helping me avoid a ticket down the road. We released all our fish but still NOT COOL AT ALL that I was breaking the rules.

[AOJ: Thanks for the Whittier Report. Its the closest coho fishing still going for the Anchorage crowd.

About 99% of the "violations" posted here in writing or showing in a photo are a result of innocent mis-reading of the regs. Most folks will agree that AK's fishing regulations are the most complex in the USA. We Alaskans have an advantage because since we live here we usually get it "right" sooner or later if from nothing else, repetition. Just think what your chances are of adhering to EVERY NUANCE of our regs as a tourist coming up for the first time for one or two weeks in the summer. Its no wonder we see a substantial portion of violations committed by visitors. The booklet is overwhelming. I get screwed up on it a number of times every year even when I have read it cover to cover uncounted times. Honest mistakes on AOJ are easy to correct. Out on the stream with a fish cop its a different story. Heheh As the judge in AK courts would say "Ignorance is no defense." So its water under the bridge. Great grayling! I might have to keep this trip in mind next Fall maybe while hitting Denali. ]

REPORT: Tried streams from Talkeetna up to Cantwell but weather didn't cooperate. Was looking for Grayling and only found Chums. I really enjoyed reading the post from Kardinal_84 about his son catching Grayling. Nice pictures. Looks like you had lots of fun. If you don't mind, can you tell me if you were north or south of Talkeetna on the Parks highway? Thanks, and keep a tight line.

REPORT: Fished a few times on the upper Kenai last week with fishing being good during the week despite the high water. Did shoot the canyon a couple times to find a fair amount of trout. Got some great pics of momma and baby bears playing at the bottom as it dumps into the lake. Fishing slower than last year at this time. High water levels have the fish spread through out the river. The interesting thing was the seal hanging out in the lake at the bottom of the canyon. It was around 5 pm when first seen as it fished for awhile and then was gone.

REPORT: as described by one of the fishermen - BIG ASS SCHOOL! agreeable, it was decent. dark blob baknforthing around corner/lookout. guess they wernt too educated yet to the "death bug". at 1st for good while very consistent hits on vibrax, then they thot hymm,"i aint tuching that no more". so id switch colors-suckers! mostly small around 3-4 lbs. biggest i got abt 8. thru bak many a small for the bigger. limited w/lotsa action-still hurting but happy.

REPORT: Better late than never report. Went to Whittier two Saturdays (9/10 & 9/17) in a row and there are no silvers to be had during that time. First Saturday was picture perfect-1 1/2 before high tide through outgoing. No jumpers or anything at the new RV parking area by the air strip, boat harbor, Smittys Cove, or Salmon Run-nada. 2nd Saturday was a bust as well. Friend of mine had her kayak and paddled around up and down the coastline scouting for fish. Not a fish to be seen. Oh yeah, a guy said there was the biggest black bear he had ever seen early in the morning at the stream by the parking lot at Salmon Run. Keep a watchful eye out.

Typical weather on the 2nd trip-rain. Saw one fish jump as we were packing it up at Salmon Run. Putting away the waders and salmon fishing gear til next year. Good luck and tight lines to those that give it a go in Whittier from the shoreline.

REPORT: Well, Shane continues to produce successful trips for his clients and Wednesday was no exception. The feeder kings are on the move and have scattered from their Bluff Point feeding grounds to other areas of the Bay/Inlet now. But Shane does know all the hangouts to check when these conditions happen. This trip was a dedicated combo targeting halibut and then salmon. Many of his "salmon only" trips end up picking up a limit of chicken halibut for the anglers on their troll gear while dragging herring. Great fun on a salmon rod! But as you can see from the size of the flatfish on this haul, there are still a few "eaters" left out there for the late season anglers willing to hit the saltchuck when the weather cooperates.

REPORT: Well I guess this is a first for me. Was over at Holly House earlier in the afternoon on Thursday and did a little binocular work on the anglers across the river. About 20 rods in the holders soaking eggs and only could see 3 silvers on stringers in the water. But I did see a guy land a nice one right at that time. Looks like the river is still plodding away with a few silvers but perhaps the high water levels are scattering the fish and making them tougher to find.

Later that evening around 8:40pm, about a half hour after sundown and when it was getting pretty dark with the thick cloud cover AKJake and I went down to the river here at headquarters to see where the river level was on the bank. Within a minute or so I spotted what appeared to be the end of a waterlogged stump drifting down the river with the end sticking up. Funny thing though it didn't seem to be drifting at the same speed as the current ripples on the water. I made a little movement shifting my stance and lo and behold this log raises up about a foot and a half and has a pointed nose and then proceeds to do a porpoise dive right in front of me. SEAL! Three weeks ago while fishing from my boat at the CrossOver below Eagle Rock and right about sundown I witnessed a constant "parade" of seals drifting down the river headed towards the Inlet. Saw about ten that evening. So since someone had reported seals further upstream at Bings a while back we stood there watching the water for others to come down the river. And we weren't disappointed. In fifteen minutes there were 9 seals passing by just saving energy drifting with the river current and heading for the saltwater for the night. No doubt they repeat the routine every day. I just happened to have my camera hanging on my neck and tried to snap a pic of one seal with Jake but it dove just as I snapped the shot.

REPORT: Both KR & RR are still very high, and silvers are few and far between, silvers that are in are fairly blushed and so I guess these are holdovers from the earlier run. Use caution when wading the Russian at the confluence cuz its about 3 feet higher than it is usually at this time of year, and is a borderline treacherous crossing. Also we had a very close encounter on the RR with a fairly big brown bear that entered the water not far upstream of the confluence. Jim's landing had very few silvers also. No complaints though, how gorgeous it is and lots and lots of wildlife.

REPORT: "Biologically its apparent that the 5 ocean gene is a recessive gene and takes a contribution from a male and female 5 ocean fish to create a 5 ocean offspring. There just isn't any possibility now, statistically, that two 5 ocean male/female fish would ever find each other to spawn together if there are none left in the river. (From KK)"

KK: I am not sure that the above statement is correct, and I know that you like to be as accurate as possible with your information. You may want to check with Tim McKinley at ADF&G and see if he can shed some light on this. Thanks, Joe

[AOJ: Ah I thought you might ring in on the subject. Personally I'll put all my money on the Genetics Theory. With a Full 1.5 life cycles of size limit restrictions on the early Kenai kings we haven't produced any increase in the numbers of 5 ocean fish, or even just plain LARGE 4 ocean kings. Anglers have "sacrificed" throwing back all those 4 ocean fish that spawned/mated and produced nothing in the 5 year bracket on the return of those offspring. Tim confirmed they have not seen any increase in 5 ocean fish after all this time of slot limits. I doubt you can make a 5 ocean fish from two 4 ocean mates or we would see them in the river. Its not happening after what, 12 years of slot limit restrictions now? I'll go with the obvious. :-) Maybe someone ought to 1)Freeze the DNA of a male & female 5 ocean king for future cloning to bring back that genetics and 2) map out the genome of Kenai King Salmon to identify the gene making giant kings...if we can find one left to sample. I'm afraid the writing is on the wall. I think ADFG seriously needs to consider lowering the Trophy Certificate Qualifying Kenai River weight to 60 pounds since that seems to be a "trophy" anymore. No one is qualifying for a 75 pound requirement. Even B&C and P&Y award trophy status to more than one or two animals per year in a category. I really hope F&G has some kind of promising data. I'll check in with Tim.]

REPORT: Took my 6 year old son out to see if we couldn't find a fish or two. Headed to a popular Parks Highway stream and started fishing about 3pm.

My son tries a size 0 vibrax on my ultralight outfit and lands a few until he loses the lure. I tie on a Mickey Finn streamer and a split shot and he catches a few more.

In the meantime, I rig up a 6 meter pole. As in no reel and 18 feet long. It was a gift from Japan that I had been wanting to try. Rig it up with a size 10 prince nymph, a tiny split shot, and a large indicator.

After landing a few, my son wants to try and he picks it up immediately. Although the pole might be a little more advanced, it's good to get back down to the old basics.

In three hours we land maybe 20 with my son doing the most damage with the long pole. Great day to be out! As soon as we left, the rain started. Perfect!

Here's a video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeNO0i7n8vQ

REPORT: I still have the fishing bug and I am planning to do a first time trip to the Anchor River for Steelhead. I am planning to go around the second week in October. Does anyone know if Steelhead will be running in the river by then or will I be a little too late? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[AOJ: The very first steelies begin to trickle into the Anchor River in late August with the run building in numbers as Fall progresses. October fishing is very popular even if its getting frosty in the mornings because you still don't have any ice cover on the stream. As long as there is fishable open water the Anchor River can provide fair/good or better fishing for those who don't fear the cold or mind chipping the ice off your guides. The entire river closes to ALL fishing beginning November 1st through May 20th. Right now (9/1 to 10/31) its single hook artificial only regs.]

REPORT: Well, all I can ask is where are the silvers and why are they so late? It seems like every year the return along the shoreline keeps getting smaller and smaller with the fish returning later and later. Usually the run is supposed to be winding down at this time, but it's like there are no fish to make it back. Even the locals are wondering the same thing. I tried Lowell Point, Lowell Creek and the culvert by the boat harbor, but only saw ragged, spawned out Pinks. Fished low tide and high tide and didn't see any chrome silvers that everyone has been waiting for. Either they are just really late or something is happening out in the bay. I know that the fishing is good if you have a boat and can get to where the fish are at, but if you fish from shore I would say either hang up your gear or hope and pray that some fish come in soon. I tried spinners, spoons, herring under a bobber and snagging with nothing. I heard that ADFG is not stocking the creeks anymore and is redirecting their funds elsewhere, but we should at least be seeing small numbers of wild silvers trickling in at least... Anyway, yeah, very poor fishing along the shoreline in Seward. Weather is very pathetic as well so bring rain gear and warm clothing. Good Luck.

[AOJ: I'm afraid the fish aren't late. If anything the arrival of good numbers of silvers staging at Pony Cove and then entering the mouth of Res Bay at Fox Island, Hive Island and Sunny Cove was a little early. But I've observed for many years now that once the silvers push partway into the bay they just seem to thin out and eventually disappear with only a pittance of fish making it to the beaches around town. Go back ten years and snagging a limit of silvers off the Seward beach at high tide was a no brainer gimme. Over the years the fishing for kings and silvers along the beaches close to town has really deteriorated....for some reason. Just no fish in any numbers showing up. Even catching silvers off the ferry dock with herring under a bobber was a popular tactic. Looking across the "board" at ALL the silver runs in the Cook Inlet/Knik and Kenai Peninsula streams, the coho returns took a real spanking this year. So its not really specific to individual streams/runs/areas. We all have seen the kings taking the same "hit" for several years in a row now too with devastating returns in the Kodiak streams. Something's up for sure. And in all likelihood its out at sea causing the mortality.]

REPORT: I found a rod on the Skilak Lake road. If you lost one call and identify it (make, model, where, etc.) and I will get it to you. Spencer 907-260-3228 or 435-730-0341.

REPORT: Any word on the silver fishing in Whittier...usually I see some reports on the silver fishing but have yet to hear if anyone is catching anything.

[AOJ: Its been quiet from that locale this season. Very few reports. Maybe they are keeping it a secret.]

REPORT: 6 silver limit 2 poles in 3.75 hours. Spinner and salmon egg on 5 foot leader using 3 oz weight. Many seals in the river.

9/17 Another 6 silver limit 2 poles in 9 hours. Spinner and salmon egg on 5 foot leader using 3 oz weight. Many seals in the river.

REPORT: Not a bad weekend of fishing for the crazy high top of the bank water levels and we even got to see some "SUN". We got a few casting spinners from the bank, eggs didn't seem to work, it was slow but better than nothing. I did hear people above Bings were doing good by boat checking the holes up and down (could be where the seals chased them silvers). I hope the water level goes down by next weekend and the catching goes up!

Fish On!

[AOJ: Just got off the phone at 7:30pm Sunday night with Mike Tuhy at Tower Rock Lodge. He said the anglers staying at the lodge (they are almost across from the Pillars) were catching silvers off their dock today(Sunday). Perhaps the second run is starting to show some signs of life. I might launch the boat this week and give it a shot. River level is definitely NOT wanting to go down that's for sure. Dropped maybe one inch in the last day or two.]

REPORT: Sat. evening and Sunday on the tides at Eagle Rock we're awesome. Catching fish almost as fast as we could get eggs or plugs in the water. Seems kinda late for it to just be starting but hope it keeps up. Water is clearing up but is still high for this late in year. On a side note just got an e-mail from Kenai area fishing coalition Dwight Kramer that there has only been 1 king over 55 inches brought in to ADFG for sealing since 2007 which confirms what I'd suspected for awhile-the big kings of the Kenai River are a dying breed. Something has got to be done, in my opinion the slot limit targeting 55inch and over kings needs to go. Even better the whole river should be closed to king fishing for at least 5 years but we know that will never happen with the money and the fact most of Soldotna's economy is run on the king fishing. That's the end of my rant....... tight lines.

[AOJ: Well from a "technical point" EVERY king kept over 55 inches MUST be sealed by F&G. Since there are zero fish being sealed there is no benefit to change the regs that currently allow the killing of the 55 inch+ fish. Closing the gate after the horses have gotten loose won't correct the problem. Biologically its apparent that the 5 ocean gene is a recessive gene and takes a contribution from a male and female 5 ocean fish to create a 5 ocean offspring. There just isn't any possibility now, statistically, that two 5 ocean male/female fish would ever find each other to spawn together if there are none left in the river. The Kenai's king salmon fishery is a dismal "shell" of what it use to be and nothing is going to bring that back with respect to size of fish. And even the preponderance of 50+ pound 4 ocean fish that were so plentiful in the 1980's and 1990's has declined so much a great many anglers have given up fishing this fishery altogether. Its turning into a run of jacks and 2-3 year olds for most anglers. As far as the local economy goes I'd say that more money comes into the community overall from the sockeye anglers and dipnetters than those targeting kings. Just look at the riverbanks and traffic in town when the word gets out "The Reds Are Here!" The number of registered guides on the Kenai River this season was down to 315. A far cry from the 400 or more that use to crowd the river along with another 400-500 private boats per day back then. (I noticed that nowdays a great many property owners living on the river don't even have a boat tied up to the bank anymore!) The remaining guides have even ceased using marketing hype terms on their websites like "World Famous Kenai River", "World Class TROPHY King Salmon Fishing", "Trophy Kings" and other phrases that were popular in the hay day of yester-years. For those who were fortunate enough to have experienced what the Kenai king fishery use to be, savor those memories forever! And the photos! -KK-]

REPORT: Modified my Kayak to target winter kings with the addition of a downrigger. Couldn't make it down to Anchor Point this weekend but had to go try it out so I went down to Seward for a few hours.

Did not see a single person fishing along the rock shoreline past the sea life center. I kayaked from Tonsina Creek to Lowell point on a glass flat day and did not see a SINGLE jumper. I did see hundreds of 8 inch salmon jumping around and following my gear. Caught several.

Because I was testing gear, I stayed in deeper water but still I was amazed at the zero activity. I heard there might be more fish by the harbor and Resurrection creek but didn't look.

Oh here's the new modification! I can't wait to try it out for real! Hopefully its soon versus next April or May!
Video Link of Downrigger test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnPYrKPObR4

REPORT: Had to make a run over to the Holly House Saturday afternoon so took the binoculars to survey the fishing across the river in the Centennial Boat Ramp parking lot. The sunny weather really brought out the anglers. I counted 39 rods in holders along the bank all plunking eggs. Not one angler was hardware fishing. Everyone having a good time BS'ing with whoever was parked next you them. In total I saw six silvers on the stringers. Good thing it was a nice sunny day!

REPORT: Got a 2nd hand report about high water seals showing up by Bings. We had seals chasing Silvers right into our fishing hole last year because they stopped the chase when they got spotted us. They just kept filling the hole all day from down river.

Thanks Seals!

[AOJ: Probably not a good sign if seals are running all the way to Sterling to find a fish. Since they all go back to the Inlet each evening around sundown it means they have been hunting all the way up the river to that point during the day and not finding enough fish to keep them satisfied in the lower river. I guess the second run isn't stacking up too good yet.]

REPORT: Anyone know how the silver action is on the lower and middle Kenai?

[AOJ: River is still topping the banks from Skilak to Beaver Creek. Clean though. Tried a tadpolly on a side planer early Friday for a couple hours with no luck. Viz was probably 2 feet but we've been having rain all day Friday which could change things. Weather radar looks like the Killey is in the rain shadow today with the dump further west in Soldotna/Sterling/Kenai so maybe the river will remain clean. Forecast is for drier conditions into Sunday. Guides are reporting slow catch rates still. High water might be scattering the fish making tougher targeting conditions. Folks are still fishing from the boardwalk at the RV park above the Soldotna Bridge with side planners and hardware waiting for a passing coho. Haven't seen anyone cleaning fish though.]

REPORT: Spent the day poking around Centennial. Tried various methods (plunking, floating eggs, and hardware) and overall pretty slow.

I saw about a dozen silvers on stringers caught by the plunkers. Talked to a boat as they came in that only had 2 fish and said it was slow for them too.

I imagine it will pick up soon.

REPORT: In response to akfisher:

I went down to the Russian on Monday (12th). The fee shack closes down on Tuesday, so free parking for the late fishers. I had read the water level was high but I didn't really know what to expect. Walking down from Grayling, the water levels in the Russian were noticeably higher, but it was still relatively easy to wade through the waters and fish. Once you get to the sanctuary, however, the water levels are much much higher. There was not a single person fishing from the corner bend in the sanctuary down towards the ferry. I walked over to the ferry crossing and saw two people on the bank about 250 yards past the ferry. The water was so high the sign posts indicating the spots for handicap only fishing were about 75% underwater. Lots of blushed reds but not too many silvers (did see a few out there deep). Walked back up to the Russian and managed to get a dime bright hen out where the cleaning table is (or was, it was removed when I was there) at the bend of the sanctuary. There are still silvers to be had but my advice would be stick to the Russian. The water levels in the sanctuary and by the ferry crossing are still a bit too deep. I think I'll be making one more trip out there next week and then hang up my boots for the season.

REPORT: Mad thanks and props to the folks who helped us out when we wrecked our boat on the upper Kenai on 9/9. Many thanks to fishing guide Pat (didn't catch his company), the state troopers and the unnamed many who helped ferry us to our cars, find my big black dog and even just stopped by to make sure we were OK.

Ours was a terrible day, made better by the fact that everyone was OK. I couldn't be more thankful or prouder of my fellow river denizens.
Thank you all, a thousand times over.
DMAT

REPORT: Spent last two days at Klawock, yesterday did ok. I caught 3 on different colored vibrax but a good amount of people around us were catching silvers too. The guy on the log (he beats us there every morning) caught at least six so it was a good day for everybody. Today wasn't as good but my wife caught the biggest fish. It was at least 10 lbs. It gave her a real ride too and by the end it got all tangled in logs with line and was looking pretty bad so I waded out there and just grabbed it so that made it fun. All three of us caught one today but I didn't see anybody else bring one in the whole time we were there about 4 1/2 hrs. The guy on the log even got skunked. I wonder what was going on, lots of cohos porpoising out and jumping but not many bites. I wonder if its the pressure. Klawock River is probably the most popular fresh water spot on the island but still even today there were maybe 8 people counting ourselves on the river. There's that many people in a 10 ft. stretch of bank at Kenai but you still catch fish. I'll be back there tomorrow, I'm bummed about the record thing. There are lots of big wild fish in Klawock. Haven't caught a hatchery fish yet so I thought a record coho might be out here but 26 lbs is a monster and I think that one will stand. But any way good luck up north. Hope the silver fishing gets better for you. We had a late run ourselves.

REPORT: We floated the upper Kenai with a guide on Saturday and it was a blast. Water was high, but lots of fish! No silvers, but we caught and released some very nice dollies and rainbows. We put in at the Russian River ferry area and floated to Jim's Landing. Had a great guide that put us on the fish. I had a great time... We got on the river about 8:00am and were off about 3:30pm. We stopped at several spots and drifted beads. Lots of hookups and several trout in the 18" to 24" range. Dollies had great color and thick bellies. Fish on...

     
 

REPORT: To AK Fisher wondering about Russian Water Levels- Hit the Russian up by the falls. Fished right at upper ADF&G sign were salmon fishing is legal. Me my boy and two friends slayed the silvers (all bright). Landed two or three nice dollies too (18 inch plus). Released everything we caught. I suggest releasing silvers too due to the low return, but that would be all up to you. Water level was perfect and clear. Saw a beautiful chocolate sow and two cubs on the trail hiking in right at the fork that goes to the lower lake. We hiked in from upper trailhead. Sign-in book had several sighting that week of the same family, so heads-up. Have fun.

REPORT: For the first time ever, I visit the boat launch at Anchor Point. One word of advice for those thinking about launching from there... don't launch at low tide or bring a good set of wheels. The water was at least 200 yards away. As I began hauling my gear, a guy in a 4 wheeler stop by and offers assistance. We load everything up, I run behind holding everything and all is good! Thanks! I came in about an hour and a half after high tide and I dragged the yak about 20 yards to where I could get it with a car.

So the target is feeder kings. From the morning temperatures you could call them winter kings I think. The intel was south of Anchor Point a bit and about 4 miles out. The problem was I got off to a late start by two hours meaning the tide had already turned. Against a 2 to 3 knot current, there was no peddling south. I could make headway, but the instant I changed baits or hooked a halibut, I was 100 yards back.

So I loiter about 4 miles out but I don't get any hits from salmon. I told myself I was going to try to concentrate on kings, but I couldn't help myself and lowered the gear a few times and each time I got a small halibut. Maybe I should have focused on that...

I also got to try my windpaddle sail out. It's great. Light, compact, and super duper easy to use. I was working against a 1 to 2 knot current but it still pulled me against it and made progress. I'm not sure about 180 deg, but you can get close with the sailing rudder and mirage drive acting as a dagger board. It also would help if I had actual attachments. I just clipped them onto my front hatch bungie. Worked even though the two clips were inches apart.

Well I will have to rethink this winter king thing. Maybe once or twice on the perfect day and if I don't oversleep....

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBoKOh1mszY

[ AOJ: Probably the best king catching has been out from Bluff Point between the 10 and 15 fathom line. Usually the "fleet" is in the vicinity. Most have a group they associate and coordinate with and spread out to locate the fish, then call their buddies to get in on the action. Watch for boats converging on an area, hit it quick as the fish come and go sometimes quickly. (In other words, get a bigger sail! lol) This is Shane's catch for 9/11. The halibut are taken on the troll rigs as "incidental" catch and lots of fun on the light gear as you know.]

REPORT: I was wondering what the river condition is like. I heard the water was high and muddy a few days ago. Wanted to make a trip before have to go back to work. Be back in a month don't think I'll get another chance before freeze up. Any info would be most helpfull. Love to get into some silvers or trout one last trip for the summer. Got my moose 56 inch rack up by Talkeetna.

REPORT: Went out into the bay yesterday and trolled out in front of Fox Island. While the silvers were slow to get going once we figured they were staying deep due to all the fresh water in the bay we knew how to find em. First fish took the longest and was pulled from a depth of about 180 feet (downrigger ball and drift) so my calculations should be spot on. After that we stayed deep and pulled up a few small true cods which were quickly sent back over. We also hooked into a white king which we mistakenly assumed it was a monster silver due to the lack of spotting and no dark tongue. Figure that one out. Hooked into nine or ten silvers and lost a few to old line.

REPORT: --LOST--A yellow dry bag (with gear), last seen floating down the Kenai above Sportsmans on Fri 9/9. Please call (907) 947-9313 if found...

REPORT: Finally back from work camp in Ketchikan missed all of last month because of work. Harris River was the first trip for silvers, it was pouring rain even for P.O.W. standards so water was very high. We must of hit an oncoming tide cause it was around 11 o'clock am and they were biting. It was the first time catching silvers in a creek for my wife. We had a blast, wasn't sure about the bag limit so we just kept 4 chromers but let 3 blush ones go. Klawock River was very high that first day. We used our little trout ugly stick combo's with the original 6lb test, [if anyone knows the state record for coho's on 6 lb test I would like to know]. We got away with it at the Harris but not Klawock. But we've heard from several locals that there are a lot of silvers there right now. Still have all of next week off so I will be fishing all over. Hopefully I will have pictures to post this time of monster fish. Good luck to you all up north.

[AOJ: The state only keeps track of the largest fish caught/recorded in the state and doesn't break it down to line classes like the IFGA world records. The largest coho recorded with ADFG is 26 pounds 0 ounces taking in Icy Strait in 1976.]

REPORT: The fishing on the upper Kasilof River is quite good right now. Also you may want to post your comments on the proposed lower Kasilof River boat take out.

http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/kasilof/kasilofboatretrieval.htm

REPORT: Just got back from another successful day here in Valdez whether it's on a fly or on roe under a bobber I've limited out every day. On the fifteenth will be one month straight. I've actually had to stop keeping fish because I have no more room for them and now have bursitis in my right arm but it's not going to keep me from fishing some more. I've got to say out of all the west coast towns I've lived in this one has the absolute best silver fishing hands down and now there starting to stack up in the robe river by the ton.

REPORT: For those thinking about fishing Valdez from here on out, be advised that ADFG has opened up the seine fishing season earlier this week and the boats have come in and rounded up all the silvers at the hatchery. Fishing from here on out is expected to be slow. For those who fish the Seward Resurrection River reds fishery you know what happens when the seine boats move in. Here is a pic from Coho Bob last Sunday off the Valdez Dock.


For those still looking for a saltwater adventure and haven't put up their boats for the winter yet, the feeder king fishing out of Homer in Cook Inlet is going gang busters and there are still some/a few silvers passing through the area too. Most of the time you can get a limit of chickens on your troll gear while going for the salmon. This was a boat load Shane got about 3 days ago on 9/7 and yesterday he limited his group on kings and halibut too. Looks like great weather for a final "Last Hurrah" on the saltchuck for those who know how to find and catch them.


The Kenai River from Skilak down is still rising slowly but the mud from the Killey Glacier has subsided and the river is beginning to clean up very good now. Getting its green color back so fishing hardware as well as eggs is doable for silvers again. Just have to deal with the river level being at the top of its banks now and a lot of volume moving downstream. Fish the slackwaters, side sloughs, and slower pocket water for resting silvers. I have NO WORD on whether the second run of coho have started into the river yet. As of a few days ago folks at Centennial were striking out.

Get out, enjoy the great weather this weekend. Feed the white socks!

REPORT: Did not catch or see any silvers or bows all Labor Day weekend. There were signs of bears but they were being shy. Even the guide boats went back down river after checking for any silvers or bows. I did get a hit from a seagull on a long high cast I guess if they cant find any fish they will hit anything on the river. It was raining cats n elephants on the way back to anchorage in the mountains Monday evening from Summit to Portage and all the creeks and falls were brown. I would like to see some pics from the flooding that is going on back there this week, the report warnings sound like its going to be a big flood along the Kenai Lake and River.
This weekend sounds like a flush so let us know when the water level goes back down and clears up!
FISH ON!

[AOJ: River is still rising above and below Skilak. Up another 6 inches from yesterday here at AOJ headquarters. Viz yesterday was 13 inches and today it was the same. Sunny here in town today. So maybe the Killey won't be dumping mud for much longer with the projected 2-3 days of dry weather ahead. I'm going to take advantage of the sunshine and go film some bears across the Inlet this weekend.]

COOPER LANDING AREA - Kenai River Gauge Level

REPORT: Trolled the head of the bay with a dozen or so others. Fishing was slow but productive despite the bumpy water. Surprisingly, we caught fish at both 90 and 45 feet. Herring was the tix although one took a hootchie (90').

[AOJ: Something I occasionally bring up for those who fish from boats in the head of the bay at this time of the year, although the waters appear murky from river silt and you would think it might be tough for a silver to see the lure or bait, the silty water is the glacial freshwater "lens" from the Resurrection River literally floating on top of the heavier/denser saltwater. When you go down 20 feet or so it becomes clear saltwater like the rest of the bay.]

REPORT: Went down to the Russian River right after work on Monday morning. The 'campground full' sign was out and the campground was indeed full. We had to wait until noon for the labor day camper traffic to start leaving before we could land us a spot. They are starting to close the lower loops and just leaving the upper loops open. IIRC only the King Salmon and Rainbow Trout camping loops were still open.

(Monday) - Walked down from Grayling towards the ferry, saw a few silvers. There were exponentially more in the waters once we reached the sanctuary. *GREAT* silver fishing down by the ferry. Colors are starting to turn with a hint of blush but still great looking fish. Saw the same large grizzly mentioned in my past few reports by the cleaning table at the bend of the sanctuary. It seems to be hanging around in that same spot for the past few weeks. Crowd wise, there were still a lot of people (considering the lateness of the season). I would approximate 15-20 anglers in the sanctuary and maybe 10 in the immediate vicinity of the ferry and maybe another 10 or so along the walk down from the Russian itself.

Again, as I feared, there was mass confusion concerning the coho retention limits in the surrounding waters. I had asked earlier here in this forum and double checked the regs. and before leaving I was sure the retention limit was one in the FFO and three BELOW the powerline marker. I even specifically asked the guy manning the fee counter at the Russian River parking lot and he verified the limits for me. However, walking the river, we saw people with stringers of 1,2 or 3 (this was all by the sanctuary and the ferry crossing). These two nice Japanese fellows thought the limit was two each and approached the cleaning table to clean their four silvers and the ferry operator scolded them (quite rudely I might add) and insisted the limit was one by the ferry and two by the powerline. I politely tried reminding the operator the limit was 3 at the powerline after Sept. 1st. but he insisted it was only two and refused to listen to what I had to say, so I just walked away, not wanting to engage in a war of words with him. I realize that knowing the regs. is a personal responsibility and the angler should know them *BEFORE* heading out to the waters, but ADF&G should needs to put up more signage on the posts around the ferry crossing parking lot and the Russian River lots (e.g. in addition to the 'standard' 1 per day in the FFO, add 2 per day near the powerline, noting the limit ups to three after Sept 1st....) just so everyone is on the same page. This same scenario with the coho limit confusion happens *EVERY YEAR*!!!!!

Anyways, other than that (and the abysmal rainy weather.....) the fishing itself was fantastic. Lots of plump trout and silvers in there left for the taking! See you out there folks! :)

[AOJ: If the flood levels on the upper Kenai get too high there is a safety concern about operating the RR Ferry. In the past very high waters have shut down the ferry until waters receded back to safe levels. If that happens access to the other side must be through the campground and day use parking lots. Remember though the Kenai River will be blown out with the high water and fishing the Russian may be the only logical option.

As far as the regs go for coho bag and possession limits for RR, sanctuary and FFO Kenai zone, its all clearly identified in writing plus a very informative map on Page 51 that apparently no one reads. I agree that there is no reason the department can't come up with a Map Graphic signage at the Ferry Dock and the stairs at each day use parking lot to inform the anglers before they even get wet. A dry erase chalkboard at the ticket shack is also possible.

From a biological concern for the future of the RR coho run, this fishery should have been closed to all fishing two weeks ago for all coho in the upper Kenai and Russian. Three years from now its not likely there will be anything to fish for. There are no fish in the RR run this year and every fish that has been killed has contributed to the possibility of a disastrous return 3 years from now. By September 6th, the last day of RR weir counts, the 18 year average run would have counted 1006 silvers. The count ended up at 157 this year.

REPORT: Spent Friday night-Monday morning in Valdez. Got in late, so I didn't get any fishing in on Friday. Saturday got up early and fished Allison Point hard for several hours. Only got 3 fish on the incoming and high tide. Took a break for lunch then came back to get a good spot for the next incoming tide. Fishing was extremely slow, so instead of flogging the water for hours I decided to take it easy while fishing and moved to the city dock. At least there you can sit, so it's a bit more comfortable for not catching fish. I put a whole green label herring on a mooching rig and casted it out. Within 30 seconds I had a fish on. Got it in, rebaited, and bam! another fish. I only needed one more for my limit, but I also had a derby ticket. In the next two hours I caught about 15 more fish looking for that big one. Fishing slowed down, so I decided to keep the next one I caught and call it a day.

Sunday morning fishing started slow and cold, so I crawled back in my sleeping bag and waited for a slightly more comfortable fishing temperature afternoon tide. I got one fish pretty quick, but it was much slower than Saturday. Most people around me were giving up pretty quick. I switched tactics a bit and put a small flasher on the line in front of my bait and casted that out. Let it sink for a bit and on the drop got a fish. So, Sunday they were being pickier, but once I put the flasher on and switched from a whole herring to a cut plug I finished my limit quickly. Original plan was to return home Sunday night, but I wanted to try one more tide.

Monday morning was at the city dock early. Very few people. Fishing was slow but steady through the high tide and about an hour into low, then kind of died altogether. I only landed 2 fish, but lost about 6 others. Not sure what my problem was, I just kept losing fish, which was annoying but hey...it happens. Called it quits, got lunch to prepare for the long drive home, and went to the end of the harbor by the boat launch to watch (boat launches can be quite entertaining). The harbor was packed with fish at that end with only about a half-dozen people fishing. One family was just pulling out when I got there and they had, by about 11AM, gotten 18 fish. I was very tempted to break the rod back out, but I really had to get home.

All in all it was a great weekend, lots of fish, met some cool people and just generally had a pretty relaxing time. It was a great trip to end the summer on! Thank you Valdez for being a fishing-friendly town and not nickel and diming for every little thing. Other towns could learn some lessons in how to attract and keep people in town from your example.
Until next year......
-Fish on!

[AOJ: Indeed, Valdez is really a "sleeper" when it comes to the high quality of saltwater fishing they offer all summer and fall. Too bad the Kenai Peninsula operations are so "over-powering" in the search engine results, blocking out dozens of small coastal communities' charter operations from being noticed in search results. Well, the good side is for those who know about these communities its usually a great time and fewer crowds with very successful fishing.]

REPORT: Floated from Sportsman's to Jim's with the family on Saturday with moderate success, plenty of spawning reds and eggs drifting in the river. The bead bite seemed to turn on and off depending on your location in the river but we were able to catch fish throughout the float. Our 8 year old fished until the end catching a nice rainbow as we were getting ready to pull out, nothing completes a day of fishing like releasing your final fish at the take out!

Fished the Russian River on Sunday with limited success, difficult to navigate the spawning fish and can't recall ever seeing the amount of free drifting eggs in the river.

REPORT: My wife and I went to Valdez over Labor day weekend. We had our best success Friday afternoon high tide at Allison Point. We were using a number five Vibrax chartreuse color with a silver blade, we both caught our limits. There were a lot of people fishing with a good amount getting fish. Saturday and Sunday were slower days for us but we still managed to catch a few. I learned a few good alternative methods for catching silvers. A guy next to me switched to snagging when using a spinner was not productive and managed to catch a few, like he said. "The fish are in just not biting right now". Another quite productive method was using a large bobber, a large flasher tied 18 inches below it, and a sardine or very small herring 18 to 24 inches below that. We had a great time! You can't beat those fresh Silvers right out of the ocean. I will e-mail a few pictures of the fish we caught.

REPORT: Took my 16' Jon Boat into the bay. Good weather Saturday, rainy Sunday.

Fished between Tonsina Creek and Lowell Point Saturday. Caught 3 Silvers in about 2 hours trolling cut plug herring at 10-30ft.

Sunday was slower. Fished 2-3 hours total between Tonsina and Lowell Point with nothing so I moved to Lowell Creek Falls and caught 1 right away. Rained all day but at least I got one. I have lots of eggs ready for next year's Kings and can't wait to do it again. Thanks for the website!! Hopefully I will catch a couple winter kings and if so I'll post them.


[AOJ: I've got a friend (you've seen Shane's pics here) that goes out of Homer on and off all winter long and the feeder king fishery is definitely productive and thriving for those willing to venture out into the chill. Not looking so good for a winter forecast though from what I'm seeing. I only saw two 70°+ days here on the KP this summer, birch leaves are already falling off the trees without any frost and the ducks are already changing feather coats. Filled the bird feeder last night for the first time this fall and have 30 chickadees and nuthatches caching seeds like crazy today. Oh, for those interested, there are some STEELHEAD moving into the lower KP streams now. Remember all those streams are single hook artificials only since September 1st. Kasilof River will go to artificials only (no bait) starting September 16th.]

REPORT: Took the kayak and fished Valdez for the first time in my life. I think it's the first time in over 30 years I have even been there!

Launched from the FREE kayak launch near the city dock at around 2pm. Managed to limit out but it took till well past 7pm. I caught most of them by Mineral Creek using planer, dodger, and herring.

As I was ready to call it a day, I see a bunch of jumpers right at the kayak takeput. You have to be careful of the security zone around Crowley's dock but I cast over with my ultralight and manage to land 5 silvers in less than an hour using a #5 vibrax with blue body and silver blade.

Day two starts at around 7:30am. I hit one immediately in front of the City dock. Then its nothing until I get all the way out to Mineral Creek. Then its blank again for all the remaining high tide. I find fish shallow right up against the cliff walls in less than 20ft of water. I use vibrax spinners and a wiggle wart and get a good flurry. I see boats hooking up off shore so I join them and finish out my limit by 1pm.

Well it wasn't as good as advertised but that's hard to say when you easily limit out both days. I think while it's fun to troll with the powerboats, this late in the year, I think if you were just trying to catch as many as you can, I would use my kayak and a spinner with spinning gear and poke around the edges. This weekend, I bet the shore fishermen did as well if not better than the boats.

This late in the season, I shouldn't have been, but I was surprised to see how mature the silvers were. Lots of roe and pretty thin belly walls on many of the fish. Of course they are all bright and meat color still looked good. Seemed like a mix of the softer scale shedders and the firmer cohos.

It's not the best video as the spottiness and rain made it hard to get good footage. The only rods I didn't break out were the flyrods. Next year! But the video shows conventional trolling gear, ultralight with spinner, a magwart, and a mooching coho.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGU6PTgsgDY

P.S. Yup KK I have the 960 GoPro camera. I figured I only needed so much resolution. So far so good but definitely need more practice! Extra batteries and 16gig card makes for a lot of shooting. Fish Photo.

[AOJ: I got my second GoPro HD in last week along with the LCD bacpac and the Battery bacpac. With a 32GB card I can get about 6 hours of HD on the chip. My biggest headache is the file is .mp4 and must be imported into my Mac editor at over a 5X file size increase and painfully slow encoding times of 5.5 mins per recorded minute. Looks like I'll be getting a new 27 inch iMac this winter with quadcores to speed things up. That is one nice thing about recording HD to a tape drive camcorder...dumping/capturing the footage to the video editor occurs at real time speed with no encoding processing so a recorded hour is dumped in an hour. But as you know the GoPro POV has so many unique filming conditions you would never take an expensive digital still or tape camcorder on that its worth the money. Waiting on the wind storm to subside on the Peninsula so I can try and get some UW shots of some grayling fishing from my pontoon boat. Looks like I could use that craft rowing around where you were fishing at the harbor!!]

REPORT: My son and I hiked into Crescent Lake this weekend for a little camping and fishing. The grayling did not disappoint. Fishing was great and grayling were very large!!! Caught fish on size "0" vibrax and as well as dry flies in the creek. Creek fish were much smaller but very numerous. Lake fish greater than 18 inches were plentiful. Plan on hiking in again next year.


[AOJ: Whoa, that is some nice size grayling! Just might have to hike up there one of these days/years and sample that too. Thanks for the photo to go with the report.]

REPORT: Spent several hours on Montana Lake Sunday and a few more on Monday with the lake to myself both days. Lots of fish jumping both days, calmer water and more fish landed today. Almost all the fish I hooked were found by sight casting to fish that had just jumped or in some cases by casting into Stickelback schools that were hitting the surface. Most fish went for a 3/8 oz. Luhr Jensen Rainbow spoon. Seems like the large fish really go for anything that emulates the stickleback. Almost all these fish were over 20" with one that was easily over 24".

The down side to all this great fishing was that about half the fish had a significant skin parasite that, based on a quick Google search, looked like anchor worms. Each fish probably had a dozen or more on each side. I fished this lake at the same time last year and did not see any of this on fish at that time. I've not seen anything like this on lake fish up here before.

If anyone knows more about this please post.

[AOJ: Anchor worms are a common parasite found around Alaska. I would imagine that there may be "blooms" of the parasite in some waters where they weren't noticed in some years and then are prevalent all of a sudden in the fish population. There is no health concerns for humans and most fish with moderate to few organisms on them will survive OK. Egumen Lake on the Kenai Peninsula has rainbows which contain similar but larger parasites and are part of the east fork of the Moose River drainage so I assume its a parasite which is common to the Kenai drainage too although I've not seen any on trout IN the river. Perhaps moving waters prevent completion of the life cycle which has many phases to go through. Here is a short excerpt from the ADFG web page http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/species/disease/pdfs/fishdiseases/external_parasitic_arthropods.pdf:

Members of the class Copepoda commonly found in Alaska include the genera Lernaea (anchor worm) in both fresh and marine waters, Salmincola in fresh water and Lepeophtheirus (sea lice) in marine waters.]

REPORT: So any reports if the lower river is seeing any 2nd run silvers yet?should be starting up soon- any recent reports would be appreciated.

[AOJ: Appears to be dead. Last two days Holly House said there have been 17 vehicles parked at Centennial bank fishing and no one was catching any fish, no fish on any stringers and no one at the cleaning tables. I fished tonight for an hour and caught a couple of rainbows but no salmon in this wind storm.]

REPORT: Not a report but some information for: Aloura & Annika who fished the Bolio, nice jobs girls! Beautiful fish - wanted to share some information as I spent 26 months in Delta Junction and fished some of those lakes a lot.

Try J-Lake and Twin Lakes (Both South and North) using your same techniques but you may wish to further your fishing skills and try a fly-rod using a wet fly (leach pattern) or a dry fly (mosiquito pattern or adams). Should be lots of fun for you.

Also - don't forget to try and fish for some coho on the Clearwater River now, they should be in just upstream a couple of bends from the lodge. Use a any type of spinner or pixie. Best for catch and release but some nice fishing. Have fun, and we miss Alaska - but will be back!

REPORT: Got off work on Tuesday the 15th and headed to my favorite water to fish. As soon as I got there I jumped on the ferry and went across to the Russian side and started fishing. I hook up to what I thought was a silver as soon as I pulled it in I realized it was a nice chrome sockeye. I let him go and continued fishing with so many spawned out reds you would thing that was all there was. To the untrained eye it would seem there were no silvers to be caught. So about 9pm I went back across to the Kenai side and threw my fly in and wham a nice silver. I was reeling my fish in a couple came and asked how did I do that. I asked them if they could see the school of fish in front of me, they said no. I replied polarized glasses. As the night came in I switched up and got my trout pole out and fished a new fly I got as soon as it hit the water my drag started screaming. The fish broke the water like a whale and with one flick he took my new fly. Sooooo sad.

The next morning I found out that you can keep 6 fish with 2 being choho and 4 being sockeye past the power pole. So I went downstream and caught my limit. What a great time. The silver run at the Russian is off the chain. The fish are nice 9-10lbs easy.

REPORT: Arrived 20th July preparing for my Sons on the 24th. After filling the Motorhome with Groceries etc. decided to go wait at Bings Landing. Good decision took 30 minutes to limit on reds Each day. They arrived around 5:30am we all limited that morning, the next day was Kings (without bait) 2 of 3 not too bad. More Reds then off to the Little Su, limited on Silvers spent afternoon canning them. My friend arrived shortly after the Boys left. Much of the same Kenai, Russian, then it was time to breakout the inflatable and look for Silvers. Sorta slow for us, then after a guide showed us the correct way.... It was Fish-On. Limited each day. If you are reading Thanks Adam!!!! What a great fishing trip and what great people in Alaska. Can't hardly wait till next Summer.

REPORT: Being genuine Alaskan gals, my younger sis and I decided it was time to start developing our outdoor skills as fishergals. After all, we were very mature for our ages and had heard a lot of stories about how fun fishing was. So after asking around and checking with some of our local experts we decided that a place called Bolio Lake might be the best spot to try and catch our first fish. And having picked up a couple of other tips, again from those experts, we decided it would be best not to put all our eggs so to speak in one basket and should instead try two different kinds of bait in case those fish were as finicky as my little sister when she has brussel sprouts on her dinner plate.

The weather couldn't have been better with a beautiful blue bird T shirt sunny day and just a hint of fall colors starting to show all around the lake.

Well as it turns out it wasn't just the weather that was cooperating that day. And even though we were fishing different baits we both caught our very first fish, a couple of really big rainbow trout. I was using a bobber and shrimp and my sis was using a bobber and salmon eggs. My fish was even getting its fall colors on its fins, just like the trees. Next time we will have to bring a fish scale to see who catches the biggest one. That's called optimism by the grownups and another thing we learned. One thing I noticed, I'll have to have a talk with the camera person to get those backgrounds level in the pictures next time, otherwise all the water will run out of that lake! lol
Hope you all catch a big one on your next trip,
Ali (6, that's me) and Niki(5)

That's me, Ali, with my first big trout for the dinner table. No catch and release in this hungry family.

Here's my little sis, Niki, with her first big trout too. We definitely need to come back to this place and catch more fish now that we are experts. Sure great to be an Alaskan!

REPORT: Fished Bird Creek using a #6 Vibrax three hours before the evening high tide. Didn't have any hook ups or see any fish. There were about two handfuls of other anglers and didn't see them hook any fish as well. There was also a seal hanging out at the mouth of the creek and once the water level rose from the rising the tide the seal was swimming up and down the creek, it didn't appear the seal had any luck either.

On a positive note it was nice to take a short drive from town to get out and finally enjoy some sunny weather outside and do some "fishing."

[AOJ: Yup, ONE nice day of sunshine. Doesn't that make 4 total for the summer? :) ]

REPORT: Valdez Harbor seems to be the Silver Capitol of Alaska. Many and I say many to be had. Don't even need a boat. Fish from the small boat harbor, City dock, Allison Point road, you name it. If you can't limit out each day (6) then you simply don't have a line in the water. My wife and I come and visit our daughter who lives in Valdez each 4th of July (for the Pinks) and Labor Day weekend, a whole week this year, and always need a physical therapist afterwards to tend to the muscle strains from catching so many. FISH ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

REPORT: Weather was absolutely perfect outside so decided to make a day trip down to Bird Creek. Fished the afternoon (low) tide. Father and son fishing pixies from the large boulder, one other fly fisherman fishing by the boundary wire and one person fishing beyond the wire (.......) Saw a handful of beat up pinks up and down the river. As I was getting ready to leave, I saw two blushed silvers shoot up the creek about 100 yards in front of the bridge. Was unable to get either one in but at least I saw proof with my own eyes they are still in there!

Hey AOJ - Making one more trip down to the Russian and looking for your expertise on reg. clarification again. My buddy and I were able to track down and find the Kenai/Russian regs in PDF form on the ADF&G site but still had some questions. It basically says what you had told me earlier in one of my previous forum posts, 2 per day/2 in possession above the power line marker, 1 per day/1 in possession in the Russian FFO *THROUGH AUGUST 31st*. The regs. say nothing of the limits starting Sept. 1st..... (that I can see)

In your response to my last question you state: "Below the Powerline the limit is 2 silvers from July 1 to August 31 and then 3 silvers per day from September 1 to October 31." So, does that extra one fish get tacked onto the Russian FFO as well? That is to say, on Sept 1st. when the powerline limit is bumped from 2 to 3, is the Russian FFO limit bumped from 1 to 2? Or does it remain 1 a day in the FFO even after Sept 1st?

[AOJ: All the coho limit info for the Russian River, the Sanctuary Zone, and the Kenai mainstem Fly Fishing Only (FFO) Zone down to the PowerLine marker is listed on PAGE 51 of the Regs in the the YELLOW Box next to the map identifying the three areas. No mention of August 31st anywhere.]

REPORT: My fiance's grandma is dead set on hitting the tailrace on Thursday. Any advice? Having never fished it before and knowing its a slow run I am still hopeful for a productive trip.