We woke up for our 2nd day of fishing excited. Today we were going to go King Salmon fishing. From my time in Alaska back in 2007 this was my favorite day of the trip. King Salmon are the kings of salmon for a reason; they are by far the largest of the species. King Salmon (also known as Chinook salmon) range in size from 24 to 36 inches in length and can weigh anywhere from 10 pounds to 50 pounds. I had caught one of these monsters back in 2007 and it was a thrill. It took about 15 minutes to reel in and was 40 pounds. It was awesome. Needless to say I was pumped. Julie was as well as I had told her this story time after time again.
King Salmon Stamp Snafu
For non-Alaskan residents in order to go fishing and to legally catch fish you need a fishing license. For this you purchase the permit for just the days that you will actually be fishing and for exactly what type of fish that you are fishing for. For king salmon in addition to the permit you need a king salmon stamp as well, which allows you to keep the king salmon that you catch. We had purchased this two days prior when we first arrived in Soldotna but unfortunately for us we had forgotten to get our permit back from the halibut tour captain the day prior. As the drive to and from the halibut boat launch point was too far for us to go and get to our king salmon boat on time we went back to the sporting goods store where we originally purchased our permit and king stamp. Once at the store they were sympathetic to our story and gave us a discount on our new king salmon stamps.
King Salmon Fishing on the Kasilof River
Permits and King Stamps in hand we headed over to our launching point. Unlike the day before where we went halibut fishing on the Cook Inlet (which is so big that it felt like deep sea fishing), king salmon fishing happens on mostly calm glacial fed rivers. Also unlike the day before where we fished from a huge multi engine boat today, we would be on a river drift boat. A drift boat is pretty much what you would imagine when you say “drift boat”, you just float or “drift” down the river. The captain sits in the back and has two oars, which they use to pilot the boat down the river.
For this trip we were with two other paid customers, father and son Charlie & Alex. They had a pretty unique story as they currently live in Paris, France because Charlie’s wife works in the American Embassy there. They had previously lived in Alaska when Charlie was in the military and come back to Alaska when they can, as that was where Alex was born. Also on the boat was the captain, River. All of us thought that this was a bit funny. I mean the guy guiding your fishing boat down the river whose name is also River. It was just one of those things that you can’t even make up.
The four of us got in the boat, River pushed the boat into the river and we were off. Immediately this experience was different from the day before. The beach and the tractor noise, the pounding waves, the loud engine, none of that was here. The only noise was the calming sound of the river and the occasional paddling from River.
Once we got going for a bit, River gave us our fishing poles and explained how King Salmon fishing works. On the end of the lines were a piece of artificial bait and a small mechanism, which spins due to the current of the water. This catch’s the fish’s eyes and they think it is food and want to eat it or attack it. The other thing that River told us was that unfortunately due to the heat wave that Alaska was currently facing he did not have much luck catching anything as king salmon prefer colder temperatures.
So we drifted down the river. Every now and then, captain River would tell us to reel our lines in so he could position us in a new spot to try to catch some fish. We went spot to spot, mile by mile down the river without even a nibble on our lines. The day wasn’t a total bust though. Drifting down the river in the sun was exactly what Julie and I needed after the exhausting day the day before. We also saw lots of wildlife including 10 bald eagles. We finally reached our end spot, which Captain River apologized for the lack in bites. There was really nothing that he could do about it though; if the fish aren’t biting they just aren’t biting.
After getting back to Bubbles and as it wasn’t late in the day we drove over to the local laundry mat in Soldotna. We then drove back to Dick & Stevie’s who then told us about a great local Mexican place that we should go to for dinner called Senor Panchos. The food at Senor Panchos was excellent (as Mexican restaurants usually are). After dinner we headed back to the house to get to bed, we had to be up early the next day.
A seaplane ride to go fishing for Sockeye Salmon
The next day we woke up much earlier than normal; 4:50am. Today was our last fishing day and by far our most exciting. Today we would be fishing for Sockeye (Red) Salmon. We had to get up so early because in order to get to where the Sockeye salmon were we had to take a seaplane ride. This was going to be the highlight of our Alaskan fishing. Julie and I basically jumped out of bed as soon as our alarm went off. We were pumped; seaplanes, boats & fishing – this was a trifecta of awesomeness! After waking up we were set to go in about 10 minutes and to our surprise Dick was up and had made us breakfast. This was really nice and super special as technically we were just staying as friends since he had stopped taking actual guests for the bed & breakfast the year before. It was a nice treat though and after eating and talking for a bit we hit the road around 5:30.
We were headed to Alaska West Air in the town of Nikiski, about an hours drive west from Soldotna. Alaska West Air is a seaplane charter company that provides guided fishing trips, bear watching excursions as well as overall sightseeing. Once we arrived at their “terminal”, which was a cabin next to a lake we checked in. There were a few planes leaving this morning, two on salmon fishing trips like us, and one plane taking a group of guys far into the wilderness on a hunting trip. We then learned that there would be 5 in a boat once we landed and surprisingly enough the other 3 in our boat were all friends from Tampa. This we really could not believe. We had left Tampa two months prior only to find ourselves in this tiny Alaskan town checking into a small charter seaplane company only to be put on a boat with 3 others from Tampa. It was really cool!
Once everyone who was supposed to be on our plane arrived they loaded us onto the plane and off we went. We flew 25 minutes west over the Cook Inlet and landed on what is known as Big River Lakes. The plane then pulled onto this “island” of floating grasses that they had put plywood on top so you could walk. From there we hopped into our boat with our 3 new Tampa friends, Mark, Mike & Bill and our guide Danny. From there we were off!
After a short 10 minute boat ride we found our fishing spot. Fishing sockeye salmon today would be much different than fishing for halibut or king salmon from the previous days. Here is how today works. Mid July is spawning season for sockeye salmon. As such they want to swim back to where they were born which is up smallish streams. They gather at the base of these streams in the lake that we were in before making their final push. They gather prior to going up the streams as they have to jump over small waterfalls. To fish for these guys all you do is cast your line out with no bait, reel in until the line is tight and with one quick motion yank the rod down and back to cause the hook to pull through the water at a fast speed. For this type of fishing you are not trying to get the fish to bite on to something but to simply just hook them wherever you can. There are so many salmon here this is all you need to do.
So the day started. 3 out of the 5 could fish at once so while 3 of us were fishing the other two could relax, talk and cheer our fellow fishing people. In what seemed like no time at all the first fish was on. It’s a whole different experience when you are trying to reel in a fish that isn’t fighting from its head. We were pulling them in hooking them mostly from their tails so they were able to simply try to swim a way. They would go left then right then left again and try as hard as they could to get away. A few did manage to slip the hooks off but for the most part everyone was successful in reeling them in. The limit for the day was 3 per person and within 2 hours each of the 5 of us had caught our 3.
From our fishing spot our guide Danny motored the boat over to one of the bigger waterfalls on the lake as he filleted the fish. This was a special spot as besides the waterfall there were bald eagles sitting above us in the trees watching what was going on down below. Here we took pictures with our catch and watched Danny skillfully fillet our salmon.
We then motored over to another part of the lake where other boats had spotted some bears. We were in luck! Right before our eyes we saw the largest grizzly bear that we had ever seen. He was walking along the shoreline then it looked like he saw something in the water so he jumped in. It didn’t look like he caught anything but he swam around for a bit before swimming back to shore. Also in this area were a ton of bald eagles. Danny had kept a lot of the throwaway salmon pieces (spine & heads) and he started to throw these on a small island to see if some of the eagles would come down to eat. This turned out to work very well. Not only did we see a few bald eagles come down but a golden eagle as well. If you have never heard of or seen a golden eagle, picture a bald eagle, but just brown or golden in color. They are also much bigger than bald eagles with a wingspan of around 7 feet. They are huge!
After watching the eagles for a bit it was time to get back onto the plane. We motored back to the floating grass island and boarded our plane. This time instead of heading straight back to home base lake the pilot thought that we had a few spare minutes and wanted to show us a glacier. Unknown to us we were fishing next to a mountain chain that had a huge glacier on it. The glacier went on for almost as far as we could see. The pilot flew along for a while tilting the plane from one side to the other so that both sides could see the glacier well. It was amazing flying over this huge glacier and seeing these lakes sitting on top of it that were the bluest of blues that we had ever seen. It was truly spectacular!
The town of Kenai & The Russian Orthodox Church
After the plane landed back at home base we took pictures with our new Tampa friends saying that we would meet back up once we got back to Florida. As we passed through the town of Kenai on the way to our flight this morning and did not have time to stop we thought that now would be a good chance. While the actual town wasn’t that interesting or pretty (similar to most Alaskan towns) they did have great views of the Cook Inlet. They also have the tiny Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Church. This little church is the oldest Russian Orthodox Church in the entire state of Alaska. We paid a small donation when we walked in and were able to get a guided tour from the church’s priest. He was able to tell us about the early Russians in the Alaska territory before and after the Americans purchased the land. I had wondered how many Russians stayed in Alaska after the purchase and was told that as most used the land seasonally for fishing and hunting not many stayed. However as church’s were established and the native population had somewhat adopted the religion, the church stayed. It was pretty awesome to get a history of not just the church but of Russians in Alaska as well.
Goodbye to Soldotna
From the town of Kenai we headed back to Soldotna for one last night. After stopping at the local grocery store for some beer we headed back to Dick & Stevie’s. We sat out on their dock overlooking the Kenai River and cheers’d. Even though we were not successful in each of our fishing trips we still were shipping back over 40 pounds of fish. After taking showers we went out that night back to Mykel’s Restaurant, which we had gone to on our first night in town. We had another great dinner there but as we had been up at 4:50 in the morning we were a bit tired and went to bed pretty fast after getting back from dinner.
The next morning after breakfast we packed up and said our goodbyes to Dick, Stevie and their (and now our) friend Michael. Leaving anywhere for us that we have stayed more than a few days is hard. It was especially hard here as Dick & Stevie almost felt like family to us. Every morning Dick would make us breakfast, even if we had to leave by 6am. We would have a nice conversation in the morning, then in the evening when we returned and he wanted to know how the day went. It was really nice and we will always remember him for that. As the road was calling, it was time to go. We had an amazing 3 days of fishing in and around Soldotna, days that we will not soon forget!
Next up….The end of the road on the Kenai – Homer & Seward, AK
