St. Cloud Sportmen's Show February 12th-15th

Just a heads up about the St. Cloud Sportsmen's Show which starts a week from today. If you are in the area and have thoughts of coming to Alaska this summer it would be worth your while to stop by to check out the "show specials" that we offer. Sport shows are the only place that we offer discounted packages so you don't want to miss out.

For those of you who have been to Beaver Creek Cabins I'm sure you'll recognize where this photo was taken. If you guessed the deck of the Chinook cabin you would be right. As you can see the photo was taken last spring before the leaves were out. If watching moose is what you are after then you'll want to be here in the spring/early summer. Moose aren't always the brightest animals but they sure seem to know when the hunting season begins in August. Up until then they seem to be everywhere.

See you in St. Cloud.

Catch & Release Techniques 101

In Alaska, you can not remove a king salmon from the water if you intend to release the fish. If I know the fish is going to be released there are two things that go through my mind to make this as easy on the fish as possible. If I have to net the fish I'll reach for my rubber net. A rubber net is far superior to a standard mesh net when it comes to releasing a fish. Rubber is gentler on the fish and will rarely scratch scales,fins or bruise the nose of the fish. A better way to release a fish is not to net it all and use a needle nose pliers to remove the hook. If the hook is imbedded deep in the mouth, cutting the line as close to the hook is an acceptable alternative.

I know quite a few of my clients would love to take a king out of the water for a picture before a release but in all my years of fishing I've come to the conclusion that this is a law that is best for the fish. This practice of not removing a fish from the water has resulted in mortality rate on the Kenai of less than 10% (Bendix study).

One thing that I have yet to do is what I call the "Keeneye" king photo opportunity. This is a reference to one of the Kenai's biggest advocates of catch and release fishing and how he photographs his fish. The "Keeneye" when taking a photo will jump out of the boat in a shallow water area and cradle the fish in a half in the water, half out of the water pose. Beautiful, beautiful photographs. I would love to have a client catch and want to release a 90lb plus fish and I would gladly wade in the cold, glacier waters of the Kenai for a photo of a lifetime.

Now the question I have is this. Will 2010 be the year of the "Keeneye" king pose? Let's hope so.

Tight lines,

Keith

Minnesota Sportsmen's Show 2010

Well, I guess the next best thing to fishing is talking about fishing.


Jane and I just finished a five day sport show in St. Paul, Minnesota. This was our seventh time attending this show and although the days were long it was still fun to be there. Overall, the traffic was down compared to previous years but there were quite a few major events scheduled at the same time in the same area. There are only so many parking spaces in downtown St. Paul so a sport show tends to lose out on attendance. The Minnesota Wild played hockey the first night, followed by the Swarm, a professional lacrosse team, and what is usually the busiest day of any sport show, Saturday, we were competing with a Brad Paisley concert. The single biggest event that affected the show had nothing to do with parking. It was the playoff football game on Sunday between the Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys. You could pretty much throw a bowling ball down the aisle and not hit a single person. Not much you can do about that but at least the Vikings won.

Jane and I had a great time visiting with quite a few people that have stayed and fished with us in the past. It's always great to relive a person's trip of a lifetime. We also enjoyed visiting with people who are putting together trips of a lifetime and our glad that they are choosing to spend part of their stay with us.

Our next sport show will be in St. Cloud Minnesota on February 12th, 13th, and 14th. If you are interested in attending we have a limited amount of tickets available. Drop us an email and tickets will be given out on a first come first serve basis until they are gone. Hope to see you there!

Sportshow Schedule 2010

Hello to all.

Jane and I thought we would let you know the sportshows that we'll be at. Right now we are scheduled to be at the Minnesota Sportsmen's Show from January 13th-17th in St. Paul and the St. Cloud Sportmen's Show in St. Cloud, Minnesota from February 12th-14th. We may add more shows and we will keep you updated if changes occur.

The days are long at these shows so if you are attending please stop by and say hello. Also, we do have a limited amount of free admission tickets available. If you are interested send us an email.

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When Silvers Were King....Last Fishing Report of '09

My last trip of the year was on 9/26 and today I decided to take the boat out for the year. I asked Jane if she wanted to fish one last time and she didn't hesitate to say yes but it had to be at noon and it it could only be for an hour.
Perfect, I thought, because the tide would be coming in at about that time. We fished for about a half an hour and the first salmon bit my line. As Jane was reeling in a second salmon hit her line. A double. I landed Jane's fish first but we had trouble getting the hooks and the fish out of the net. So, thinking fast I decided to net my fish while Jane's fish was still in the net. What you see on floor of the boat was the result. We could have fished for another half hour but it didn't take us long to realize how perfect it would be to end the season right then and there. Wow, what a great way to say good bye to the Kenai for another year.

So, photo number 2 is Renae and Kevin who came back to fish one last time. Photo number 3 is Bill and Jason. Photo number 4 is Jason. And finally, photo number 5 is Bill and Jason. My hats off to Bill and Jason for sticking out during a couple of days of bad weather. One morning the thermometer read 24 degrees. It wasn't until 11:00 a.m. that the frost finally melted off of the boat seats. Another day it was blowing and raining very hard and they stuck it out like troopers. I guess it's growing up in North Dakota/Minnesota that has hardened them to all weather conditions. It doesn't hurt that the fishing wasn't too bad either.

This won't be our last post but it is the last fishing report. I titled this entry "When Silvers Were King" because '09 turned out to be an excellent silver year while the king fishing not as good as previous years.

It's time to winterize the boat and the cabins. As time permits we will be sure to give all of you an update.

Fishing Report Week Ending 9/20/09

Overall the fishing was pretty good last week. The action was never red hot but we managed to limit out every trip but one. Of course, the trip that we did not limit out on was the trip that a seal took a fish off of our line. That's the fourth one this year and it's starting to make me wonder about the ratio of silvers to seals.

The top photo is Joe, Ron and Stef. Photo number two and three are of "Team Qdoba" from Anchorage. The final photo is of Kevin and Renae.

I've got my long underwear out in preparation of the week ahead. Termination dust is starting in the mountains and the morning temperatures are predicted to be in the 30's this week with the highs reaching the low 50's.

Fishing Report Week Ending 9/13/09

Last week saw 5 great days of catching salmon and one day of fishing. On 9/9/09 Team Raisanan had a day on the river in which we saw more moose than silver salmon: 2 moose, one silver. Oh well, "you should've been here yesterday or the day after" applies but Jeff, Brian, and Lars still made my day enjoyable. It's great to have outdoorsmen who realize that getting out is as important as catching a lot of fish. Thanks guys.

The first photo is Ron with his biggest silver of the day. The second photo is of Ron, Stephen, and Joe. Photo three is from day two of Team Oregon's assault on the river. Photo four is Trooper Dan and Tamika. Photo five is Joe and Ron. And finally, photo six is Team Oregon consisting of Kathy, Peg (not pictured), Karen, Susie, Mel, and Kathleen.

I'm fishing nearly everyday next week so once again I hope the run of salmon and decent weather continues.