Icing On The Cake

Keith got the icing on his birthday cake yesterday. We went out fishing again in the afternoon and released another smaller male king, but decided to keep this 45 inch female.

Fishing always makes Keith happy!

Birthday Gift

Today is my birthday and every year it's a great day. If I'm not guiding, which I love, it's a day that Jane and I can go fishing ourselves. Five years ago Jane and I went out in the afternoon and we caught 7 kings in just over two hours. That was with no bait! By far the best couple of hours for only two poles being fished. Other years we've spend the day on the water and not had a bite.




This morning Jane and I went out for a couple of hours. The first troll we didn't have a bite. On the second troll Jane motioned to the pole over my shoulder and I assumed I had a bite. Nope. It was a momma moose and her calf swimming across the river. I see moose swimming quite often but never get tired of it. Of all the big game animals that we see moose are by far the best swimmers. You wouldn't think they would be with their long, skinny legs but they get across the river with ease.






Anyway, back to fishing. We made a couple of more trolls and I was thinking about heading back to the cabins to do some work. I figured we'd try it for the first few hours and then come back out in the afternoon. However, Jane had a bite and decided to give it another five minutes. I'm glad I did. Soon after my pole was buried in the rod holder so I set the hook and handed it off to Jane. I've caught a lot of fish in my life and I take pleasure in watching Jane reel a fish in. She doesn't think she has good fishing skills because she's relatively new to the sport, but she really does. After about ten minutes the king came to the net. I'm guessing that the weight was between 25-30lbs. It was a nice fish and we thought long and hard about whether we should keep it. With a 2 fish seasonal limit and a month and half of fishing left we decided to let it go.




We plan on heading out again later today. I'll see if I can get more "icing" for my birthday cake.

Patience, Persistance,Positive Attitude and the Pope's

Do you know that feeling when you first meet a person and it seems like you've known them your whole life? I was fortunate this past week to meet 15 people that I felt that way about. Mel Pope and his entire family came to our place before they set sail on a cruise ship to Vancouver. Jane and I had wonderful time getting to know this family.

So, about the fishing. The weather was tough and the fishing was hard but with patience, persistance, and positive attitude the Pope's came through. The first day we didn't catch a salmon (plenty of hooligan and a few trout). The second day the youngest fisherman, Robert Allen, came through with a nice salmon. He did a tremendous job of hooking and landing the fish. He said it was his first king salmon ever but I could tell he is an accomplished angler for being so young. On the final day we started out by missing a couple of salmon. Not always a good sign for my boat. We continued to fish hard and about eight hours into the trip William caught his king on the "funky chicken" lure. I'm proud of the fact that William hung in there for three days before he caught a salmon. Shortly after William's fish Bruce caught a nice one on salmon eggs. Not long after than Mel Jr., using salmon eggs as well, hooked the largest king of the day coming in at 45lbs. It was a nice battle and it was great to see Mel catch a fish on the Kenai other than a silver salmon, trout, or hooligan. The last hour of the trip we tried hard to get the final king of the day for Mel III. It didn't happen but it wasn't for a lack of effort.

What a great way to start June. And, by the way, Rebecca, you're still the Queen of the Hooligan.

Wednesday King

Good job, Robert Allen!

Members of the Pope family from FL have been fishing with Keith and Jeff this week. Fishing has been slow and the weather has been cool, but perseverance has paid off for 10 year old Robert Allen. After a day and a half of waiting it out he was rewarded with this 35 pound, 42 inch king.

Should've been here.....tomorrow!

On Saturday I fished Mike and Kathy (forgive me if I have your name incorrect because I'm drawing a blank) from the best lake in all of Minnesota, Mille Lacs. The weather was cool, the moose and eagles were out, but the salmon were hard to find. Zippo, not a a bite on our trip. We did see, however, two fish caught. Definitely a tough day of "catching" for the fleet.


About midday of our trip I received a phone call that the Kenai River would be open to bait fishing starting on June 1st (the earliest that I know of). The Alaska Department of Fish and Game felt that there are enough king salmon in the river to liberalize fishing methods. There's not doubt the catch rate will go up and as I've said in the past I'm three times better as a guide with bait. I'm a little bit uneasy with this decision, however. I tend to be more of a conservationist when it comes to king salmon so time will tell if this was good move by ADF&G to open the river to bait early.


So, after our day of fishing on Saturday I said to Mike and Kathy, "should've been here....tomorrow!" Timing is everything when it comes to this fishery.

Baby Moose

Okay, it isn't a big king but still fun to see.

As Keith and I got to the cabin this morning we were greeted by an immature eagle perched on the cleaning table. As Keith snuck in to take a photo, he noticed the momma and baby moose beside the dock.

As you can see, we are still waiting for most of the green leaves to pop out yet, but we are seeing signs of spring and summer. We have two sets of momma and baby moose hanging out by the dock and the eagles are busy building their nest in the tree in the front yard.

I think I'll wait a few more days to get the flowers up, though. The days have been beautiful this week, but our nights are still chilly. Waiting out the frost for while might be smart.

Have a great weekend!

Jane

First King

Well, here it is, the first Kenai king of the year in my boat. Tim and Mike Babbit were my first clients and the company, the weather, and the fishing were excellent. The day started out unusually cold for late May. A beginning temperature of 32 and frost on the boat seats. With clear skies and not much wind the temperature rebounded and made it into the low 60's. Even with sunscreen the three of us were a little bit sunburned by the end of the day.

We started out fishing the usual early season method. Backtrolling spin-n-glo's without bait. I was a little apprehensive about our success today because the river was muddy and running high. Not a good combination when you can't use bait. Anyway , after several hours of nothing I decided to switch out Tim's gear for a small crankbait. Half way through the first troll at Eagle Rock Tim's pole started to go down slowly. It didn't act like a fish, more like snagging debris floating down the river, but after a hard hook set and several yards of line stripping out to the reel, we knew it was a fish, and a nice one at that. After fifteen minutes and several dances around the boat, I netted Tim's king. Even with the slot limit increase from 44"-55" to 46"-55" I thought that this fish would be too large and we would have to let it go. After measuring three times to make sure, Tim's fish came in just over 45". Woo hoo's, high fives and hand shakes for everyone in the boat. At the end of the day I put a scale to the fish and it weighed 46lbs. I'm not sure it would've made 50lbs at live weight but it was by far the finest first king of the season for my boat ever.

Mike fished hard the rest of the day but we couldn't coax another bite. He was okay with that because now they had fillets to take back home. I think the brother's Babbit will be back to Alaska to do it all over again in the not so distant future.