Fishing Report Week Ending 6/11/17

In the beginning of the week, the water conditions remained excellent and the fishing reflected that. By the end of the week, the river had begun to rise, the water visibility deteriorated, and the temperature dropped nearly ten degrees. Fishing became tough.

Here's a really nice fish, and it's under the new 36" slot limit. Although not "Kenai large", this size king salmon still provides quite a few meals for people wishing to keep fish to eat. The real reason I included this photo is to show off my new measuring stick. Anyone can use a ruler, but who else do you know would use a vintage 1990's wood hockey stick? Besides a measuring tool, it's also a great fish whacker. Hmmm, imagine that.

This week I had several groups and on Wednesday I had the pleasure to spend the day with the Miller family. That's mom, Anna, on the left with two year old McKenzie. I tell you what, I am going to give out the Fisherman With The Most Patience Award right now to McKenzie. She spent over eight hours in the boat and half the time I didn't even realize she was there. I think it helped that I took the hooks off of one of my favorite lures and let her play with it. If you zoom in on her hand you can see it in this photo. What a nice, young family.

I really wish I had a photo of dad, Eli Miller, holding a Kenai king. Instead, I'm using photos from a saltwater trip he took this week with Boo Kandas. As you can see, the fishing was very good.

Although Eli came to Alaska with the intent on catching a salmon, he ended up catching six other species he wasn't even thinking about. One of the six was a nice rainbow trout on the Kenai. That was a first for him. Since his salmon ticket wasn't punched, I have a strong hunch he will be back again soon.

Team George French

If you're in Alaska right now, you know what day it is today. It is the Russian River sockeye opener. If you're anti-social, this is definitely not your fishery. I would say based on my own observations of the pass through fishery on the lower Kenai, and a report coming from ADFG, the fishing should be good if not great.

Team Jerry French

I should have some better intel about the Russian River fishery in my next post.

My forecast for the week ahead on the lower Kenai is that fishing will be tough early in the week. The river should moderate mid week, just in time for the historic peak of the first king run. It could be a great Father's Day weekend to be on the Kenai.....

See you next week.



Beaver Creek Cabins & Guide Service

Fishing Report Week Ending 6/4/17

It happened.

Or I should say, it's happening.

Because of the volatility the last few years during the early Kenai king run, my bookings have been down. A big part of this is because Jane and I have been steering most of our business into late summer and into fall. Rarely is fishing restricted or closed. In other words, it's much more predictable and it's an easier "sell". I know it's going to take some time for people to have confidence in the early run fishery, but right now the fishing has been pretty good and it's been a joy running up and down the river with so few people out there.

One guy that's been busy guiding this early in the season has been my ol' buddy Jeff King. Let's just say, he's been ripping it up. You can read about his adventures and see photos of the kings he's caught if you click here.  Well done, Jeff, well done...

For me, for the amount of time spent on the water last week, the fishing was good. Here's one of the kings that was released.

This fish was over the 36" slot limit and turned loose.

This was fish was under the 36" slot limit but Gary decided to release it. That was a good thing because he was rewarded later with a fish under 28". The reason I say rewarded is that any king caught before July 1st that is under 28" is a "free" fish, and doesn't count towards the seasonal bag limit of two Kenai kings. Yahtzee!

And here's another fish released.

On the day Gary and I were out we had quite a few rainbow trout bite our gear. This was the largest and it measured 20".

Here's another upside of fishing during the early run; hardly any boats on the river which seems to please the wildlife. This caribou watched us as we trolled on by. It was so peaceful for her that she eventually curled up on the gravel bar and took a nap.

Had to include this photo of a young moose taking up residency in our front yard. If you love moose, this is definitely the time of year that you'll see a lot of them.

My calendar is light this week but I should be out fishing several times. The conditions and sonar numbers remain good so I expect the king salmon fishing to be that way as well.

A side note. Based on how many jumping red salmon that that I've watched this week, I think the Russian River red salmon opener on June 11th should be a good one. It's getting to be that time of year to dust off the combat gear and to practice yelling "FISH ON!"

See you next week.



Beaver Creek Cabins & Guide Service

Memorial Week Fishing Report

Because of the brave, we are free. Happy Memorial Day everybody.

So, I'm proud to be giving my first weekly report of fishing on the Kenai River. On Monday, I partnered up with my neighbors, Greg and Ron, to spend a day drifting the river.

It was a gorgeous float, but unfortunately, the salmon had other plans. After about four hours of fishing and rowing, the three of us had zero bites. There we no complaints for the lack of action on a day like this.

The next afternoon there was a huge tide, so I figured it was time to get my power boat in for the season. I've been holding off doing this because the water levels have been low (no reason to wreck a prop or the lower unit). I took the safe route and launched at the mouth of the river and ran my boat up to the dock. When I came into the creek I saw my first momma and baby moose of the year. If you look under mom, you can see the baby moose. 

Here's a better view of the little guy.

Now that I'm ready to go, the last three evenings I've been out fishing with my neighbor Dan. We timed the incoming tides and have fished a couple of hours each evening. So far, we have yet to have a bite. Oh, we've seen a few red salmon jump, a couple of kings roll, and actually witnessed one other boat land a fish...yeah! I told Dan every hour we spend fishing is one hour closer to catching our first king salmon of the year. It's going to happen, and I think it will happen soon...

On a side note. We did have a productive day on Sunday, although it had nothing to do with catching fish. In a matter of five minutes these two lures came floating down. Finders keepers, losers weepers!

For the week ahead, I anticipate the fishing will be better. I base this on a favorable tide cycle, and an increase in fish passages. For those of you who follow the sonar counts on ADFG's website, you can see the numbers are getting better everyday and they're quite a bit higher than this time last year. That's very encouraging.

Well, that's it. Make sure to come back next week to see what's happening.




Beaver Creek Cabins & Guide Service

Deep Creek Fishing Report

waiting for the tractor to launch the boat at Deep Creek

The plan for Thursday was to meet up with Boo Kandas in Homer and spend the day chasing halibut and rock fish. That plan quickly changed Wednesday night when Boo called to say he had mechanical problems and had to take his boat out of the water to get fixed. Just after I spoke with Boo, I received a call from one of the other guys who was scheduled to go out, and he said since Homer was cancelled, we should haul his river boat down to Deep Creek and try for halibut and king salmon. Not a bad plan B I must say.

Ken, Murray, Pat, and I left Soldotna at 5:00 am and made it to Deep Creek fifteen minutes before the first launch of the day. We were second in line to go out and that was a good thing. If you look over Ken's shoulder you can see the boats staging at the launch and the line of traffic coming down the hill. Uff da!

Because of the tide cycle it was better for us to start out halibut fishing rather than king salmon fishing. The halibut fishing was steady and in a couple of hours we kept our 8 fish limit. They were all nice eaters with the largest weighing 30lbs. Not a bad haul for guys looking for fresh fish.

We then turned our attention to king salmon fishing. We got our rigs set up to troll and headed to the Happy Valley area of Upper Cook Inlet. Close to 20 other boats thought this was the place to be king salmon fishing as well. We gave it about two hours before the weather detoriated enough that a small boat like ours should not be out there anymore. We caught two halibut trolling for kings and that was it. As far as we could tell, no other boats had any luck for king salmon either. It was just one of those days where the fish weren't there, or they weren't interested in our bait.

I got home that afternoon, filleted the halibut, and couldn't pass up the opportunity to have fresh fish for dinner. A little Shore Lunch fish batter, oil, and a cast iron pan is all it takes.

The final product before being devoured....

This week I have plans to wet a line on the Kenai River. Hopefully, I won't have to have a Plan B and fish somewhere else.

See you soon for the next fishing report.

Beaver Creek Cabins & Guide Service

Silver Salmon Derby 2017

The Kenai Chamber of Commerce has announced a Kenai River Silver Salmon Derby to be held September 6th-18th. There will be categories for adults and for children. Specifics of the derby are not known at this time but will be made public soon. When that announcement is made, I will be sure to post them here.

I've checked my calendar and I do have availability during this time. Feeling lucky? Send me an email, beavercreekcabins@yahoo.com, and ask about the Derby Deal (fishing and lodging package).

September is perhaps my favorite month on the Kenai River and this derby could make a good thing even better.




Beaver Creek Cabins & Guide Service

Salmon Celebration

In the beginning of the week I received a call from a friend of mine, Jenny Gates, who is a fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Jenny was looking for volunteers for the Salmon Celebration event being held at Johnson Lake Campground on May 11th. I asked what I could do and she said she could use help teaching elementary students how to cast a spinning rod.

What? Kids? Fishing? I'm in.

Students trying to cast a lure into the cutout holes

From 10:00am until 2:00pm, over one thousand elementary school children from the Kenai Peninsula Borough participated in this event. Besides learning how to use a spinning rod, there were over 30 educational, hands on, activities for the students to participate in. The activities ranged from water quality demonstrations, waterfowl identification, juvenile fish identification, stocking rainbow trout, boating safety, first aid, and understanding the salmon life cycle

The weather was great, the kids were enthused, and it was fun to teach students how to use a spinning rod.

I do find it ironic that, on this day of celebrating salmon, the first confirmed Kenai king that I'm aware of was caught and released (a video was forwarded to me). I've got a few boat maintenance issues that I'm dealing with right now, but my first trip should be happening very soon...very soon.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. To all the mom's that read this blog, enjoy the day!




Beaver Creek Cabins & Guide Service

The Second Step

So much for patience.

The day after the dock went in the call of the river proved to be too great. I loaded up my cataraft and headed up river for a nice six hour float ending at our dock at Beaver Creek.

Five minutes into my float I spied this Hawg Nose lure stuck on the bank. Hey, this is going to be a great day.

For the next hour I continued to find fishing lures and not much else. It wasn't until I walked a gravel bar that I found the Holy Grail of river salvaging. That, my friends, is a bona fide RL anchor. My good fortune is due to the previous owner not fastening the chain correctly, or tying an inferior knot. Either way, finders keepers, losers weepers.

With the anchor firmly secured to the back of my cataraft, my adventure continued. Just around the bend this shiny object caught my eye. That is an Abu Garcia 5500 reel attached to an 8 1/2 foot Berkeley rod. Not a bad follow up to the anchor.

This find made me a little sad. My guess is a child was fighting the largest pink ever and the rod was pulled out of their hand and fell to the bottom of the river. I base this theory on the fact that the line was snapped just above the reel (as the fish swam away with the gear, it eventually got hung up on the bottom and the line snapped). If there were a bunch of line out, the little angler would have either dropped the rod when casting, or it was caught on a snag and the child was unable to hold the rod and dropped it into the river. If any of you CSI types have a different theory, let me know in the comment section.

This is the final haul of what I kept. A first for me, and perhaps not that unusual, was finding a golf ball (just to the right of the anchor). I guess a person can have a hobby other than fishing...




Beaver Creek Cabins & Guide Service