Happy Halloween

Park Ranger

Early in October I was fishing in the middle Kenai River and a Park Ranger made a safety check on us. He basically wanted to make sure we all had fishing licenses. I'm not saying I'm being profiled as a guide, but this was my 8th check of the year. Perhaps my percentage of stops versus hours on the water is in line with the average, but you'd think the Rangers would know by now that I'm a by the book kinda guy.

Because of our check, I was privy to a rather unusual incident. A guide boat pulled up on the other side of the slough and yelled to the Park Ranger, "hey, I found a big bag of dope floating down the river. What should I do with it?"

The Park Ranger told him to bring it over to where we were. As you can see in the photo above, the whole incident provided a lot of levity to all involved.

Since there were less than a dozen boats on the river that day, I hope the Park Ranger didn't "profile" the wrong people........

Dock is Out!

Is it the dock is in, or is it the dock is out? I'm kinda stumped with the terminology. But, no matter how you phrase it, all I know is the dock is not being used until the spring of 2017. Thanks Dan, for helping me take it out/in this year.

The Skilak Glacier Dammed Lake semiannual release happened this week and has caused the Kenai River water to rise 9.6 feet. As I was pulling my boat out for the year I saw this floating at the confluence of Beaver Creek and the Kenai. That's the end piece of someone's dock. The tall part of the structure is a fish cleaning station. It's sights like these that makes me feel fortunate that my dock is protected by an island. I've never, ever, experienced a problem with high water.

As I was saying goodbye to the river one last time, I got to see this sight. Several swans, seagulls, and a lone immature bald eagle seemed to be saying, "see you next year!"  Right back at ya!

Beaver Creek Cabins & Guide Service

Fishing Report Week Ending 10/9/16

The mornings are starting to get cold. This is a view of the middle Kenai River at 10am.  The temperature at the time of the photo was in the low 30's. This is considerably warmer than when we started the day....22 degrees.

How was the week of fishing? The lower Kenai was not good. I tried it several times and had no luck. On the other hand, I made it to the middle Kenai a couple of times and the fishing was pretty good. I was with Boo Kandas and a couple of his friends on Wednesday. We caught 12 silvers and kept three of them.

On Saturday, Todd Laflamme, Boo, and I spent the day chasing silvers in the middle Kenai. The fishing started slow but as soon as the temperatures started to climb, so did our hook up rate.

Did I mention that the mornings have been cool?

Here's Boo with a nice, bright silver salmon.

At the end of the day we released 6 silvers and kept these. It was nice to be able to sock a way a few extra fillets for the winter.

I'm not sure, but this could have been my last day fishing on the Kenai. If that's the case, it ended on a pretty good note. Thanks Boo and Todd for making it such a memorable day.



Beaver Creek Cabins & Guide Service

Fishing Report Week Ending 10/2/16

The symbolism is appropriate. The sun hasn't completely set for fishing on the Kenai, but it's not far away. The only people still fishing the lower Kenai River for salmon are the stubborn few. I'm sure if fishing were better there'd be more people out. That, of course, leaves it to the diehards who always think the bite could pick up at any moment.

Here's my partner in crime not wanting to call it a season just yet. If you look closely at this fish, you can see all the scars it bears from getting away from a hungry harbor seal. Too bad Jane's kwikfish was in the river when it was passing through.....NOT!

I snuck out for a couple of hours one afternoon and this fish fell for my gear.

On another afternoon these two fish weren't so lucky.

I did fish several more days during this past week but did not have a bite, ergo, no additional fish pictures.

So, what's next? I've received a few reports of decent trout fishing in the middle river with a few nice silvers scattered in between. Besides fishing near home, I plan on fishing there in the next few days. Come back next week to see how I did.





Beaver Creek Cabins & Guide Service

Fishing Report Week Ending 9/25/16

Not much to report because I didn't do a lot of fishing last week. Oh, I wanted to, but I'm saving my effort for when the water conditions improve. Based on the rain fall last week and the current forecast, I would think by Wednesday or Thursday the river should be back to normal.

On to the (limited) report...Just before the deluge of rain, new neighbor and old friend, Dan Meyer and I went out for a couple of hours. Dan's Funky Chicken kwikfish has been on fire this fall and this day was no exception. All bites and all fish came on this lure. I offered him a $100 for it but apparently that's not enough money for a proven swimmer.

The next day the rains began but it didn't stop Dick and Kim Miller, Jane, Dan and I from going out out for a few hours of fishing. Jane caught a couple of silvers and Kim caught this one. Once again, they proved that women catch more fish than men. We all went out the next day but the conditions were just too tough to have a chance at catching any fish.  We called it after an hour...

Dick and Kim Miller could very well be out last clients of the year. If so, what a great way to end our season. These guys are very good friends, I kinda hate using the word "client", and we enjoyed the time on and off the water together. See ya guys down the road!

Thought I'd end this post by showing the US Geological Services graph of water volume on the Kenai River. For this time of year the trend should be downward. But, as you can see, several inches of rain can have quite an impact on the water flow. The good news is the weather forecast this week is clear and cool. That should do wonders for clearing up the river.

Make sure to come back next week to see if the fishing and the river conditions have improved.




Beaver Creek Cabins & Guide Service 

Fishing Report Week Ending 9/18/16

The fishing this past week has remained the same.....steady, slow. Since I didn't have a full week of guiding I had some time to reflect on the silver salmon season. Since August 1st, we've caught no less than two silver salmon on every guided trip. This, could be a record for my boat and speaks of the consistency of the run. However, the frequency and total daily numbers are not what I and other Kenai silver fisherman have grown accustom to. Overall I'd say it's been a mix of humble pie and frustration. What has stood out the most to me this silver season, the "silver lining" if you will, is that my clientele has been outstanding. I want to say thanks for reminding me that it's effort and attitude that's in my control; what the fish decide to do is not.

Since I didn't have a full schedule this week, I'm using a photo that I should have posted on the prior week's report. Above is Joe and Rafeal from an evening trip we took. Pretty good action considering we were one fish short of a limit.

I promised you I would get Jane out this week and we found a couple of hours to fish. We're slowly starting to fill our freezer.

Friday, I had the pleasure of being out with Team ABC Seamless from Anchorage. An okay bite with cold and wet conditions didn't dampen their spirits.

Saturday was Day Two of fishing with Team ABC Seamless. It was better weather but the bite was a little bit off from the day before. Thanks Jeff, for bringing down the crew once again.  

This could be the end of my guiding season. I have no other bookings on the calendar. However, I have hunch that I'll have some walk up business before I winterize my boat. Even if that doesn't materialize I plan on fishing myself at every opportunity. Come back next week to see what we caught. 

Beaver Creek Cabins & Guide Service