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.
2 comments:
As Mary would say "THAT'S A NICE FISH"!!!!!!! We have been looking for the last 11 days for pictures and the wait was worth it. Everything I have seen on the angler reports said the river was really low - glad to hear it is rising. Mary says Hi! can't wait to get there. Talk to you soon.
Dan
Nice King Keith....Hope the fishing gets even better...see you and Jane in about three weeks...My group is looking forward to the possibility of landing their first keeper King(including me). I'm getting excited about one the most scenic drives in the world from Anchorage to Beaver Creek Cabins and just enjoying the beauty of the Kenai River. But I'm not going to be fully satisfied until Keith takes my picture standing on the bow of the boat holding a big King!!
george
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