Fishing Report Week Ending 7/30/11

Fish naked.

A couple of years ago Brett Johnson coined this phrase. In the middle of July during the peak of the king season the bite was on and Brett said, "I don't want any eggs on my hook, I want to fish naked." He was feeling it and in the middle of all the bait being fished in the river his bare spin 'n glo lands him a 56lb king. This past week we had no choice but to fish naked. You know what, through hard work, perserverance, and a lot of luck the bite was pretty good.

The photo above is my good friend Kathy Ingram. This fish measured 50"x30.5" and weighed in at 63lbs. This fish was the largest landed in my boat this summer and in her many years of king fishing it was the largest one for Kathy. It couldn't have happen to a nicer lady. By the way, thanks Peg for the nice assist.

Here's the Ragin' Cajun Gary Smith with a nice 39lb hen. I'm not so sure Gary was a fan of the color pink but when this fish hit his spin 'n glo he became color blind.

Here's Chris, Benjamin, and Davis with 3 nice fish all in the 30lb range. These fish came on the last afternoon trip of the king season and the only way it could have been better is if Paige would have gotten one too.

Dave Sporrer holds up a respectable king caught two minutes into the morning. If I had any disappointments this past week it's that the the Sporrer clan came up a little short this year king fishing. Oh, they more than made up for it with red salmon, but there's nothing like seeing Sarah, Amy, Ursula, David, Bill, Susan, or Carey wrestling with a large Kenai king. They all had bites and opportunities, and the did catch a few, but it just wasn't in the cards this year. A note to Susan.....I can only post a few photos at a time so I'll use yours next week.

Here's Team Xtratuf showing off their 35lb hen. That's Bob on the left, Trent who caught the fish in the middle, and Mike Hoops on the right. These guys were on their way to Kodiak and worked in an afternoon trip on the Kenai.

The 2011 Kenai king season is officially over and starting next week I begin fishing for silver salmon. A few silvers were caught last week but my educated guess is the fishing will be good but the catching will be somewhat difficult.

A final thought on the king season. I'd like to thank all of you who chose to hire me a a guide this past year. The Kenai was difficult, very good at times, and not so good other times. One thing that was constant every day is I enjoyed spending time with the people that were in my boat. Seeing a beautiful Kenai king is great but you are the reason why I love doing what I do.