From the lakes of northern Canada
To the Gulf of Mexico.
Wherever fish are biting
That's where we're going to go.
There's a lot of exciting country
Just waiting to be explored,
So join us now in the great outdoors
The World of Virgil Ward.
If you are over 40 years old, or remember life before cable and satellite television, you'll probably know the theme song to Championship Fishing With Virgil Ward. All week long I couldn't help but think of the one line in this song that epitomized what I was doing, "Wherever fish are biting that's where we're going to go." I often define myself as a "Kenai River guide" but in reality I'm just a fishing guide and will travel to where the fish are. That was my week in a nutshell.
For most of the week I fished area lakes for rainbow trout, arctic char, and landlocked Chinook salmon. The photo above are landlocked Chinook salmon. We caught 10 of these one day and the three you see we kept for dinner (the limit is 5 per day). They were all around 14" and fought hard for their size.
On another lake this past week we targeted rainbow trout. The action was steady with the morning being best. All of the trout we caught were between 18"-21" which is a nice size for trout coming out of a lake. The picture above is Mike showing off the fish he was keeping for dinner. In the Kenai Peninsula you're allowed to keep five rainbow trout caught in a lake and only one of the five can be over 20".
Last but not least for this report was one last fishing trip to the Russian River for red salmon. It was definitely past it's peak but with perseverance fish were caught.
Starting Tuesday, July 2nd I'll be back to king salmon fishing on the Kenai River. The only change in the management plan is the Alaska Department of Fish and Game decided to begin the second run without bait. The purpose of this order was to help minimize the harvest of late, first run salmon that are in the river. Bait definitely makes every fisherman better but I'm happy that the Kenai is open for business again. Bring on the second run!
I thought I'd end this post with a video clip from the master, Virgil Ward. Enjoy!
2 comments:
I loved it when Virgil would demonstrate a lure in the aquarium.
It usually was one of his sponsors, like beetle spin, but rarely was it the lure he used on the episode. Classic. Thanks for the memories.
I knew every word to that song too! Were you making me watch that show with you? Instead of cartoons or Little Rascals?
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