The king bite started out strong last week and by the end of the season it had slowed down. I guess it wasn't a surprise but, considering the run strength, I thought we would have fishable numbers up until quitting time.
On to the week in review. The king Michael is holding is perhaps the most epic battle ever in my boat. Not the largest fish, but one of the stubbornest. We hooked this fish near Mud Island and it ran all over the place. It went under the boat several times, the line got wrapped around the exposed prop of my kicker motor, and it ran from bank to bank.
At one point during the fight it broke the eye on the fishing rod.
And then this happened. Michael accidentally hit the lever on the reel and backlashed it. The line snapped and I thought that was the end of it. The knot from the backlash, however, was large enough that it could not pass through the tip of the rod. I grabbed the line, cut the knot, and restrung it. I tried in vain to tie a blood knot to connect the severed line but I couldn't get it to hold. I then tied an old fashioned granny knot and cinched the drag as tight as it could go. At this point of the battle I couldn't take a chance on the knot passing out of the reel. After about five more minutes of the fight the king came to the net. Needless to say, I used up a seasons worth of salmon credits on that fish.
Here's Lindsay Nordberg with her first Kenai king. No drama with this fish. Lindsay reeled this one in like she's been king fishing all her life.
Her husband Dave followed up with a nice one as well. Here's a funny thing about this trip. When Dave jumped in the boat I told him my grandmother's maiden name is Nordberg. Turns out we're related. My grandmother and his grandfather were brother and sister. Small world and we had a lot of fun talking about our family's idiosyncrasies .
Here's one of my all time favorites, Joe Schnitzler, trying to lift a 50lb king off the floor. I'll cut him some slack because it took 20 minutes to reel this fish in and Joe was a little bit fatigued (although you couldn't tell with that smile). This fish may look a bit blush, but it had sea lice on it and fillet out nicely.
A down side of the king closures the last few years is I haven't been able to fish with Grant Watt. This year was different so Grant and his son Jake came down from Anchorage for an afternoon of king fishing. Jake had a nice take down on a kwikfish early in the trip but unfortunately it did not stay on. Grant, on the other hand, was a perfect one for one and landed this chromer.
On the last day of the king season I had Nick and Brittany for a full day of fishing. About 8 hours into the trip Nick hooked this king.
Two hours later Brittany got this one. If Brittany looks familiar, you'll see on earlier post that she caught the very first king of the year with me. Turns out she caught the very last one as well. How cool is that?
The king salmon season closed at the end of the day on 7/31. So on August 1st Nick and Brittany booked a silver salmon trip with me. We gave it a shot for about an hour and switched over to red salmon. As you can see, not a bad Plan B.
The week ahead will be a difficult one and hard to predict. Hard to say when the red run in the lower river will peter out and when the silver run will begin. I am hopeful that the silvers will show, a friend of mine fished all day yesterday and caught 2, but we'll give it a good shot and report about it
next week.
Beaver Creek Cabins & Guide Service
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