Happy New Year

Goodbye to the old, hello to the new...

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all.

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Words of Appreciation From 2018

This time of year Jane and I like to look back on our season and discuss what we need to do make next year even more successful. Some things are out of our control, like fish runs and the weather, but other things can be changed and improved upon. This is also the time of year I like to look over my photos of comments that our guests left behind.

The photos used in this post are just a sample of the comments we received in 2018. This is because most of the wipe boards were cleaned by Jane before I could snap a pic.

It’s always a nice surprise to receive these remarks. 

Because you never know if our facilities meet people’s expectation.

We try hard to explain what we are and what we provide. “No surprises” is our goal and it seems to work.

I’ll conclude with my favorite note; a homemade card. What made this even better is it was attached to a box of Moose is Loose pastries. Mmmm, Moose is Loose....

Thanks everybody for a great 2018 season!

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Will Robertson

The cast of characters during the Blinn years are unforgettable. One guy that always brings his "A" game is Dr. Will Robertson. A great cook, a great story/joke teller, a great pink fisherman (pretty good with silvers too); it's hard not to enjoy his company.

Case in point. As many of you know Jane writes the names of the people staying in the cabins on a wipe board near the entrance door. Apparently, "Will Robertson" left the building and his alter ego replaced him for the week.  

Will recently shared this photo with me (it's a lower jaw of wild pig). All I could think about is what it would be like to grow up in his house. I'm sure there was never a dull moment.

Hey Will, Jane and I look forward to seeing you again in 2020 (or possibly ice fishing in 2019???).





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Break In

This wasn't the topic I planned on writing about this week, but we recently became victims of a break in/burglary.  I'm putting the word out on social media to alert my neighbors and other members of our community to keep an eye out for suspicious people who are in areas where they don't belong.

We were lucky that only our office and freezer room were broken into. The cabins were left untouched.

When I called the Kenai police department to report the break in, I was told four other properties on Angler Drive suffered the same fate. For a neighborhood that hasn't experienced this before, we're all a bit on edge.

The most significant loss was our ARY VacMaster VP215 chamber vacuum sealer. Many, many fish have been processed through this machine and I hate to see her go.....

If you see a used one of these for sale, or if you have any other tips about the break ins, please get a hold of me, or Kenai police officer Peter Fenske at 907-283-7879. Thanks.


UPDATE:  This post was written before the 7.0 magnitude earthquake happened near Anchorage, Friday morning. My son, Mac, lives in Anchorage and other than a scared dog and broken picture frames, things were fine. The Kenai Peninsula survived relatively unscathed and I'm thankful for that. Jane and I appreciate everyone who checked in to see if everything was okay.


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Fish4Brains

Fish4Brains. What a great internet forum nom de plume.

I'd like to use it, but the moniker has already been taken on many fishing sites. If you happen to be the guy/girl that has this name, feel free to use this image as your avatar. I think it's appropriate.




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Happy Thanksgiving

Food, family, football...enjoy your time together.




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Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha*

Okay. I promise. No more dead fish pictures this year. I just figured if I posted about dead pinks and reds, I needed to give king salmon a little bit of love too.

It's not often I see this, and why I took the photos, but a whole 45-50lb king salmon carcass floating near the dock is unusual.

The only explanation I have for this is the tide change must have pushed it up from the river...Or, I could start rumors that kings are spawning in Beaver Creek. Maybe I'll save that story for April Fool's Day.




*scientific name for king salmon


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Oncorhynchus Nerka*

Dead Red.

It's the beginning of November, all the salmon have died except for a few late silvers, and there's still a Halloween mood (read: candy) in the Holtan household. If you don't like decomposing fish photos, you should stop reading and looking at this post right now. If you're all right with that, I hope you enjoy what was captured this past season.

As many of you know, all user groups on the Kenai River faced fishing restrictions in order for the 2018 spawning escapment goals to be met. ADFG's final sonar count for the late run of red salmon came in at 1,308,498 fish.

The optimum escapement goal (OEG) for the Kenai River late run red salmon is between 700,000 and 1,400,000, so the goal was clearly met (although many in the community dispute the 2018 counts and feel they are overly inflated). Many factors will determine how many of the of the 2018 offspring will return as adults in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Since I plan on guiding during those years, I hope the management plan was successful.

I'm always amazed at what salmon do for an ecosystem. Researchers have found that dead salmon feed 137 species of microbes, stream invertebrates, mammals, and birds. Not to mention, what it does for keeping vegetation green. I'm not sure what ate half of the salmon above, but my money would be on a bald eagle.

For those of you who don't know how to identify the sex of a salmon, the female red is on the left, and the male is on the right. In their spawning phase, female red salmon will be more bullet shaped, while males will have a hump on their back.

I'm not sure I could ever do this on purpose. Here is a dead red salmon perfectly balanced on my anchor line.

"If it weren't for all this dead stuff, there wouldn't be any alive stuff in this river" said an old grizzled Alaska sourdough. I have to agree with him. The whole salmon cycle of life is fascinating.





*scientific name for sockeye (red) salmon



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Oncorhynchus Gorbuscha*

Pink-A-Poolza.

While chasing silver salmon in the middle Kenai River last September, I came across this scene. In a backwater slough there were literally hundreds of dead, spawned out pink salmon entangled in a weed bed. With the teal green glacier silt water mixing with clear water, the encounter was surreal.

Here's a clear water pink spawning ground in the same stretch of river. I think Ketchikan artist Ray Troll said it best...."Spawn Till You Die".

I look forward to seeing all of their offspring in 2020...



*scientific name for pink salmon.





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Jeff King: End of an Era

I first met Jeff King on May 19th, 1985. I'll never forget the date for two reasons: 1) it was when my father and I first fished the Kenai with Jeff, and 2) it was the beginning of a long fishing, working, big brother type of a relationship with one heck of a guy. I'm not overstating this, but Jeff's influence on where I am today can only be rivaled by my father. That's high praise.

It was five years ago Jeff said that 2018 would be his last year guiding on the Kenai. I told him I would like to hire him one more time, preferably his last day as a guide. I didn't want Jeff to forget this so I would remind him about this every year after he told me his retirement year. On September 15th I got a text that said, "last hurrah, Tuesday (9/18) 7am?" I told him that would work. I was both happy to be fishing with him, and sad to know that he would no longer be running up and down the the river in boat #003.

Well, how did it go? The photo above happened within 15 minutes of being on the water. Attitude makes a difference and it's a saying Jeff believes in and I do as well. I've fished with Jeff many, many times and I always felt like we were going to catch a fish. Sure, it didn't always happen, but I knew he was giving me his best effort. I mean, that's really all you can ask for from a professional guide, isn't it?

I've met a lot of people who have fished with Jeff and one of the comments I often hear is, well, ummm, the cleanliness of his pants.  A couple of years ago we had a group in the cabins and one of the guys last fished with Jeff over twenty years ago. When he saw Jeff after the long absence he noticed his fishing attire and asked if those were the same pants he had on when they first met. Jeff's answer....yup.

One thing that really stands out to me about his thirty six year career of guiding is the thousands of people he's introduced to the Kenai. His longevity and his approach to his profession has rightfully earned him a place at the table with Spence DeVito, Harry Gaines, and Bix Bonney. All are legends of the Kenai.

There are many things I enjoy about Jeff but one thing I've always admired has been his generosity in sharing his fishing knowledge with anglers. Whether you were a guide, a private angler, a bank angler at his boat launch, he always talked shop and would share "guide secrets". Here he is explaining to me the finer points of backtrolling. "You know, Grasshopper, you can be just inches away from putting a client on a fish of a lifetime."

Never truer words spoken...

It's been a heck of a ride Jeff and your daily presence on the water will be missed. But, I know you and your running partner, MP, still have a lot more gas in the tank and I wish the both of you happy trails. Alaska, Montana, Mexico, ?????...to quote the great Canadian philosopher, Neil Young, "Long May You Run"!







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The Year of the Dock

Now, it's really over. When the dock comes out, our season is done.

There are a lot of things that I will remember about the 2018 season. Perhaps what I'll remember the most is the trouble I had putting the dock in the spring, and the trouble I had taking it out in the fall. I could see one day Jane and I reminiscing about seasons past and one of us would say, "remember the year we almost didn't get the dock in or out? That sucked. " 

The photo above is the "before" shot to show where the dock is stored for the winter. Tide comes up, the floating section is detached from the gang plank, and the dock is pushed onto the the flat, grassy area where it will rest until spring. In the past, I was always able to get the dock in and out with a minimum high tide of 22.7 feet. Not this year. I needed more water.

This is the "after" photo where the dock ended up when the tide started to drop. Even though it was stuck, I didn't hit the panic button just yet because the following day's tide was higher. Knowing that, did not keep me from wondering (for 24 hours) if that tide wasn't high enough, what then? My alternatives were not pretty.

Yes! Luckily, the 23.69 foot tide was high enough. As you can see, I had plenty of water to maneuver the dock to it's winter resting place.

I had a few small things to do to my boat after the dock was pulled and then the padlock went on the gate. The book is now closed on the 2018 season.

Sigh. I guess it's only seven short months until it's time to put the dock back in.......

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Kachemak Bay Bonanza

I got a call this past week from my friend Boo Kandas of Tall Tale Charters and was asked if Jane and I wanted to help him take his saltwater boat out for the season. For those of you not immersed in fishing slang, "taking out the boat" is code for one last fishing trip. Considering neither one of us has had the time to visit Homer, and that our freezer was devoid of halibut fillets, we couldn't say no to an offer like this.

We left the Homer dock at 8:00 am. A little bit of maritime fog greeted us, but it would soon give way to a sunny day.

As you can see, the seas were calm...a perfect day for a guy like me who isn't fond of waves. And the fishing, well, it was incredible.

I've always been told if you fish for halibut in the fall all you're going to catch are small ones. Last year was my first time fishing in the fall and Boo put us on a nice mess of fish. I thought maybe we just got lucky because, you know, you only get small halibut in the fall. This year the quality of fish was even better with the largest topping 100lbs. That's proof enough for me to know it's not about luck. It's about having the right captain who knows where to fish in the fall. 

Thanks again Boo, for a wonderful day, and for cleaning all the fish. I hope you call us again next year to help you take your boat out...






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Fishing Report Week Ending 9/30/18

Moonset on the Kenai

The run is done.

And so is my 2018 guiding season.

If I haven't done so already, I would like to thank everyone who experienced the roller coaster of a fishing season with me. The fishing was just that....fishing. However, what remained constant were the great people that passed through my boat. I am very fortunate to do what I do and can't wait until the 2019 season arrives.

So, how was the last week of the season? One word describes it....cold. Not only the fishing, but the temperatures as well.

If you know of anyone who makes heated boat seats, I'd like their number...

Tuesday evening was my first trip of the week. It was for only a couple of hours. Tim, Gregg, Paul 1, Paul 2, and Matt ended up catching one silver salmon. Considering we only fished one spot for a short period of time, I figured our trip the next morning would be much better. It wasn't. That's Paul, Gregg, and Matt finishing up a quiet day on the water with no fish. Thanks guys, I enjoyed your company and conversations.

I couldn't let my day end like that so I called Dan and Mary Meyer to see if they wanted to help me find at least one fish (it's a blessing and a curse to be competitive). Mary came through with this beautiful silver.

My last trip of the year was scheduled on Friday with my my college buddy Dan and his daughter Katie. Since the lower river had been slow, I decided the best use of our time would be to fish further up river. I called my friend Boo for a middle river fishing report and he said it's been okay. He also said he didn't have a trip on Friday and would graciously take the three of us up there. How could I not pass up that offer? Well, what had been okay fishing definitely dropped off. At least Katie was able to find this fish. It didn't surprise me in the least.

Well, that's all folks. It's hard to type this, but this is it for the official 2018 fishing reports. It's now time to shut everything down and get ready for winter (gulp). It doesn't mean I still won't be fishing, though. I just won't be guiding. When I do get out again, I'll make sure to share my adventure.

See you next week.








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