Fishing the Kenai 2011 - Mark's Fish Story

So a friend of mine sent me a YouTube link about the Kenai River. As I was watching the video I couldn't help but notice the selection of other video posts about the Kenai. I swear one of them looked like it was the inside of my boat so I decided to click on it. Lo and behold, wouldn't you know it, it was a video from a trip with the Johnson's in June of 2011. After watching their video, it made me happy that I was part of their "once in a lifetime" day on the river.


Bill Medchill has also posted a YouTube video about a silver salmon trip (I'll post this later). If anybody else has let me know and I'll put it on the blog.

2012 Red Salmon Forecast

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Commercial Fisheries, recently released their forecast for the 2012 red salmon season. Here is an excerpt:

A return of 6.2 million sockeye salmon is forecasted to return to

Upper Cook Inlet in 2012 with harvest by all user groups of

4.4 million.

The red salmon forecast for the Kenai River is approximately

4.0 million which is 6% greater than the 20 year average run

of 3.8 million.

Whooohoo! Although last year Fish and Game underestimated the total run of red salmon, it's a pretty good bet that this year will be excellent. If you haven't started to exercise your arms it's not too late to get into "flipping" shape.

St. Cloud Sportsmen Show Recap

The 2012 St. Cloud Sportsmen Show is over and it was a great three days. We were moved into the new civic center this year which greatly improved the flow of the show. In the past the vendors were separated into two halls but now we were all under the same roof. I don't know if it was a combination of being in a new building, the right weather, or a lack of other activities in the area, but this year an attendance record was set. All I know it was a win/win/win for the promoters, vendors, and attendees.


We'd like to thank everyone for stopping by and especially Dan and Mary Meyer for driving all the way from Peoria to hang out with us. Not only did they help us with show, Mary even took a few pictures of the booth for me. Thanks for the photos Mary!

St. Cloud Sportsmen's Show

The St. Cloud Sportsmen's Show will be held February 10th-12th. This is not a big show but that is exactly why we keep going back year after year. We find it's a great little venue for us to visit with people and share the reasons why we love Alaska so much.


The only day that we have extra tickets available for this show is Sunday. If you're interested in them drop us an email, beavercreekcabins@yahoo.com.


See you there!

New for 2012

A new alternative for all our guests.

A service that I provide is cleaning your fish. After that, it's always been the clients decision of what to do next. Long time clients know what to do, but new clients always ask, "what do I do now?" My stock answer is to take the filets to Custom Seafood Processors (10 minutes away) and they'll vac, freeze, package, and ship your fish for you. The biggest reason I refer clients to Custom Seafood Processor is that Jane and I simply do not have the time to help people process their fish.

Enter Dave Anderson.

Dave, a Kenai River regular, has a tremendous mind for business and made the suggestion that we should provide a commercial grade vacuum sealer for our clients to use and we should sell the bags at a nominal fee. As the two gentleman would say in the Guiness commercials.......BRILLIANT!

Are we looking to replace Custom Seafood Processor or anyone else that processes fish? Nope. We're just providing an alternative to people who would like to take care of their fish themselves and do so in a professional manor.

The plan this year is to set up a processing station in the shed that houses our chest freezers. Jane and I are excited to make this available for your use in 2012!

Swans on the Kenai Peninsula

If you are a birder, there's no doubt the Kenai Peninsula is great place to be. There's quite a range of migratory birds and the largest of them all is the swan.

There are three types of swans in the world: trumpeter, tundra, and whooper. The most common, and what you'll find on the peninsula, are trumpeter swans. Although the population is healthy today this has not always been the case. In the early 1900's trumpeter swans were nearly extinct. In 1932 there were only 69 wild trumpeters in the world. Today, through protective measures, there are over 13,000 swans and 80%-85% of them are in Alaska.

Swans pair with mates for life. Females will lay 2 to 7 eggs and as adults a male will weigh up to 28lbs and a female up to 22lbs.

In the fall swans leave their breeding grounds in Alaska and migrate to the western coasts of Canada. After a winter of feeding and growing they will make their return in the spring.

On your drive from Anchorage to Kenai make sure to keep your camera ready. Great viewing places for trumpeter swans are at Potter's Marsh on the Seward Highway (just outside of Anchorage), and Tern Lake at the junction of the Seward Highway and Sterling Highway. Once you're in Kenai an accessible place for swan viewing is at the mouth of the Kenai River along the Bridge Access road.

MN Sportsmen's Show 2012 Recap

Jane and I just wrapped up our first sport show of the winter in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was a busy weekend, but not just for the sport show. On Saturday the expected attendance for the sport show was 10,000, followed by 15,000 for the Brad Paisley concert, and a whopping 80,000 for the Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championship. All of these events occurred in a five block area. I took the photo above walking out of the River Centre (where the sport show was held) looking up at Cathedral of St. Paul with the Crashed Ice course in the foreground.Here's another shot of the quarter mile course.

Finally, a shot of the poster advertising the event. As you can see, the Crashed Ice event is a combination of motocross racing and downhill skiing done on hockey skates. This is the first time this event has been held in the United States. Kind of appropriate since Minnesota calls itself "the State of Hockey".

Doing this sport show is always fun. We get to meet people interested in Alaska and we get to visit with a lot of old friends. It was great to have our annual lunch with Peter and we're always thankful for his help at the booth. Also, the last couple of years we've made it a point to go out after the show with Dave, Lory, Al and Fred. We find it more enjoyable to visit with these guys at a restaurant than at our booth. So, Dave and Lory, as if they don't have enough hobbies already, decided to become wine makers and be the next Ernest and Julio of Dayton, Minnesota. We are the lucky recipient of their product (photo above).

The booth has been stored temporarily until our next show in February. Looking forward to seeing more friends at that show as well. Until then....