Alaska – it conjures up many images, and well it should. Our largest state is home to vast mountains, forests, and tundra. Rugged coastlines and salmon-filled rivers call to both casual and hardcore anglers. The opportunities seem almost endless.
It was my third trip to our 49th state. The previous trips to the Alagnack River and Thorn Bay were beautiful experiences, and yet there was something “missing”. Granted, imagining a single trip to Alaska could capture its essence was a fool’s errand. Be that as it may, I had high expectations for our latest trip.
Northwest Fishing TV had been invited by Alaska Kenai Adventures to stay for several days and get a taste of the Kenai Peninsula. I, Eric Magnuson, and Rob and Hillary Holman travelled to Seattle on June 19th for the flight to Anchorage. Our trip started off ominously as the flight was cancelled at 3am. Fortunately for us, Keith, owner of Alaska Kenai Adventures (which I’ll sometimes refer to as AKA) received a phone alert and promptly found us an alternate flight via Juno. A quick 3-hour flight to Alaska had turned into a delayed departure and 4 4-hour layover.
The flight from Juno to Anchorage was nothing short of breathtaking. Looking out the window, I watched as a seemingly endless vista of snow-covered mountaintops passed underneath us, glaciers glistening in the evening sun. Finally, below us was Anchorage, looking much larger than I had imagined it would be. We landed around 5 pm, loaded up our belongings into our rental cars, and started the three-hour drive to the lodge.
The route to the Kenai Peninsula is one of the most scenic drives I have ever been on in my life. Mountains rose all around us, and a mixture of conifer forests and tundra greeted us at every turn. Purple lupins were in full bloom and dotted the roadside. This was the Alaska that I had been dreaming of. 150 miles later, we turned down a gravel road and arrived at the Alaska Kenai Adventures Lodge. Waiting for us were Keith, the owner, and Pierce, the General Manager of the lodge. After giving us a quick tour, we were shown our rooms. It was 10 pm and still broad daylight.
“Our summer days have twenty hours of daylight,” Keith explained, “And night is more like dusk. Blackout curtains are very popular around here”. I had brought a sleep mask, so no worries there – plus a twenty-hour travel day had our group ready to hit the hay. Pierce let us know we would be leaving at 5 am for a day of trout fishing on the Kenai River. Our comfortable beds awaited, and I quickly fell asleep in anticipation of the coming days of fishing adventures.
Alaska Kenai Adventures provides lodging and meals, and they have partnerships with guides and charters throughout the Kenai Peninsula. As a facilitator for trips, they have built up a cadre of outstanding businesses they work with to provide their clientele with fishing, hunting, bear watching, fly-in trips, and more. If you have a trip on your bucket list, they can likely help you, or if you’re overwhelmed by all the options, Keith and Pierce can help you there as well.
Our first day featured fly fishing for rainbow trout on the Kenai River. We met our guides from Chasing Tails Guide Service and got the rundown on gear and techniques. The plan was to side drift with egg and flesh imitations. A strike indicator was attached to the leader, and our 7/8 weight rods would be up to the task of handling the larger rainbows. Our guide, Captain Alex, explained that the rainbows would follow the salmon and gorge themselves on eggs and decomposing salmon carcasses. Rainbows up to ten pounds were a distinct possibility.
The Kenai in this location reminded me a little of the Cowlitz River, size-wise, but with a beautiful turquoise hue to it. Side-drifting using this method is ideal for those who don’t have a lot of experience with fly rods, as much of the positioning can be done by a skillful guide maneuvering the boat downstream, similar to side drifting for steelhead.
The day was filled with catching; however, we were unable to find the big ones, instead landing fish in the 14-20” range. I’ll take that any day of the week! We returned after a full day of fishing to enjoy a culinary delight by lodge chef Stephan. King salmon in a teriyaki glaze, rice, fresh vegetables, and not a crumb left on my plate. Local wines and beers were a nice touch, finished off by a tasty tiramisu dessert, perfect.
Our second day was another river trip, this time on the Kasilof River, which was open for hatchery kings and native sockeye. We were only a few miles inland from the saltwater bay so the sockeye in particular were chrome bright. We fished with Hook Line Land Em guide service. Starting the day backtrolling spinners off river divers, we soon settled into the rhythmic vibration of our rod tips, until we heard an excited commotion coming from Rob and Hillary’s drift boat. Rob had a nice king on the line. We watched him battle the strong king from the top to the bottom of the run, and saw his guide swoop the fish into the net and the boat. A keeper! As we drifted by, Rob held up a beautiful king we guessed was in the 16-18 pound range, chrome bright.
Back to the task at hand, we backed slowly down the next drift, taking in the sights of bald eagles feeding and the occasional moose walking the shoreline.
Suddenly, my rod doubled over to the pulls of a big king. “Wait for it…” our guide instructed. “Now!” he called out. Pulling the rod out of the rod holder, it was obvious this was not a hatchery king. Line began peeling off my reel, and about thirty yards behind the boat, a massive tail broke the surface, followed by what looked to be at least a twenty-five-pound king, bright red flank glistening in the sun. The back-and-forth battle was on! I worked the powerful fish slowly back to the boat, alternately gaining and losing line until the line counter on the reel read twenty feet. At the same time, we had reached the end of the drift and the fish had a choice to make – go through the fast water to the next section or run upriver into the pool we had just backed down. Taking a sudden run upriver, the big king passed our boat on the right, and as he came even with my rod, I felt the sickening pop of the hook pulling out of whatever corner of the mouth he was hooked in.
A communal sigh of disappointment for the fish just lost, our guide commented, “That was a nice native. You would’ve had to release him. What an amazing fish.” Indeed, it was, and my disappointment was tempered by the opportunity to even hook and play it for as long as I did.
Back to fishing, we had drifted by various groups of shore anglers that were fishing for sockeye. Seeing these chrome-bright, hard-fighting fish was too hard to resist. After a group conference, we decided it was time to get some sockeye.
Sockeye fishing in Alaska is a different technique from Washington State. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, the fish entering the river have a very short run to their spawning grounds, and as such, Washington angling techniques of trolling are out. Second, the runs are massive. On the Kasilof, for example, the return was estimated to be over 500,000 fish. On the Kenai River, Alaska is looking to have almost a million sockeye return. With that kind of numbers, the biomass can easily handle what Alaskans call subsistence harvesting. Which means there are more than enough fish to keep the runs strong and healthy. That said, Alaska does monitor the run, and our current limit would be three fish (this was bumped up to six on the day we left). Residents in some communities are given another twenty-five fish later in the season for subsistence.
The technique Alaskans use is what we in Washington call flossing. The process is simple – swing a one-ounce weight with a six-foot leader straight out in front of you. The sockeye travel within ten feet of shore, so long casts are not needed. Drift for five seconds and give a good rip at the end of that five-second drift. The single barbed hook slides through the sockeye’s open mouth, and it’s fish on with six to ten pounds of chrome, angry sockeye ten feet away. Remarkably, the number of foul-hooked fish is quite low. The hook must be in the mouth, or the fish is to be released. There is a certain level of skill required, and we watched many anglers who just didn’t get it. But for us, a frantic half-hour later, our group’s limits were on the shore.
I know that many of you reading this are shaking your head and saying how unsporting this is. I mulled it over and decided that I was in this fishing culture, and here in Alaska, it was an accepted way to fish for sockeye. According to our guide, this is the only possible way to catch them, as they had tried other methods over the years and nothing had worked. That said, I did find myself daydreaming about fishing one of the lakes these fish return to and seeing if they would strike bare hooks behind a dodger off of a downrigger. It would be lights-out fishing for sure if they did!
Day Two came to an end, and we returned to the lodge; this time treated to perfectly cooked ribeye steak. The gang at Alaska Kenai Adventures sure know how to treat their guests!
Saltwater fishing in Alaska is a given. With thousands of miles of coastline and offshore locations to fish, AKA hooked us up with Alaskan Adventure Guides & Outfitters out of Homer to fish in the Gulf of Alaska. We would be targeting halibut and groundfish, fishing anywhere from 200-480 feet deep.
Our luck had held up as we experienced a third day of pleasant temps in the 60s and mostly clear skies, affording us spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. The wind was light, making for calm seas and an easy ride. En route to our fishing locations, we were entertained by porpoise and killer whale pods. The majesty of Alaska was in full display!
Pulling up to our first drift, deckhand Savana had our group baited up and ready to go. Gear down, we soon were feeling the tap-taps of fish. In quick order, we caught our boat limits of 4-5 pound black sea bass. That out of the way, Captain Corey moved us to the next location, which he informed us would be a good spot to get our “unders”. The regs for halibut where we were fishing called for one fish under 27”, and one fish of any size. In a twist of irony, Captain Corey told us it was actually easier to get the over-sized halibut than the under-sized ones. He turned out to be right, as we took the next hour to grind out the small fish. Mission accomplished, Corey called out, “Bring 'em up, we’re moving to a spot that we have had good luck on for bigger fish!”
Our final location had us fishing in 480 feet of water, offshore of a group of islands that I swore were right out of the casting department for Jurassic Park. Sheer rocky cliffs with crashing waves along the shoreline and wooded peaks and valleys made it hard to pay attention to our rods. Soon enough, cries of “Fish on!” rang out, as did the gaff. These halibut were indeed bigger, too big to net. At around 30-50 pounds, they were the perfect eating size. Those 100-pound halibut are amazing to see, but as they get past 70 pounds, many are older females that have tougher meat, and, more importantly, produce thousands of eggs with each spawning, making them essential for maintaining the fishery. The hold steadily filled up with halibut, and before we knew it was time to head back to the harbor. But not before one last stop…
Our final adventure on this “Experiencing Alaska” trip was low-tide clam-digging. What is unique about this experience is that you get on the boat while it’s on a trailer, and are then backed down by a tractor into the surf. The captain then drives the boat off the trailer, and away you go!
We were clamming with Cook Inlet Clamming, owner and Captain, Sarah Brooks, and her daughter Savannah. Savannah was in the process of obtaining her captain’s license. At 19 years of age, she had been working with her mom from an early age, deckhanding and boats, fishing, and clamming were in her DNA.
Crossing the inlet, we arrived at the secluded beach where we would be digging clams. There were already a couple of boats that were high and dry on the beach, and around a dozen people were digging away. We had anchored in 1 foot of water and waited for 15 minutes for the tide to recede, then it was off with our clam guns and buckets. This section of Cook Inlet had a generous limit of two 5-gallon buckets, substantially more than Washington’s 15-clam limit.
Clam shows were everywhere, and I started using the clam gun, easy to learn, but tiring to use. After pulling up half a bucket of clams, my back and legs were getting sore. About then, the tide began to turn, and we were called back to the boat – saved by the tide!
With that, our Alaska Experience trip had come to an end. Four days of fishing and clamming, getting to truly experience all that Alaska has to offer. Each member of our group came home with over forty pounds of vacuum-sealed Alaska bounty.
If you want to experience all Alaska has to offer, and then some, check out Alaska Kenai Adventures and get your taste of Alaska, The Last Frontier.
