Monday, June 9, 2008 Kenai River Fishing 2008

6/8/08
Spring has been slow in coming this year, it seems like it has taken the river forever to get high enough to launch a boat! However it has come up and we were finally able to get the new boat in the water for the start of this seasons Kenai fishing. Fortunately the fish were slow in arriving as well!!

As we were launching the boat we saw a couple of fish caught in a slot just down river from us. There were several boats working it so we decided to start there and slowly drift down to some of the more popular holes.

With in 20 minutes and the first cast with my new lucky pole, I got the first hook up! It was not a hard hit and I figured it was probably going to be a small salmon or maybe a trout. I was wrong! As I took my pole out of the pole holder the fish discovered he was hooked and went ballistic!! I was totally unprepared and was nearly pulled out of the boat!! This was NOT a small fish, it was a hog and I was in for the battle of my life!

It's hard to describe what goes through your mind at that moment....for me first it was surprise. Then feeling the action and weight on the pole and seeing the line literally peel of the real, even though you know the drag is set tight enough for a 15 to 20lb fish. The realization that this might be the biggest fish you've ever hooked into!! Then shaking with the adrenaline and excitement you catch your breath as the monster rolls, shakes his head in defiance then takes off on another run! After about the third run you start thinking "Don't loose it!!" Then you get an urge to tighten the drag but you don't 'cause you know better! You grab the pole with both hands, muscles shaking and settle in for yet another nerve racking run. Somewhere in all this chaos, you try to keep track of all the other boats and your proximity to the shore and other obstacles hoping that you and the fish don't get tangled up somewhere! Finally the moment of truth and quite possibly the most dangerous time of landing a big fish.... the net! You get your first close up look at this huge behemoth and the adrenalin goes into high gear!! The net touches the water, the fish sees it and he's off again nearly tangling the line in the net and motor, you barely escaping the trauma of loosing the biggest fish you have EVER seen! By now you are really loosing your mind! Again you think of horsing it in, but you know that is a big risk when using light gear. At this point you know you have to get it landed soon, your gear and nerves are at the breaking point! Finally the fish is tiring, and comes in close the net goes in the water again. The hog feels the unnatural substance on his skin and goes into another fit, only this time it is too late! You practically pass out from relief until you see that its going to take BOTH of you to lift it into the boat AND now your hoping that it isn't to big for the size slot!!
It's official! 43" & 35lbs!!


Ok so it isn't the world record, not even really big for a Kenai King.... but considering I was raised on small trout and bass that barely measure in at 2 lbs and maybe 18 inches, this was a major experience and one that every one who enjoys fishing should try to do!!

The limit for kings on the Kenai is 1 per day with a season limit of 5. So with my fish finally secure in the boat I was done fishing for the day and we headed back to the front of the line for another drift now working on a fish for Mark. It didn't take long and Mark got hooked up too!! Now if all of the above wasn't nerve racking enough, try the whole thing all over again but with ME driving the boat and netting the fish!!! We did it though!!

I didn't have much time to take pictures this time, it was fast, furious and quick and we were done and off the water in less than 2 hours!!

Marks fish is on our left, a hen of course! 39" 34lbs!! now we have eggs too, not a bad days work on the river!

Saturday, May 3, 2008

2008 Up-Dates

This year is proving to be very busy for us. We have a new truck, new boat & we just bought some new property that has half a house that we will be finishing. Because most of our friends & family have MySpace pages and because it is taking to much time to update both right now, I have decided to keep only the Myspace active at this time.

Here you will find all our current photos & blogs about everything going on! This years fishing season is just beginning and we have a new boat to help us take advantage of all that the Kenai Peninsula has to offer, from saltwater to freshwater lakes & rivers and follow along as we build our dream home or hunt in out own back yard!!
Meet you there!! Mark & Lori's MySpace pages

Friday, September 14, 2007 Swanson River Fishing

This is our third summer in Alaska and we are finally getting our kayaks in the water! This is an incredible area! Swanson River is small and very peaceful. Just the right size & current for fishing in the kayaks! But that is not all, as you can see from the map above there are a kazillion lakes and smaller streams through out the area that are mostly connected. Most of the lakes have fish as well. The red line on the map indicates a 50 mile canoe trail . Some of these small lakes are only accessed from the canoe trail but some of them are also accessed by road and hiking trails. Mark isn't into the lake fishing much, but you can bet I will check as many out as I can!



It was great getting the kayaks back in the water!! It has been way to long!


We both hooked several fish, most were small trout and a couple of the silvers broke off or threw the hook. My first cast of the day I hooked a nice hen that pulled me aways down river. After I got it in the boat and removed the hook I just had to show off to Mark. I was holding it up (outside of the boat, duh!) hollering "Hahah first fish!!" Just as Mark turned to look, she did a massive tail wiggle that popped her right off my gripper and yup you guessed it, right back into the water!! Later in the day I also hooked a nice keeper trout. I did have a small net with me but it was buried under all the junk I had in the boat. Well needless to say I didn't use the net and the trout got away too.

Lessons learned?
A. Once you land a fish, DO NOT remove it from the boat until you are back on land.
B. Bragging will only lead to failure!
C. Landing a big trout requires a trout net!

We saw a variety of wildlife, most were familiar like Eagles & outers but some unexpected! One of the times that I was stopped tucked into the weeds, I heard a big splash right beside my kayak. As I turned to look I caught movement in the water between me & the shore. I was actually expecting to see a fish but what I saw surprised me! It looked like a very big rat, but rats don't swim underwater, (At least I didn't think they did?) When I got home I did some research the critter I saw was a Muskrat! This land is always surprising me!!




We spent a good 4 days fishing & kayaking the Swanson River. We both caught fish & the freezer is slowly filling up!


Monday Mark will be going back to the slope for work but I will continue to fish as long as I can. The nights are getting cold and fall is definitely making an appearance. In just a few short weeks all this will be frozen and covered with hoarfrost and the snow will not be far behind!

Looking Back

For those of you who have been tracking our Alaskan Adventures; I apologize for the long times between our posts. Summer here is fast & furious, even though the days are very long the season is short and we have to cram as much as we can into each day. That leaves very little time for writing. On the flip side winters days are short and the season long leaving lots of time for writing and other indoor projects.

As I sit here preparing this blog the rain is coming down steadily with a slight breeze. The temp is moderate but just a little to wet for our liking as far as outdoor activities are concerned. The cottonwood trees are changing into their bright gold colored fall dresses and living up to it's name the fireweed is once again a fiery red. The tall march grass has turned from bright green to a light peachy color and is beginning to lay down, creating their own little nests getting ready for the winter's cold ice and snow. By the end of October the cottonwoods will be naked waiting for the hoarfrost to wrap their branches with it's cold breath leaving behind soft sparkly tendrils of white and the beautiful Alaskan winter wonder land will be upon us once again. When the time comes I will of course be posting new photos of all these wondrous transformations, but in the mean time if you would like to see some of the photos from last year click here.

Looking Back. The fishing this summer has not been as productive as it has been the last two. Even though the fish counts were high the actual runs were small and sporadic. We did real good on the Kings with both of us getting our limits of nice bright fish. We did not land any of the monsters that the Kenai River is known for but I did land what is probably the BIGGEST fish I have ever caught!! (see June 16th blog) The red runs are done now and I have not caught any? Mark did land a few so we at least have some fish in the freezer, and we still have the late silver run.

Sept. 10, 2007 We fished the Swanson River located north of the town of Kenai. It is a small river, not very wide and with a slow lazy current. The perfect river for kayaks and canoes. The rain should clear up on Friday and we plan to return WITH the kayaks. (and cameras!!) The fishing was better than I expected as well, I hooked & landed a 10lb silver on my first cast!! However it was pretty dark so Mark released it hoping for some brighter fish. Unfortunately it was the only silver I was able to land that day. (I will make up for it on our next trip!!) Mark landed and kept 3 more all of them were on the dark side but they did smoke up real nice!

Summer Highlights. I would have to say that the biggest highlight this summer would be our Washington trip. We bought a new camcorder for the trip so we actually have way more video than pictures. I will add some of the video later if I can figure out how ;o) Like all vacations it was fast & furious and as always way to short. We were able to spend some time with all but one of the kids.





















It was kinda strange doing the tourist thing in Seattle, but interesting to see the city from that point of view.





















We of course made a couple of day trips to Homer this year as well. On one of these trips we found a nice comfortable place to fish from the rocks on the bay side of the Homer Spit. We had heard that people some times catch Halibut and sea bass here. Mark did land 2 very small halibuts and we did see some silver salmon caught near by. However our biggest catch of the day was this weird Frankenfish!! As you can see it was a huge monster and as ugly as any fishermen's worst nightmare!! The official name for this fish is Irishlord.









No seabass or lingcod. Oh well, I guess we will just have to wait until we can get a boat in order to take advantage of Alaska's best. AND if all goes well that will be VERY soon!!

In closing for this blog, no trip to Homer is complete with out at least a couple of sunset photos! All in all this has been a very good summer and in spit of todays weather, it isn't quite over yet!

Third day, same spot.

Thursday, 6/14, Day 2 same spot on the Kenai River. We decided that since we did so good early the day before we wanted to get an even earlier start on this day. We were on the river & set up by 6:00am anticipating & hoping for another great day. I guess everyone else had the same idea 'cause the river was already crowded and we immediately got tangled with a boat that got to close. Fishing was slow this day. We only saw a couple of boats land fish. Mark had a good take down but didn't get a hook up. We packed it up about 3:30pm just a little bit disappointed but not discouraged, yet! After all we would sometimes fish for weeks in Washington before landing anything. Still it was a great day to be on the water!
Friday 6/15, Day 3 same spot. We got there a little later this day but still in high spirits hoping for the BIG one! By now the guides were getting to know us and they were giving us plenty of room, so no tangles!! Some even stopped to say "howdy" The fish were a lot more active this day and almost all the boats were seeing action! Most of the fish being caught were right in front of us making us jealous and hopeful!

It wasn't long when I got the first hook up. I could tell right away that it was a much more respectable fish than the last one! It was awesome! Put a BIG bend in my pole. When it ran all I could do is hang on and enjoy the ride! About 12 minutes later I finally got it to the bank for Mark to net and got my first good look at it! Even though it would be considered small to average for the Kenai River, it was HUGE to me!! Absolutely the biggest fresh water fish I have ever hooked AND landed! It measured out to be 34 inches long. That really doesn't sound real big but you can tell from the picture that it was BIG to me!!










Poor Mark, out fished by a girl!!! I shouldn't be so cocky, I'm sure this will be the one & only time I get to out fish him when it comes to salmon!!

2007 Fishing season in full swing!

The early King run on the Kenai River is at it's peek right now. The sonar count for Wednesday, 6/13 was a total count so far this season of 8,767 kings.

There are a kazillion people on the water! Mostly in boats because most people are told or believe that King fishing from the bank is next to impossible... well... so far we have proved that to be a myth! (but don't tell anyone 'cause for now we have the bank to ourselves!)
For most of the day, we counted up to 30 boats in the water drifting a slot between two islands in this part of the river and most of them were landing fish.


Wednesday, 613. Mark & I arrive and set up on the bank at about 8:00am. The water was already crowded with boats and the guides pretty much ignored us. On several occasions they drifted so close to us that every ones lines got tangled. About 9:30 I hooked & landed the first fish. It was actually small for a king, only 28 in., but since it was my first Kenai king and only the second king ever that I have been able to hook & land, I decided to keep it. The bummer however is that there is a limit for kings on the Kenai River of just one a day and 5 total for the year. In other words I was done fishing for that day. Anyway I had a blast catching it, it took off on several good runs and even made a couple good jumps! Kings are strong fish!!


Less than an hour later Mark hooked & landed his fish. It was much bigger! He was standing on a rock & the fish nearly pulled him in a couple of times! It was great! We were both very excited, our first spring salmon fishing and we both limit out, it wasn't even noon yet! We got some pictures of me holding both fish, (the big one is Mark's catch) but didn't get any of Mark!? I have to remedy that next time!!

Multitasking - Out with the old, in with the new, And fishing season off to a good start!

Out with the old, in with the new!
I had planed to start this new blogg with a bit of history about us and how we came to be here in this Great Land, Alaska. However things are changing and happening so fast that I would never get caught up to date. I might post some history in mid-winter when the snow & cold slow us down a bit. After all getting here was an adventure all it's own!
With that said, I will jump right in to....

The 2007 fishing season off to a good start!!
I need to back up just a bit here to the first fishing trip of the season. Alaska does not have a lottery but there are dozens of fishing derbies through out the year. There is an entry fee and lots of cool prizes. The wining fish gets a sometimes very large cash prize. The Homer winter salmon derby is one of the first of the year. It is held right about the time of "Break-up" (when the winter ice breaks up on the Alaskan waters) so the actual timing varies.

We are finally getting a little ahead after the big move and decided to treat ourselves. We got a hotel for the week-end, entered the derby and signed up on a charter boat. The night before the derby there was a welcome/info get together for the derby people in a local tavern and an awards ceremony after the derby. To our surprise Larry Czonka, the host of "North to Alaska" was there fishing and filming the derby!! We both got to meet him & shake his hand, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures! But that is ok, you will get to see it all if you watch the show!!

The harbor was mostly ice free even though there were still some boats that were locked in. The weather was sunny and warm (for that time of the year) AND no wind!! A perfect day to be on the saltwater! We had the best time! There were 5 of us on the boat and of course Mark caught all the fish!




















Mark caught 2 King Salmon, they were not wining fish for the derby but they were White Kings. The meat is white and very mild tasting for a salmon! VERY good eating! It was a very pleasant way to kick off the spring!