Clean and clear

More of the same for us on the Kenai River this week folks. The river is still running low, clean, and clear.
Kenai River king salmon continue to enter the mouth of the river, but with these types of conditions, we sure do have to work for a living!!
While the weather has been behaving quite typically for Alaska (that means a whole lot of everything) we did have an absolutely gorgeous Friday and Saturday, with temperatures climbing into the high 70s.
We like that, not because we're into tanning to a golden shade of brown (our rain bibs give us funny tan-lines anyhow) but because all that heat helps to spur snow and glacial melt, which sends a flush of silt, and "glacial flour" as we refer to it, into the rivers.

Here on the Kenai Peninsula we're always looking for a balance in visibility. If the water is too clear, and too low, king salmon can see too much and get skitish. If it's too cloudy and turbid though, we have to practically whack them on the head with our lures just in order to coax a bite.
To say the least, visibility is a frequent point of conversation at the dinner table at Big Sky.

We'll spare you all that nonsense, here's some fish that didn't know any better!

Ever-reliable guide Gary Chamberlin holds the net with a stunning 52-inch "slot fish" Kenai King caught by Tessa Robertson Easley. The chrome beauty is protected by regulations, and is still somewhere in the Kenai River, hopefully bound to produce plenty more just like it in years to come.

Chief guide Adam Reid with a fish nearly as big as his young client!

Both these guys obviously ate their Wheaties!