The difference

Up in Cooper Landing this weekend, a mere half-hour east of Sterling, fishing the Russian River for Russian River reds, there might not have been a ton of fish passing through, but there sure was a lot of advice.

"I've been here a week," "I've been here a day," "I've been here all afternoon;" "you've got to stand over here," "stand over there;" "red and yellow is hot!"

Even if they weren't talking directly to you, it seemed like tid-bits of knowledge and guidance were rising from the water like the gurgle of the clear water stream running over the rocks.
Now, all this advice is really generous, and given that the Russian River is known as a "combat fishery" where anglers stand shoulder to shoulder trying to flip for their reds, it was a relief to hear nice words, but it got me to thinking about where experience really counts.

Here at Big Sky, our three on-staff guides, Ryan, Adam, and owner Joe, have an easy half-century of combined experience fishing the Kenai River alone. This says nothing that all three are seasoned life-long sportsmen. Likewise, all the guides we contract and partner with for both river and saltwater fishing on have been in business for decades working their respective waters.

There were some genuinely experienced folks out there on the Russian this past weekend, and there were also some people who had just caught their first fish and now knew everything there was to know about fishing.
It's not quite that bad when fishing the Kenai River with a guide or outfitter, most can claim to have caught more than one anyway, but when the fishing gets tough, as it has been of late, experience really starts to show.
We had a fairly quiet week from a business perspective, but as is seen below, that didn't keep us from landing some gorgeous Kenai River kings.

The Kenai River is coming up slowly, and it is starting to get a little of its beautiful teal color it's so well-known for. That will really give us even more of an advantage, but as is, the best fishing has remained in the tidewater.

We've got a full week coming up here with some great clients, so we're looking forward to helping land them some more beauts like these from the past week.

Linda Klueh and her bright and shiny Kenai River king salmon.

Watch out, you'll poke someone's eye out with that thing!

How do you feel about holding one of these at 6:30 a.m.? Trust me, you won't need any coffee for the other hand.

Brittany Klueh and her big 35 pound Kenai River king salmon that she kept out of the jaws of a hungry seal. Nice work!