Back From the Depths

The Big Sky Blog has been brought back from the dead, after a few years of silence! We will continue sharing stories and our thoughts about the summer season on the Kenai River. So, here are a few updates:

- Camp is up and running. Some of our first guests are here and already catching fish.
- We just finished construction of a 1,000 sq ft. addition to the lodge.
- Fishing for kings has been productive in both the river and ocean.
- Halibut fishing has been good as well.
- We are welcoming new staff members, Kashana and Patrick, along with many returners. This year we will have more support than ever.

As the season begins to pick up, excitement is building around camp and among our crew. With each day, as the water continues to rise to its normal summer levels, we anxiously wait the arrival of the yearly return of Kenai salmon. So far, the runs have been strong and regulations are such that we can fish for everything. The weather on the Kenai Peninsula has been cloudy and gray but we are expecting the forecast to clear. With things off to a good start, it is only a matter of time before camp is running on all cylinders. It is our goal to share this place we love, the mighty Kenai River.

We still have some openings throughout the summer so give us a call and we will be happy to accommodate your needs.

Fish On!

Red river

The good news is, most of our clients this and the past week will need new freezers when they get home, the bad news is, they're going to need to get new freezers!

The Kenai River sockeye, or red salmon, continue to pour in and we've been sending folks off with boxes of the coveted fillets.
The krill-eating red salmon have most succulent and rich flesh of all the of the Pacific salmon species, and while king and coho are good in their own right, red salmon is what us real Alaskans will fill our own freezers with.
We've markedly reduced our feffort for king salmon as of Tuesday as state officials have limited use of bait river-wide. While king fishing is not frivolous, with an option to take six reds a person, with bag limits often reached before 10 a.m., the option has been pretty clear.
Additionally we've seen steady hauls coming off of the saltwater for our clients going after Cook Inlet halibut, and combination saltwater fishing trips out of Homer have been catching a few silvers too.

Here's a few nice kings caught last week.

Here they come

Are you ready to Sock-
eye?

Ooops, sorry about the lame pun, but the Kenai River is going nuts with sockeye, or red salmon. According to the Department of Fish and Game, over 231,000 (yes, that is three zeros on the back) of the prized reds passed the agency's sonar on Sunday.
Fishing has been steadily heating up for kings over the last two weeks as well.
This is the beginning of go time here on the Kenai.
King fishing has been strong in the lower river using a variety of tactics. We've been fortunate to have good water conditions.
At the time of the posting, regulations are still restricting the use of bait through most of the river.
The surge of reds will be spreading itself out through the river in the coming days. As of Sunday there was hardly a bank angler to be seen without a Kenai River red salmon splashing on the end of their line.
Consistent numbers entering the river will make for consistent fishing through out its length. We expect to begin getting clients on reds this week.

The Devores.

Nick's nice chromer.

A hog-snouted 50 pounder.

Happy Fourth from Big Sky

We sure hope you had as nice a Fourth of July as we did here on the Kenai.

We'll start this week's report with a clarification, as the rumor mills sure do get working whenever our state managers make any in-season decisions regarding fishing: the Kenai River is not closed.

In short, for the time being, the lower Kenai River is open to king salmon fishing with use of bait, while the middle section, including our shore-front, is currently closed to fishing with bait or retainment of kings between 20 to 55 inches. Anything smaller can be kept, as can anything bigger, though if you have one bigger on the line, please do start screaming, you're going to need a net!!

We really encourage both our incoming and prospective clients to give us a call if they have any questions regarding in-season regulation changes, and not to buy into the rumors that can spread on online fishing forums etc. the regulations can be hard to understand, and even archaic for those unfamiliar with the river, it's understandable that there will be misinterpretation. 

We're very involved here though, and are on a first name basis with most the local Fish and Game biologists. Often we know what will be coming down the pike before the press release gets out, or at least have an idea.

Likewise, we're more than happy to answer questions while you're with us, as some of the regulations can be a bit tricky.

In short, however, the recent measures taken by Fish and Game really don't have a major impact for us.

We've been having our best success in tidewater, and will continue to fish there through the next week.

Action is steadily on the rise, and water conditions are improving. The river has pretty nice clarity at the moment, not too dirty but still good color.

Heavy rains and cool weather in the mountains should keep that coming, and continue to help push the river levels up.

There's still a reasonable snowpack left in the mountains too, so a good hot spell could really fire things up. 

Enough jabber, let's get to some of the goods!



Bubba knows, always kiss your Kenai king for good luck.

Dempsey and a 50 pound chromer.

Kurby's buck.

The Youkey brothers.

Larry fights his 11th hour Kenai king.

Not too bad for a little Sunday afternoon jaunt with friends. We like to get out and play a little ourselves. 

That fish changed his mind about getting in the net, but it was too late.

A quiet afternoon in camp. Mama duck is doing a good job this year of keeping her brood safe from the eagles.

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!

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!

Clearly working

The world famous Kenai River is known for throwing "kurve balls" at us all season, and that's what she's doing again.
The river is running low and clear, just about the opposite from a week ago (and yes, for all we know in another week, it will be mudded back up!)
That being said, Big Sky's chief guide Adam was able to lure in some easily spooked fish this week.
Like many rivers in Alaska, the glacial-fed Kenai will run higher and muddier when we see warm sunny weather that melts down the ancient ice sheets in the interior of the Kenai Peninsula at the headwaters of the Kenai River.
This past week, however, was rather gray, so our near 24 hours of daylight weren't heating up enough to cause much melt.
When flow is down, the river clears up, and while we want our target fish to see, we don't want the water to get too shallow or have them see too well.
Salmon have excellent vision, and being a sought after species everywhere (not just by humans) they're also smart and skitish.
Adam reported that this week the best fishing was early in the morning after the pressure had been off of for several hours. After that, well, that's when it really became fishing.
The good news is, with a steady stream of fish coming into the river, and a steady movement upriver, king salmon are starting to be seen well beyond tide water. This gives us a few more options in terms of where to fish, and can also spread out the fishing pressure.
The Kenai is still closed to bait as of yet, and we are eagerly awaiting an announcement from state officials to open it up, but until then, well, looking at this week's catch, I'd say we're doing alright!

The Zane party from Pueblo pulled in some great fish this week.

This two ocean year fish might not tip the scales like his big brothers and sisters, but we like to call these guys "barbecue kings." Got any guesses why that might be? Fire up the grill!

Even in the Kenai's clear waters this week, this guy couldn't hide.