Kenai River with Friends

We have been invited to spend a few days with our friends from Wasilla, Jeff, and Kathie in Soldotna. We are looking forward to seeing the place where they come each summer to fish for the Reds on the Kenai River. The property belongs to Jeff’s brother Steve and his wife, Marie. Steve and Marie have had this getaway place for many years. It’s off Funny River Road tucked away in the trees with 10 acres of lush foliage and tall trees all around just a short jog from the Kenai River. Steve, met us when we arrived and showed us our camping spot. A beautiful place to camp, just below the main house. Silly me I didn’t get a picture of Our spot.

We settled right in with Happy Hours each evening with the four of them, a lot of laughs and learning all about this part of Alaska. Nothing like spending time with locals to pick up tips about fishing too.

The fish count on the Kenai this summer has been very volatile, A few weeks ago it looks as though it was on its way up, so we figured we had timed the fishing plan right. The day before we left Homer the fish count was 65,000 (Here we come) A good number would have been (70,000)

When we arrived, the fish decided to stay out at sea.  The count dropped to 20,000 and then to 3,000. So there was no fishing the first few days. It was ok with us, we wanted to explore the Soldotna area, and this lull provided us the time to do that.

We drove out to Captain Cook State Park and along the way watched the Dip netters doing their thing.

Rained for two days, so I was able to spend some time editing and deleting pictures from my computer. This blog needed to be updated so again rain provided time for that.

We visited the Wildlife Center at the edge of town. When we spoke to a volunteer there about the fishing, he said it doesn’t look good. “If the fish count is 40,000 I will go after work each day; If the fish count is 60,000 I won’t even go to work, I’ll go fishing. But right now, I’m not fishing at all.” He also said as we were leaving, “We may have already seen the best fishing.”

A few days later the limit was dropped to One fish per day.
The river was void of fisherman.

Mark went out two different days and caught one each day. Good sized salmon which we ate fresh for two nights. We staked the rest and vacuumed sealed them for the freezer to keep the Halibut company.

We feel fortunate to get the two salmon we did since the season hasn’t been good.

We met Steve and Marie’s boys, Scott and Jeremy when they visited for a few days. Scott’s new bride Sara was there as well. They had just purchased a boat. Projects began when they hauled it down to Soldotna from Anchorage. It’s going to be a lot of fun for them. We think they made a smart investment.

Steve is an Expert drone operator, and I was happy to watch him fly it up and down the river and the surrounding area. What great photos it takes.

I still think I want one, but I haven’t been able to land and fly the mini-drone I got in Quartzsite successfully. It’s a challenge. It seems these larger drones are easier to control. More and more places in the lower 48, however, have restricted the use of them so I’m not sure if I would use it enough.

SO, the fishing Never got any better. The river restrictions are now growing. No fishing from the inlet to the bridge.

With the current fishing situation, we are having thoughts now about going back to Homer. We aren’t ready to head to Valdez, and we did like Homer. So plans are put in motion, we said our goodbyes to our hosts and hitched up for our 60 miles or so trip.  Jeff and Kathie are going to join us there so that will be fun!

Now I am beginning to think again about the possibility of getting together with that Bear guide I talked to at Beluga Air before the Brooks Falls trip. He was planning to take a couple of photographers out to a more remote part of the Katmai. Again Mark is encouraging me to try to get on that expedition. The guide stressed that this would be a lot of hiking/walking in waders and it was only for serious photographers with proper equipment. Something to think about but the weather has been so hard on us this trip; I sure wouldn’t want to be out on a photo tour in the rain.

I’m pondering this idea as we drive south again to Homer.