I know typically all of us who love the Olympics think of silver as second place but right now, they are first in terms of the salmon species running in the Kenai. The overall second run was early so it’s much slower than expected for this time of year. Typically after September 1st the limit increases to three per person per day but it has remained at two.
We got up at 5:15 AM and were headed out by 6:00 AM to meet our guide, Aaron for the day.
Joining us also was Mark, a gentleman from Connecticut who had tried his luck from shore trying to get silvers without success so he decided to book a guided trip.
It was super foggy on the river, mysterious and actually quite pretty. We didn’t go far from the dock area to where Aaron’s buoy was anchored. We “trolled” by way of the movement of the river while anchored, then when we would hook into a fish, he would release us from the anchor as we reeled in and netted the fish, it was an interesting way to do it. We also did some bait fishing / bottom bouncing with salmon egg skein.
It was our chilliest morning today. Layers for me today were thermals, pants and rainpants (for the insulation) and then heavy merino top, lucky fishing top from the fair, nano puff and my fleece/raincoat combo.
The three of us all had our limit by 8:30 AM! After we wrapped up, Aaron cleaned our fish and fileted Mark’s. He was taking his to the smokehouse, ours will go back to Reuben and Mindy’s for processing with any others we catch during our remaining charters, they’ll have them all packaged and frozen to head back with us on the flight home.
Then he spent quite a bit of time talking trout fishing setups with LJ and Mark and even providing us with some gear to use. His passion for fishing definitely shines through and we loved his enthusiasm. His grandfather was from South Carolina and he lived there for a few years growing up.
By the time we left the boat launch, it was still “breakfast time” at Buckets so we headed back there to try something else on the menu.
We went back to the house and LJ took a nap while I worked on the blog. We had a breaker issue yesterday so the homeowner had come back to the house before going out of town to reset the breaker and the internet, tv and lights were working again. The internet is not high speed in terms of what we are used to but it’s working and that’s good. After some downtime, we went back out for dinner and some driving around.
Dinner tonight was the St Elias Brewing Company which was busy and a very cool place. We didn’t have to wait for a table, which is definitely a plus coming in September. We tried the Pickle Planks as an appetizer, which were stone fired bread sticks brushed with garlic oil and topped with mozzarella and deli style pickle chips – a very interesting and tasty option. Then LJ let Kathryn, our server choose his entree from three suggested pizzas, she surprised him with the Cheeseburger in Paradise and I got the Ranch Bacon Flatbread. He had the Wild Blueberry Lemon Cake for dessert, I snuck a bite and it was delicious. She was from the Houston area.
Tomorrow will be fishing on the Middle Kenai, we’ve already been warned the silvers are “lock jawed” in that part of the river so little hope to get our limit tomorrow. Basically that means by the time they reach that part of the river, they are no longer biting or interested in eating, their sole purpose, spawning and calling it quits. It will be a combo day of silver salmon and rainbow trout, which are catch and release but either way, no rain expected and should be a great day on the river no matter what happens!
Nice!!!!!!
LikeLike