Wednesday, July 13, 2022 - It was a 4 hour drive from our campground at K'esugi Ken to the Kenai. We weren't sure where we were going to stay, but decided to stop at the Russian River to see if they had any campsites available. We got there around 4 and put our names on the waiting list. At 5:00 they open up sites that have been vacant for 24 hrs. We were happy to get a nice double spot. There was a trail from the campground down to the Russian River and we decided to try some fishing after dinner. It was a rocky shallow river, and we found a nice quiet spot. After about 45 minutes of fishing a guy came down the trail and told us a bear was coming, we looked up and across the river about 50 yards from us was a big grizzly, looking right at us. We all got off the river, and watched the bear make his way down the other side of the bank. He moved along the river and would come out and look at us as he passed, we'd yell at him and he would move on. We fished for a bit longer, but I spent as much time looking up and down the river as I did fishing.
View of the Turnagain Arm
The fireweed was thick, on our drive today
The first chance to try out our new hip boots from Trusty's
Hip boots and bear spray
Getting ready to fish
Our campsite at the Russian River
Uncle Gene's ready for some big fish
The Russian River is shallow and rocky
I got a few, not-so-great pics of the grizzly
Back in the water
Kev caught a trout, but we didn't catch any salmon
Thursday-Friday, July 14-15, 2022 - After the Russian River, we decided to head to Gail & Brian's in Soldotna, for some salmon fishing on the Kenai. They have had a lot of rain there, so the trail to the river from Gail & Brian's was mostly under water. We decided to drive to the pipeline entrance to the river and actually found a parking spot. It's a farther walk (about a half a mile each way compared to a quarter mile from Gail & Brian's) but the path wasn't nearly as crazy. We fished for about an hour and a half and came up empty handed, but no one else was catching either. We listen to the commercial fishing update each day to hear the sonar numbers. Friday, they were 1000 (if the salmon are in, the numbers should be around 60,000 so it wasn't surprising that we didn't catch. But it was good practice for me since the technique used in salmon fishing is different than what I'm used to with bass fishing.
getting ready for some salmon fishing
fishing in the rain
Saturday-Sunday, July 16-17, 2022 - Gail & Brian love to go to garage sales, so Gerry and I went with them this morning, since it's another rainy day. It was fun to see what Alaskans are selling and I found a couple of treasures (2 Alaskan cookbooks and a small smiley face cutting board for the RV). We went to a couple of the look-outs over the mouth of the Kenai, to see the dipnetters in action. Only Alaskans are allowed to dipnet. They can use a net that is up to 5 feet wide, and everywhere we go we see pickup trucks with multiple nets in the truck bed, so they are ready to fish at a moments notice.
dipnetters lining the mouth of the Kenai
lining both sides of the mouth
they can camp at the mouth so they are there and ready to fish when the tide is optimal
Gail said that when the salmon are really running, this spot will be shoulder to shoulder
Dipnet Fees
Kev flew the drone over the spot where we fish, on Sunday night. It didn't look too crowded, but people were there at 9PM
I love the house we pass that has their fence decorated with salmon
wish we could buy a big dip net
all the aisles at Walmart are filled with everything salmon... fishing, packaging, canning, drying, shipping
Monday July 18, 2022 - Today we decided to brave the trail from Gail & Brian's and we were out on the river by 9:30. It wasn't busy, so we had our choice of spots to fish from. The counts Saturday were 5,000 and Sunday they were 45000, so we were assuming today would be a good fishing day. The spot down on the far end of the fishing area seemed to be the best spot. Kev started talking to the guy on the primo spot (John), and he gave suggestions as to how to better outfit our fishing rigs. John would catch a fish, have a beer, catch a fish, have a beer, and he eventually got his max for the day and we inherited his spot. Next Ken came in slightly above us, and he did the same thing minus the beers. Ken was even more helpful, and once he reached his quota, he handed over his spot and Kev immediately caught two fish. More and more people came and they were all eyeing our spot. Finally around 2:30 we were so tired we had to throw in the towel and head home. Once we got back there was even more to do with fileting the fish and then packaging and cooking. We went to bed tired!
The water on the trail to the fishing spot was over my knees in some spots
Beautiful day for fishing
By noon it had gotten a bit crowded
Uncle Gene helped John net a few fish
We inherited the honey hole
Kevin catching
Ken helped with the net
Kev catching again
The day's haul
The long trek back
A quick lesson from Gail & Brian on how to filet in the fish house.
Kev trying his hand
This salmon was full of eggs
Gene and Kev look like pros
Gerry taking the finished product for packaging
last one
Mirabelle and I were the supervisors
a good spot to dry our boots
Gerry frying the collars (behind the head of the fish) and the combs (the center of the backbone)..the rest are saved for later
dinner in the tent with the gang
