The Kenai River has to be one of the most prolific salmon and trout rivers in the world, but it is being "loved" to death, slowly, and sometimes not so slowly. Easy access to the river is part of it's curse. The river historically supported large runs of pink, red, king and silver salmon. The upper and middle river also supports large numbers of Dolly Varden and Rainbow trout. Some of the largest King Salmon in the world return to the Kenai, however, their numbers are dwindling.
I came to Alaska in 1970 and lived in Kenai from 1972-1980. I feel very fortunate to have fished the Kenai River in those years. However, during that time I witnessed the onslaught of power boats. When I arrived in 1972 we hardly saw a power boat on the lower Kenai; by the time I moved to Anchorage in 1980 the rush was on. The boats were too large, too powerful and too numerous by any one's measure. Power restrictions were ultimately placed on the motor sizes which helped some. There were only two or three professional guides on the entire river system. I tried fishing the lower river in the early 80s, was turned off by the carnival atmosphere and vowed never to fish it again; I haven't.
Up until sometime in the late 1980s few people pursued trout in the Kenai River system; salmon were the fish of choice. If you key on salmon you catch very few trout and so the "rainbow secret" remained a secret. However, since the late 80s the secret is no longer a secret and the number of anglers pursuing rainbows has steadily increased, including the number of guides and businesses catering to them. Kenai rainbows are now a big business. Cruise ship passengers have added to the fishing pressure all along the river. So, that's it for my current rant.
On this trip we decided to fish the middle river first from Skilak Lake to Bing's Landing in Sterling, and the upper river on Sunday from Sportsman's to Skilak Lake. It was foggy when we launched the drift boat for the short motor to the outlet of Skilak, which forms the middle river. Motors are allowed from Skilak Lake downstream. We started fishing almost immediately upon entering the river. Not far from the Skilak outlet you approach a large s-curve and series of gravel bars that harbor Rainbows and Dollies. We hooked up with a good fish as we approached the curve and beached the boat on a gravel bar to land it. The fog was still heavy as we spread out along the bar to fish. Over the next hour, or so, we landed several Rainbows and Dolly Varden, including what turned out to be the biggest fish of the day, a football-shaped Rainbow.
We continued our drift, alternating wading and fishing from the boat. We continued to hook a mixture of Rainbows and Dolly Varden; John hooked and landed the only silver salmon of the trip. Rainy weather resulted in high water levels for most of the summer, but the river had fallen and cleared in the past couple weeks exposing gravel bars where none had been visible. The clearing water allowed us to sight cast to rainbows in several places. We also hooked and landed a number of large Dolly Varden. With few exceptions we fished 6mm beads with strike indicators both days.
The sun was setting when we rowed into Bing's Landing just upstream from the Naptowne rapids in Sterling. A hot shower and dinner completed the day. We were up before dark on Sunday, and there was frost on the boat cover when left the motel. Between Sterling and Cooper landing the temperature dropped to 29F; it was 39F when we pulled into Gwen's for breakfast. The Plan-Of-The-Day was to go from Sportman's, near the the Russian River, to Skilak Lake.
Generally, the drift boats stack up a little in the first mile or so downstream from the launch. We picked up several Rainbows in this stretch and tried one of our favorite side-channels, but water was very low and we had no luck there. We continued to drift and pick up Dollies and Rainbows, then dropped into "trout alley". Again, the water was low, but the trout were there and we picked up several nice fish and saw a couple of 27-inch plus rainbows that were not interested in anything we had to offer. Just upstream from where the channel rejoins the main flow of the river I hooked a nice Rainbow that ran me a round the block a couple of times. I had to work to keep it out of the rapids and finally brought it to hand after a couple of failed attempts. It turned out to be my best fish of the weekend.
We climbed back into the boat and organized our gear for the float through the canyon. It can be a bit dicey in the canyon dodging boulders the size of Volkswagons, maybe bigger. The upper part of the canyon has steep gradient, with rapids, and deep swirling, pools. There are trout all through the canyon but landing one once hooked can be a challenge. We picked up a few small rainbows near the top of the canyon and the pulled out and wade through a long fast pool about halfway through. After a dozen or so casts I hooked a heavy fish. At first, I thought I hooked a rock, but the "rock" moved powerfully up stream, then further out into the pool, then downstream, rolling at the surface; it was a real good fish. It held in the current for a while I tried to for a net over the roar of the canyon. Then the fish turned and started downstream again, finally I was almost into my backing. Clearly we were going to have to chase with the boat. But just as I conveyed that message to the group the line went limp. I assumed the fish broke me off, but as it turned out the hook had come out. Oh, well! It was definitely one of the bigger Rainbows I have hooked, but it was time to push on.
At the bottom of the canyon, the river gradient flattens out. We fished most of the remaining distance to Skilak lake from the boat. We hooked and landed several good fish along the way, including a couple of doubles. In one case we had to find a point to get out of the boat to fight two fish. We waded the last few holes before the lake where we took several good Dollies and Rainbows. The sun was setting when John pulled the stater to motor to the upper Skilak Lake take-out (45-60 minute trip); it was dark when we pulled the boat onto the trailer and midnight when we arrived in Anchorage. We don't count fish, but my guess is we each landed 30-40 trout for the two days.
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