The Summer Salmon of Kenai
July 2004

by

October 2004

A big King salmon caught by Larry Haas

The trip to Alaska, which is almost becoming an annual trek, was once again outstanding. I flew into Anchorage with a buddy of mine and then we drove up to the Kenai River, specifically the town of Soldotna which is located about in the middle of the river. We had fantastic weather (mid-60's to mid-70's) and just a little rain.

The last two weeks of July each year provide a fisherman with the opportunity to hook the three largest speices of Salmon that inhabit the river -- Kings, Silvers and Sockeye. My personal preference leans to the sockeyes because they're the most fun to catch, followed by the huge kings and then the silvers. This year I caught a 43# king the first day and on the last day, within 10 seconds of having my line out, caught my second (and perhaps the smallest king on record) fish ..... a 13 pounder that was a bleeder and therefore I had to keep it and my fishing was now done for the year on the Kenai for Kings.

Larry and the sockeye catch

However, the sockeye fishing was unbelievable! I've never seen the banks of the river so crowded with fishermen ... must have been in excess of 10,000 fishing the length of the river for these miraculous sockeyes. These fish weigh from about 7# to 18#s mormally ... but this year I caught a couple that reached 20#s or so. I passed on the silvers because they don't taste anywhere near as good as the sockeye and kings, and subsequently brought home about 60#s of flash frozen salmon.

To that total, we went halibut fishing out of Homer, and caught a hell of a lot of halibut. I landed 21 halibut in less than four hours at an average weight of about 30#s or so. The bad news was it blew my left elbow out hauling these guys up from 240' and the largest halibut our boat brought in that day was about 45#. So, I came home with my limit of two and there's 30 plus pounds in the freezer to feed us this winter. The following day another group from our lodge went out with the same skipper and they got into some monster fish .... they landed halibut ranging from 106# to 58#s with several in the 90+ pound area. Damn, what a day!

The daily haul of halibut

Anyway, can't wait till next year. Julie likes me to go because, for a change, I can bring the fish home to eat!!! I'll be looking for 3 more people to accompany next year for the 3rd week in July. Any volunteers ... cost is about $2500 for the week not counting airfare. Just give me a call.

Tight Lines!

– Larry