REPORT: I'd like to thank Fishonkid, we were able to get the rod back. I can tell you, you made someone's day!!

KK, thanks for the great site, keep up the good work!

REPORT: Had a beautiful day on Clear Creek. The dollies and bows were cooperative. So were the chums. Not a lot of silvers but we managed to get three. Not the best silver fishing but certainly the best day I have ever had on the creek. We had it all to ourselves! It was a great day to be out with friends and family enjoying our great land. Off to Whittier tomorrow!

REPORT:

REPORT: River was empty- literally. A few spawned out pinks and nothing else. There should be a second run soon but dead for now.

REPORT: We noticed someone on the Alaskan Angler Fishing Report was worried about the bear situation at the Russian River CG and Ferry for Labor Day Weekend. Dianne (Alaska Recreational Management/General Manager has seen the bear at the ferry several times in the last week or so and says he's acting very normal.


This injured brown bear was attacked on the Russian River at the falls while feeding on salmon by a much larger brown bear, but he appears to be getting along ok. I notice other wounds near his left front shoulder when I zoomed in on the pictures. This bear shows no aggressive actions that I have noted and I have seen him several times in the last couple of weeks.
Ron & Carol McNaughton
Quartz Creek CG Managers
Stream Watch Volunteers

[AOJ: Thanks Ron and Carol for the firsthand information. Its always nice to get the details from the horse's, uh bear's, mouth. And thanks for the additional photos. Boy that is a NASTY battle scar. Creepy. He better add an extra layer of dry grass to his den for insulation this winter!]

REPORT: Fished Sunday and Monday pretty hard with the family. My 5 year-old hooked up first, from the city dock (a good 15-20 feet off the water) on his tiny Zebco. Much mayhem ensued, but the end result was my wife guiding it into my net and a pretty stoked little kid. A picture for the wall, I'm sure. That was a good way to start things off.

Fishing was a bit slower than what we've gotten used to, but I managed to limit on Sunday. Monday the fish had moved a bit, and were taking over the harbor. We continued fishing from the city dock with some nice folks we'd met and enjoyed the weather, and managed another few fish.

Weather was gorgeous, which still has me weirded out. I don't fish in Valdez in the sun, because it's never out when I'm there....lol. Got a nice burn to end the summer with.

Fishing should be excellent for the next week around the harbor area. You kind of have to follow the jumping fish/crowd of people around to stay with them, but there are plenty to go around and they are as big and fat as ever.

REPORT: Last day for bait on the Anchor proved to be a good one. Caught 2 bright silvers this morning and saw lots of fish heading upstream.

REPORT: Another hot August for silvers in spite of the pink return. Had to stay out of the slow water areas to avoid the pinks but if you could find the channels the silvers were running in, there were some great fish. We didn't get anything over fifteen pounds but picked up several bucks at that weight and the females were running in the 9 - 12 pound range. Had lots of guests and all went away with coolers packed full of dime bright silvers. In the past five years, we have done excellent in August but it always takes a while to figure out their pattern - every year it is different and what worked last year probably won't do you much good. I am strictly an egg fisherman but those throwing k12 and k14s did fine as well. Went ten days in a row with a limit every day (nice to be retired). Fishing the faster water requires a release to insure that fish aren't lost and it also requires the use of about two and a half ounces of weight to hold bottom and bounce but it is all worthwhile when you get into them. Rainbows in the Middle and upper rivers (above Bing's) is picking up and the rainbows are fat with eggs of all kinds. Seals in the lower river are getting the fish really stirred up now as we approach the second run so that is a problem we haven't solved to this point. They force the fish out of their channels and then they become much harder to find and entice into a strike. Bears were a real plus below Beaver Creek as they came out every day and checked the beaches for fresh carcasses and put on a good show for those in the area. Had a bunch of young fishermen out this year as well as some old friends returning to Alaska after a long stint outside and they all vowed to be back next year for more Silver Slammin!!!

REPORT: Anyone fished Whittier who can report?

REPORT: Did anybody else see the killer whales, beluga whales and seals by Girdwood on Sunday? I wonder what they were all doing there together? Nice show on a sunny Sunday morning.

REPORT: Worked the incoming tide at Fish Creek this morning. Managed one nice buck on roe near the bottom with a Corky. Tried the Tailrace for an hour or so and saw one fish caught. Very slow at both places. I feel fortunate to have come home with one. Going up to try Clear Creek this week. Time to hang up the rods and grab the guns! Good luck everyone.

REPORT: Saturday morning a buddy and I took both our boats out onto the Kenai to take groups of boys from church fishing. My buddy anchored up and within minutes a guide pulled up alongside of him. Before he could figure out what was going on, the guide threw him some gear and told him what the fish were biting on. He then invited my buddy (with a boat-load of eager boys) to pull into the good hole he just pulled fish out of! As he motored away the guide said to his clients "Those boys need to catch fish." Most of the kids we took out that day had never caught salmon before. They did that day- and they are all hooked! Whoever you are- Thank you! It's great to see that there's at least one "pro" out there who knows what fishing is really about! Tight lines!

REPORT: Heading to Homer for a few days on the 1st. I noticed the Anchor Coho run is tracking fairly normal, so I expect a good slug to hit the river while we are there. I was wondering if anyone has any reports on the lagoon.

[AOJ: From last week's Homer ADFG Weekly Fishing Report - Fishing for silver salmon in the Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon on the Homer Spit was poor last week. Some new fish arrived on a couple of incoming tides but overall there was very few new silver salmon. As far as the Anchor its "performing" normally on the silver return and there should be some fair numbers of steelhead beginning to trickle in. No additional coho count numbers yet since 8/25 as of 10am Monday. The Dolly run is past its peak with the fish settling in higher stretches of the river to overwinter.]

REPORT: Had a friend that was down there recently, and told me of a posting of an injured bear (shot?), around the 18th of August. He didn't have any info on the particulars. I'm spending Labor Day weekend there, and am curious if the situation has subsided. Any info?

Happy fishin!

REPORT: Went out on the Kasilof with my son for our annual silver trip. Amazingly, (even with the rain) for a Saturday in August we had the river nearly to ourselves. Don't know where the people were but they should have been there. We limited out on nice silvers early doing a little catch and release as well. We got a few humpty dumpties but the silvers were as plentiful as the pinks. Got off the River early and toured the microbreweries of the Kenai/soldotna area.

[AOJ: Friday I spoke with two rigs shuttling their drift boat trailers down from Tustumena to the bridge and their anglers (from cell calls) had only gone half way to the bridge and already had 6 silvers in the two boats. Sounds like Kasilof River is having a very decent silver run this year. Not that many boats launching at the bridge at 6:30a when I go by and not many going up the road to the lake later in the morning. Strange indeed!~!]

REPORT: Tuesday and Wednesday was good for silvers in the Big Eddy area - got limits for 3 people both days fishing early 6-10 a.m. Thursday some big tides brought in the pinks that should have been here 2 weeks ago, Thurs-Fri-Sat could not throw anything in the water including my best cured eggs or the pinks just swarmed it. Every slow water area now as of Sat is completely black with pinks making catching silvers nearly impossible. Now is a good time to take the kids for pinks its like fishing at the hatchery. Water has dropped almost 2 ft in last 5 days so watch out for those gravel bars!

[AOJ: Well sometimes it looks like its dropped more than it really has. River is down 8/10th of a foot in the past 7 days. A sign the rain has let up and the glaciers are slowing on the meltdown as fall approaches. I saw a number of boats this afternoon (Sunday) in Soldotna area drift fishing for rainbows with fly rods but from what I've seen/experienced the big bows have already headed back to the upper middle river so hook ups in spots where you would usually find fish were coming up blank. ]

REPORT: Sorry for the late report but I spent all day yesterday sleeping and packaging fish. Anyway, drove down to Valdez Thursday morning with my wife and son to take them on their first charter trip for silvers. We were on the boat by 2pm, fishing by 215pm and had two on the boat by 230. Our 6 person boat put 31 on in four hours on the water, so maybe 3 1/2 hours actual fishing. I lost at least 10 fish on my own trying to get my 4 year old son on the poles. He still got his six in the end though. Great fishing and great weather while we were there. On a side note; we left there at 10pm to drive home and hit the worst fog I have ever had to drive in. You could see from one broken line to the next but no further so drive safe. Good luck to all and maybe I will report again Monday if we can find a boat to go down Sunday night after work.

REPORT: We headed out thinking that we would get poured on, and well, we never had to put any rain gear on! A start to a Perfect canoe trip from Houston to Burma. 3 1/2 days of adventure and fly fishing.

The trip was great, the fishing was not so great. Saw a few silvers on the upper section but as we got to the middle, fishing for anything was slow. We did hook into a few silvers in the middle, but snapped a line and she was gone! Did see more silvers and some humpy closer to the ramp but most of them looked pretty well done. Bows were here and there as well and they were fun and fat!

Saw one eagle and a few gulls. Three moose were at the launch in Burma when we were spotting the other rig. Never saw any bears. Lots of tracks both black and brown, but that was it. Hardly saw anyone on the river and the second day, we didn't see anyone. It was beautiful and very quiet!

Might try to squeeze one more in before the snow flies and the water gets too low!
Fish on!
Uncle Buck & Friends

REPORT: The Reds were hanging out in Skilak Lake just like everyone were hoping and praying for. I Love Alaska! Never give up hope in the Reds or the other species of Salmon to come back year after year. Every year the run is different this one just happened to take a break in Skilak like in years past. It was kinda scary "Closing the Russian River for No Reds!" What no fish in the Russian? I'm like No Way! Go there now Kenai Russian Confluence to watch the March of the Kenai Russian REDS! There is a Red glow in the river!

REPORT: Lots of silvers and chums flopping around up there. My dad and I have gone up the last 3 days in a row and unfortunately have only caught one silver ( he was a big boy though). Seeing lots of fish....catching them is a different story. :)

Fish are all starting to blush a bit, but still look really nice. We've had a couple others hooked but lost'em...seems like floating rowewith some corkies works better than casting/flipping pixies.

REPORT: Long time since I posted last..just hate giving up too much info..lots of people fishing these days, but had to say it is hot fishing in Valdez right now, fish everywhere once you leave the harbor unless my good friend Kat is on your boat then it is net her fish one right after the other, can't catch fish if you can't keep your bait in the water..lol..she was a rockstar today and even caught the largest silver I have ever seen caught,(no derby ticket), no scale but est. over 17 lbs and blue skies, great fishing right now. Bobo

REPORT: Fishing 3 hrs before and after high tide this morning and nothing. About 8 people, zero fish seen and caught.

[AOJ: I think the fat lady is singing~!]

REPORT:

REPORT: Fished the Lower Kenai Monday (cough cough) super nice day. Boat in the water at 7:30, it was slow at first but picked up and we had 4 nice sized fish in the boat by 1030 all caught within 30 min.

REPORT: Fished downstream from boat launch from 7 to 11 AM for silvers. Fished with eggs and hardware, nothing. Didn't even see any rollers.

REPORT: I heard a traffic report on the radio advising that there were a lot of cars slowing on the Seward Hwy because there were some Baluga whale in the inlet. Knowing that there is only one reason there would be Belugas in the inlet I rushed home and got my gear and headed for Bird. There was about 30 people fishing the in coming tide. There probably would have been good fishing if it weren't for the Seal swimming around in the mouth of the creek. I left after about an hour and a half, no one caught anything as far as I saw. Maybe in the next few days there will be some fish in the creek.

REPORT: Fished the point in the morning bout 5 to 8am and got 2 silvers. Waters getting low now and fishing is getting to be harder now. Caught the 2 silvers floating eggs and saw 3 other fish caught. All and all it was a beautiful morning to be out there. No bears sighted while we were down there.....AKA RIP A LIP

REPORT: AOJ: Have some relatives from Minnesota coming in and we are headed down to the Russian River to try and catch some Silvers this weekend (Fri/Sat). I'm looking at the regs and had a few questions:

What exactly is the silver salmon limit in the Russian FFO area? I thought it was 2, but if what I'm reading on the regs is right it says 1. I remember last year fishing around Labor Day and the ferry operator told me it was 1 to the left of the ferry (towards the sanctuary and Russian), and 3 to the right of the ferry. Not sure if he was right but I always get confused on the different bag limits in the different sections of the river at different times of the year. Confusing!

Also, is there still a retention of 1 sub 16 inch Rainbow/Dolly in the Russian FFO, or is that over? Just want to be clear on the regs before we keep any fish. Will try and put up a report of how we do when we get back Saturday evening. Thanks!

[AOJ: The Russian and Sanctuary area (down to the ferry) is ONE silver per day through the entire season to 11/30. From the ADFG marker at the ferry downstream on the Kenai the limit is TWO silvers per day thru Aug. 31 and then it goes to 3 per day from 9/1 to 11/30. Now that its after August 20th the Russian and upper Kenai switch to single hook artificial only (with 3/8 inch hook gap) for the remainder of the year, including the use of pegged beads and lures. Yes the one rainbow and one dolly under 16 inches is still the daily bag limit on these two species for the Russian and upper Kenai.]

REPORT: Went to help pull a friend's fish platform up in the refuge. Thought we'd try flippin one last time. To our surprise, spent most of the day catching chrome bright female reds. Kept 9: 6 bright females 2 slightly blushed males, one feisty female pink. Caught and released many more. No silvers. Great day. I won't give up so early next year!

REPORT: I'm new to the state and enjoying the great fishing. I've really appreciated the reports on here, keep it up guys! It's really helped me transition to the local fishing scene and tackle.

I've got a friend visiting this next weekend and want to get on some silvers. It sounds like Jim is drying up a bit since I was out there 2 weeks ago. Tailrace has had way more people than fish the last couple times I've been there. Disappointing run on Bird and Ship has knocked them out of the picture.

I'm thinking of heading to Seward for some bank fishing but haven't been there myself. Any recommendations on best bank opportunities within 200 miles of Anchorage? I've also considered a weekend trip to Valdez or Kenai. Thanks guys!

[AOJ: I can't speak from personal experience but based on the years of reports the silvers should be building to good numbers at Allison Point by the weekend. Here is an exerpt from this week's ADFG PWS Fishing Report:

• Anglers are reporting coho salmon being caught at Allison Point and near the city dock in Valdez.
• Boat anglers don’t need to venture too far out of Valdez.
• Port Valdez and Valdez Arm are producing good catches of coho salmon.
• Whittier reports are mixed with some anglers catching fish in near town while other anglers are catching pinks while targeting coho salmon.

REPORT: Spent past 4 days on Eklutna Tailrace. Sunday 10am, Monday 6-7am, Tuesday 5-6pm, today 6-7 am. I saw two fish caught Sunday morning within 10 min of each other. Since then nothing.

REPORT: Been at Jim the last two mornings in a row with good success. Fish still moving through at a pretty regular pace but can be finicky at times. Monday they gobbled up my eggs like I had coated them with gold or something and today they wouldn't even sniff at them. Water is way down and the bank is eroding quickly in a couple of places. Some blush fish but still plenty of chromers to put on the stringer. Crowds are way down from a week ago, but with moose season and school starting that makes perfect sense.
Tight lines all!
ER Rogue

REPORT: Lots of red silvers and a few shiny ones on Sunday at Sunshine. They are very skittish of bright lures in the slough. Fought plenty of foul-hooked fish before finally getting 2 using a dark fly. My buddy got his too. Good luck!

REPORT: KK, when you get a chance could you please comment on the state of affairs for the Russian Red and Silver runs for this year and the possible past and future effects. We were there in early August and it was awful by comparison.

We went to Bings and it is so hard to access with the terrain and the crowds in line. Not much fun if you are trying to make it a family experience.

Too bad there is not much other access for the poor bank fisherman.
Thanks,
Tom

[AOJ: I'm pressed for time at the moment on the run comments but as far as public access to hot fishing areas of the Kenai there are a number of them and some are even free. But you'll have to get down to the Soldotna area for them. Airport Hole has free parking and beautiful walks and stairs and cleaning tables and thousands of fish caught. Moose Range Meadows out East Redoubt Road (turn left at Holiday Gas station) has two public access spots with parking, walkways and stairs (maybe a parking fee) and tons of good red fishing. Swiftwater and Centennial campgrounds are run by the city of Soldotna and offer lots of bank fishing too.]

REPORT: I noticed a post regarding 6 Mile River.. can you tell me how to get there?

[AOJ: Six Mile River runs along the road going into Hope. Canyon Creek comes down under the bridge and joins Six Mile at that point. Six Mile also borders the Sterling Highway before you get to the Hope Turn Off (coming from Anchorage) but the better fishing will be downstream more towards the mouth. Try Google Earthing that area to get an idea of the road and proximity of the stream in various access points.]

REPORT: The water level was not down very much from last week but it was going down and much clearer, just a few fish to find but a nice silver did jump off my hook, from the lower river fish reports it sounds like mid-Kenai/Bings could be in the fish rain or shine this weekend!

PS. Bring 2 rods in case a humpy on steroids breaks your fish stick.

[AOJ: Was down at the riverbank tonight (wed) and the water level is down a bit but at the top of the banks. Clarity is good, lures as well as bait will work. Humpies definitely made it into Soldotna area.]

REPORT: Just a quick post. I've been reading AOJ for a few years now and posted a few times, love the website. Anyway I've been sitting here in Afghanistan since May reading all the posts and daydreaming. Are there any silvers still running in early Nov? I know Delta Clearwater has a late run but I don't remember when it dies down. I desperately need to go fishing. I'll have to make up for it next year!

[AOJ: Depending on how the fall progresses and how long moderate to above freezing temperatures hang around the Anchor River in "warm" years may stay open and relatively ice free even in Novemmber and provide some good steelhead fishing. Just depends on when too much ice to fish forms on the creek. Keep checking on the temps and weather this fall. (A warm chinook can open the creek unexpectedly for a few days of prime fishing.) A crappy summer might mean an extended warm beginning to winter and some unexpected fishing. Kenai River silver season is open thru the end of NOVEMBER and the river is always ice free in the upper and lower sections at that time. Lower river freeze up is usually between Xmas and New Years in a "normal" year. If the weather is moderating there is always rainbows and dollies in the upper Kenai (if no boat) and the outlet of Skilak if you have a boat and launch at the Skilak lower campground. And heck, there is plenty of ice fishing to do. Hit up Lake Louise for 20 pound lakers this winter. Keep your head down if someone yells duck!]

REPORT: Went to Valdez last week to check out the early silvers. We were shorebound, so that pretty much meant hitting the pinks. The boats were heavy into the silvers right off the docks about 300 yds out. We pulled in flounder, Irish Lords, and saw a starfish landed while at the dock. Set the daughters up fly fishing for pinks and they had a blast.

Saturday we were back down at Allison Point and saw a lot of silvers jumping so we gave it another shot and landed a couple of nice 10 lb silvers along with more pinks than we cared to count. The silvers disappeared after 3 hours past high tide.

We left Sunday morning and hit Blueberry Lake for a few rainbows and grayling on a 3 wt. Stopped by the Klutina to pay the reds a visit. The reds were very cooperative, and saw a king launch out of the water. Not a vlot for the freezer, but lots of fun was had by all.

REPORT: Just go back from Centennial Park in Soldotna. TONS of pinks, managed to grab one ever second cast or so.
Gear:
#5 razor hook with orange yarn and a orange bead.
24 inch 50 lb fluorocarbon leader.

Others were using pixies, spin and glows, and whatever else they could use with a hook on it, though the yarn by far out performed others who were using bait and alternate tackle.

The Score:
Hooked into 24 fish total.
2 silvers
22 pinks//landed 10 pinks kept 2 (the rest were snagged).

All in all, a great day, no clouds, blue skies and a moderate mid 60's. Couldn't have asked for a nicer day to go fishing. We ended up getting there around 10 am, left around 3. Most people were having success fishing illegally past the no fishing sign in the boat launch (until a police car rolled up that is). Those around me using yarn lures were having the most success even with no bait.

REPORT: This was my third trip to the Kenai since 1981. We fished from Sunday through Friday. The pinks were in big time at Eagle Rock launch area. Sunday eight of us caught pinks up to 7 pounds until we were literally exhausted. The fresh ones are real tasty. I don't know why they have such a bad rap. My daughter caught the largest trout below Skilak Lake, a 24 incher, as well as a 12# red in full spawning colors. The trout were rather slow, but we all caught several salmon. We caught silvers below Moose River and below Eagle Rock. The best fishing was on Friday, when four of us limited out on silvers using eggs. The fish were fresh from the inlet and were from 8 to 15 pounds. I love Alaska!

REPORT: Caught (1) Silver. Lots of Pinks and Dogs to pass the time. Really a beautiful place to fish. Saw one group down lower at a hole with loads of silvers, stopped by later, the fish and people were gone. Caught the silver on a yellow pixie.

REPORT: Fished Bird Creek about 10am to 1:30pm, no fish caught by anyone during that time. I saw one fish in the entire river. Snapped my pole 5 minutes into it but still a good time being outside.

REPORT: Bunch of us from the base went down and rented two aluminum boats from Fish Central and proceeded to knock the scales off a bunch of silvers. Trolled herring behind a flasher and diver - fish were all over the harbor with more being caught at high tide. Two of our 18 fish limit went approximately 15.5 lbs - nice fish but no derby winner and off course we had tickets for Saturday. Fished Sunday off the rocks at the old Sea Otter RV park and caught a couple in an hour and saw several others caught - one by a 6 year old kid who did it all himself - really cool to watch! Down to the Kenai next -


[AOJ: Dang nice fish!! I just might have to hit that fishery next year.]

REPORT: Went to Quartz on my way to homer, caught few on beads but not like last week. wished I had some flesh to feed but oh well. The salmons are starting to rot and starting to see some maggots form. I think in a couple of days, maggots flies will do well. Anyways, always have fun at quartz.

Bye bye to trouts, hello to steelheads.
Have fun.
Elliot

[AOJ: Drove by Quartz on Sunday and there wasn't a lot of fishing pressure. Maybe 4 or 5 vehicles from the substation bridge downstream to the last turnout. Didn't get out and check for the numbers of spawners but did stop at Tern Lake salmon viewing location and was surprised to see that there were only THREE REDS in the spawning gravel stretch when typically there would be dozens holding and building redds to lay their eggs. ?? Wonder if this part of the run is having the same problem that the Russian late run is having. ]

REPORT: Went to Kenai Lake last weekend, caught a few lil' lake trout. Fished with some crazy dude called the "JEDI." He was a fishin' machine!

Well......went to Rabbit Slough as I have been doing lately every weekend, and there are plenty of fish although the meat quality is rather low. I went downstream about 3/4 of the way down, and the fish look great on the outside but they are turning so in the brine they went. Big fish though and super fun to catch. Today they were actually a little tough to please, and ended up settling for the fresh eggs with BJ Com. herring oil. I just floated it no bobber/weight and let it just roll along.

Also: Two guys in a camo-colored boat left some very nice fish pliers at a certain hole on the Rabbit. I would love to reunite you with them if they are yours. Just post here and let me know if that was you, and I will happily give them back. Found them about 5 mins. after they left so it was too late to get them back this morning.

In general the Rabbit Slough is excellent - (if you take a canoe/boat up or downstream.) I know they catch some at the landing, but if you have the ability to use a boat do so.

REPORT: Fished low tide 10:30am - 2:00pm. Not a fish.

REPORT: Made one last (probably) run at Silvers in the Little Su. Fished a few different holes and finally ran several miles downstream and hooked a couple; the wife on eggs under a bobber and me back-bouncing eggs. Both bright silver. Seems that the fish caught upstream were pretty blushed and those caught down river were brighter. Makes sense I guess, just interesting how fast they turn. Saw a lot of half rotted pinks and chums swimming aimlessly just waiting on somebody to tell them they were dead, I guess. Saw a couple moose crossing too. One looked like a legal forkhorn. They moved into the brush pretty quick tho. End of summer in Alaska...

REPORT: I just found out that I will be in Anchorage from 7:30 PM on 8/26 until noon on the 27th only. Does anyone have any info on my best bet for catching any species on spinning gear with such a limited time frame?

REPORT: Got to the creek about 9am fished until about 3pm. I got two - one on eggs the other flipping, and my brother got two both by flipping. You just had to wait for the one and two's to come through and then sight fish for them. A good pair of polarized glasses helps a lot. While you are waiting for the silvers to push upstream there are plenty of pinks to play with. Most of the fish that were caught were sight fished and flipped for. Good luck for the rest of the weekend.

REPORT: I drove past Ship Creek this afternoon after parking the boat for the year. I saw about 6 or 7 fishermen on the banks, didn't see anyone with fish, didn't look very promising either.

REPORT: I'm going to put a summary of observations here before I head out. Got a surprise yesterday afternoon saying "we don't need you at work for a couple days!" Oh please don't throw me in that briar patch. :-) So, I'm scrambling and running to get ready to get out of Dodge for a day or two and do SOMETHING.

• First let me start by saying I left my moose rifle home Friday morning on purpose. Didn't want to call the boss on 10 mins. notice to replace me because I had a moose down. Well indeed that "jinxed" me. 6:40am and half way to work just before the sun come over the trees along the roadside and two dark shadowy figures are marching out of the treeline and into the 25 yard wide right of way clearing. Hmm, BIG adult and a two year old on the back side. Slow down, they might bolt across the road. Passing by....hmmm just 10 yards from the bar ditch....oh, yep BIG cow, AAARRRRGGGHHHH, those are forked horns on that 2 year old~!~!~! No traffic, just me and a freezer full of meat. I smiled knowing that in 40 years this was the easiest moose I could have ever got. Drive right up to it, load it in the back of the truck and take it home to clean up. My flagger cohort was behind me so yes I do have a witness. She didn't stop to shoot it either! But as I noticed her vehicle was slowing down well past the moose I assume she was calling her boyfriend to get out there pronto. I digress!
• The silver run on the KENAI is showing very good promise for bank anglers this last week (except for me) IF you have the magic eggs. I've witnessed quite a few silvers caught at Centennial and then above the Soldotna bridge by some anglers and others getting skunked. So the fish are there, you must have the right offering and as JTM9 mentioned, EARLIER THE BETTER. I know guides that are landing their first silver in the boat before it even gets light!
• A number of drift boats are floating from TUSTUMENA LAKE slackwater down the KASILOF River to the bridge pullout which means silvers are available all the way to the lake. (Regs are complicated, read the book for fishing above the highway bridge.) Road construction (that's me) on Tustumena Road will mean short delays for traffic in both directions but the farther we go the better the road gets (Mon-Sat). Pavement coming next month to the School Bus turnaround.
• Rainbow Trout in the LOWER KENAI seem to have disappeared EARLY this fall. Typically coho anglers with eggs are catching dollies and rainbows but not in Soldotna much now. Fish must be moving back upstream to the spawning grounds. That might mean below Skilak Lake might "turn on" a bit earlier this fall for great trout fishing.
• ANCHOR RIVER coho are arriving in steady numbers now. Kinda unusual for that run and the counts are a bit above the average run. Steelhead are also moving into Anchor, Deep, Ninilchik rivers and anglers need to make POSITIVE ID's on their chrome bright fish to be sure the No Retention rainbows are released.
• DESHKA River Coho are DEAD...at least up at the weir. Thursday's count dropped to ZERO and no fish are currently passing the counter. Don't know how the lower stretch of river is doing but the indications are its probably very tough fishing. Perhaps fishing near the confluence is better where upper Valley silvers might duck in to clean their gills and rest before moving on.
• The LITTLE SU Coho run is showing a strong count passing above the Parks Highway where the counter (and closed waters) is located. I assume fishing below the highway to the mouth is pretty good especially for boats who can scout more than one location.
• FISH CREEK Coho run is also showing above average numbers of silvers this year and for the locals just down the road this weekend only (Sat/Sun/Mon this year) fishery can provide some fresh silvers close to home.
• Haven't received any word from Jim Creek lately but the last few reports indicated the fish may be thinning out as the catch rates have dropped, but not the crowds. Now that moose season is open that should cut the angler numbers down some.
• BIRD Creek reports are almost non-existent as that fishery didn't "materialize" with coho as it should have and even pinks and chum numbers were below par.
• SHIP Creek?? Almost like it doesn't exist. No one reporting any catches of silvers but I'm sure folks are trying.

REPORT: Was able to sneak up to Sheep Creek yesterday afternoon. Caught my silvers in about an hour. A few chums being caught. I was using a pink vibrax. The folks soaking eggs wasn't doing so hot. The construction delays kind of a pain, was a 20 minute wait headed up, and over 30 minutes going south. But hey, well worth the fishing.

REPORT: Sooo, there aren't too many silvers around, and the water is pretty clear, making the ones that are there very spooky. The real story though....

I've waded across the creek to get away from the crowd and everyone is fishing in harmony and enjoying the sunshine. Then, a family of four arrives on my side of the creek--Pa, Ma, and boy and girl. Pa and boy get out their fly rods and step into the creek, one on either side of me. No problem--people stand beside each other all the time, right? Well, on his second cast, the son tangles his yarn fly with a fisherman on the opposite bank, and this is not surprising because the creek is small. (Mind you, this was his second cast.) He begins cursing a blue streak and telling the fisherman across from him to keep his line to himself. The fisherman defends himself and says that tangles happen from time to time. At this point, Pa jumps in and tells son to be quiet because he is going to handle it. He proceeds to give the poor fisherman another cursing. The worst part, though, was that he told the poor old man across the creek to leave because he wasn't from "here," and apparently Pa was a resident of Deep Creek who had first dibs on the fishing hole. After deciding that he wasn't going to bully anyone away, Pa tells his family that they are leaving, but they stayed around long enough to threaten to throw rocks into the river until we all left.

So my point... if it's within driving distance, it's not your secret fishing hole anymore. Get over it. And a second point... you wouldn't have a job without those tourists, so try to be kinda patient with them for the three months that they're here.

Thanks for all the great info all summer. I read the reports every day.

REPORT: Spent the last 2 hours of daylight fishing the mouth along with a dozen or so other fishermen. Landed one silver / saw another 1/2 dozen or so get landed while there. Lots of Dog(maybe chum) in the water to play with.

REPORT: Late post but thought I'd save people some time. Woke up early and went to Rabbit Slough last Saturday. It was dead. 2 hours of floating and tossing eggs produced not a single bite.

[AOJ: Sounds like you should have slept in and then gone. But as the saying goes "What a difference a day can make in an Alaskan salmon fishery." Don't base fishing on a single day for a month long run. Try again. Try Pautkze's Fire Cure. :)]

REPORT: Few & far between caught one yesterday. Air boat traffic seems to raise hell with fish. No fish tonight. Other anglers disappointed with joy-riding air boats on a small creek.

REPORT: Fairly slow, caught one toward evening....

REPORT: Hey there JTM9 Fish Trooper. Keep those reports coming. Good comments. It's excellent to hear from someone working the various fishing areas.

[AOJ: I agree!]

REPORT:

• The bow season for moose started off with a bang. I think I saw 6 taken on opening morning, all legal. One moose from around the Kasilof area was beautiful with three brow tines.
• Silvers have been OK on the Kenai and Kasilof with some showing up on Deep Creek and the Anchor River.
• Pinks have started showing up in good #s on the Kenai and make excellent table fare if you bleed them immediately, ice them down and eat them fresh. One thing I have seen is the lack of respect for pinks. They don't need to be released with the toe of your boot or shaken 4' above the water until the treble hook rips out. Give a pink a try, you'll like it. I smoke em and can them. They taste great and have the second most omega fats (king is first) for your health.
• Early morning gets the silvers IMHO.
• Please be careful when fishing Deep Creek, Ninilchik, and Anchor Rivers for dime bright steelhead. No retention or removal from water for photos.

REPORT: We will be visiting Alaska, Cooper Landing next week. We think it may be best to have a guided trip for one day to gain some experience with the area. Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.

Good luck to all.

[AOJ: The upper Kenai trout fishing can be tricky/challenging for those who have never fished that kind of water before, i.e. big fast river and a salmon stream with spawning fish, carcasses, loose eggs, etc. If trout is one of your intended targets then it would be advisable to spend a day with a guide and learn as much as you can about the various offerings, (beads, flesh flies, egg patterns, ESLs) and how they are fished and where the fish are hanging out. With so much food in the water you have to be on target with your offering to be successful. If salmon is your target up there by the time you arrive there will be few if any bright reds in the upper Kenai outside of the closed sockeye area. But silvers are beginning to arrive in the upper Kenai and in the Russian and present appropriate salmon targets. The clear waters of the Russian make it easy to identify the fresh silvers from the blushed reds for targeting. After August 20 both lures and flies may be used for silvers in the Russian and Kenai FFO area and the rest of the upper Kenai. Finally there are two sides of the river. So you have access to half the river from the highway side during the times you may want to "free lance it" and fish on your own. In these fisheries you can't fish them out so there are plenty of good riffles and runs you can access from pullout parking spots along the road. Good Luck.]

REPORT: First off, KK, thanks for the site, a really thoughtful, helpful, forum that gives the real story. Just got back to Colorado after spending the end of July and first part of August at our cabin on the lower Kenai, so this is the first chance to get to a computer. We did pretty well on the reds, OK on silvers, and after having the past two years being great for us on kings, the law of averages caught up with us this year. So towards the end of July we opted for a trip for 'butts out of Homer on a charter. Well, the trip turned out to be a lot better than we had ever imagined. The six of us, friends and family from Colorado and Ohio, didn't bother to try and finish our limit as we had more than enough fillets for everyone after 1 and a half hours of fishing. We boated 'butts of 35, 50, 85, 90, 105, 140, 160 and 180 pounds (plus my two little black sea bass)(picture being sent separately). Capt. David and his crew were fantastic, they know their stuff.


All in all, we made the airlines a little more profitable with the coolers of fish we were able to bring home. Time now to only be able to read the reports on this site, and patiently wait for next spring. Keep up the great work !!

[AOJ: I guess you'll have to bring a smart phone up next year so you can post reports right from the boat! :)]

REPORT: Just has to get out this evening and soak some of my Fire Cure eggs to "test the waters" as they say. Opted for Holly House B&B location as there are always lots of folks straight across the river to keep an eye on if some fish move through. I was joined by grandpag complete with his own special cure and rigging. To keep this short (1am now and still not in bed) I caught a sculpin, grandpag had a couple strikes/misses. NOW across the river it was a whole different story. There were about 20 anglers fishing from Centennial boat ramp down to the end of the parking lot. 3/4 of them plunking eggs, the others pitching hardware up around the ramp. Saw one silver taken on a lure. Then half way down the line a guy and his wife and four little kids (all under 12) had their six rod holders pounded into the gravel and were soaking eggs. For the next two hours their rods were hit every 10 minutes, dragging in silver after silver until the guy's stringer tied to the fish cleaning table leg was too heavy to lift anymore. Yet no one, no one, up or down the line, fishing the same distance out, plunking eggs in a rod holder, could pick up even one fish until 9pm when I saw one nice fish landed by a guy when I packed it in. And before I got out of sight of the river one of the kids was dragging another up the bank.

For those who have fished this parking lot location you are all aware of the shallow gradual slope of the river bottom along the entire area. Yet these folks couldn't keep fish off their hooks. Was it the cure? I'M POSITIVE! Too bad I was on the wrong side of the river to see if he would divulge his secret recipe! Well, there was one thing apparent....the silvers tonight were running on MY SIDE of the river (My side being AOJ headquarters location). Wednesday I'll give my own hole a shot in fairness. Good Luck. Oh BTW, Sunday and Monday both had 12K and 13K counts of fresh Sockeyes running through Soldotna. A late little surge that made the sockeye fishability factor come back in reach for a couple days.

REPORT: Left Anchortown at 5 am hit the water by 7 for some derby action.Trolled Caines Head and hit good fishing,very on and off but boated 5. No derby winners biggest fish was 13lbs. Fish are there,but more shallow than expected.Started 50 feet down didn't start bonkin' fish till we were up to 20 feet down. Cut plug herring behind silver flashers was the most productive. Tight lines all.

REPORT: Well the kids head back to school tomorrow and my buddy Randy was really wanting to get his young 'uns on some silvers, as they had never caught silvers before, so we packed up the wheelers, and headed out to Jim Creek before first light this morning. We were met with howling winds and rain-heavy clouds but mostly had the place to ourselves, which raised doubts about how the morning bite would be.

After a couple hours of flogging the water in wind and rain, with just a couple foul hookups to show for it, the wind died down and the 2 guys below us started hooking up on eggs, so out came the bobbers and it was game on! Bryce was the first to score, landing a chunky hen all on his own, then Allie girl followed with a nice hen that was the bookend to her brother's fish. After each of them caught and released a blush fish apiece, they finished up their limits and just like that, the bite went cold.

Can't tell you how impressed I am with my young friends and I know their papa was as proud as he could be. Even the folks on the bank were rooting them on and enjoying the morning. Tomorrow it's back to school, but for one fantastic window of opportunity this morning, school was the furthest thing from their minds, and I was glad they let me be a part of it.
Tight lines everyone!

REPORT: I don't understand everyones' big excitement about curing eggs. Whatever happened to just plain eggs with a little sun to cure them? I tend to catch fish when others aren't. I'm told cured eggs stay on the hook better but I don't seem to have trouble with fresh eggs that have dried out for 20-30 minutes. Everyone I fish with is usually amazed with my egg strategy and how well it works. The only time I cure eggs is when I plan to freeze them. Any comments on this?

Anyways, onto the report... Hit up the Little Susitna. Silvers are starting to move in the upper portion of the stream. Landed 2 nice silvers and lost 1 to a sweeper. Another week should provide better results.

REPORT:

REPORT: Good Afternoon.....Had a good morning on the campground side of Willow Cr.

REPORT: Fished Centennial for about 3 hours. Caught a few pinks and one 12lb silver on a vibrax. Left there and headed to Seward. Fished with a charter on the 14th and 8 of us limited on halibut and lingcod. 1st class operation.

REPORT: Had to head to Anchorage for a Red Eye Airport pick up after work and decided to fish my way up Quartz on the way. Raining everywhere with the exception of Cooper Landing. Always Super in Cooper. Trout fishing was good on a small egg patterns resembling a 6mm range egg. After changing colors a couple time, found a washed out orange was the ticket. (Have fun with the kids JC)

REPORT: Has anyone heard of silvers showing up around Whittier yet?

[AOJ: From this week's PWS ADFG Fishing Report I haven't posted yet.....Culross, Perry and Lone Islands have all been producing catches of coho which means fish are headed towards Whittier. Good reports from Eshamy Bay as well. SO....probably nothing around the harbor YET.]

REPORT: Fished Montana yesterday and caught 14 chums, 1 pink, and three silvers. First time ever fished there but pretty impressed. Caught everything on blue vibrax.

REPORT: Took my mom out for one last hurrah, trying to get her into some silvers. Showed up at the creek about 2:30 and casted spinners like everyone else was doing. After an hour of nothingness, tossing every color and brand at them, and no one else catching anything either, I decided to bring out the big gun...the Pautzke's Fire Cure eggs. My mom had gone over with my wife to play with the kids out of the way of the other fishermen and I could tell my window was closing and they were going to want to leave shortly. 30 seconds after I casted out my egg rig I had a decent strike, set the hook and FISH ON! Clubbed it, and ran over to where the wife, kids and grandma were and told them to get over here and get their egg rigs on!

I don't know if my eggs set off a feeding frenzy or if a big school had just moved into the creek, but from 3:45 until about 5pm we caught 5 silvers, couple of big 8-10 lb. bucks and 3 more in the 5-7 lb. range. Everyone started catching, spinner guys too! Still had to work on them from time to time as the schools would leave the area and come back minutes later, but this was the best fishing I had seen all summer (other than dip netting fish creek opening morning, but hey, that's not really fishing haha). Could have had my wife a limit too, but grandma had a plane to catch so we headed out about 5 and people were still catching.

So for my wife and mother they both landed their first salmon ever on Saturday at Sheep Creek Slough (pinks) and first silvers Monday at Sunshine Creek. It's great watching newbies catch their first big fish!

[AOJ: Well....I'm breaking out my Fire Cure eggs right after getting all these fishing reports posted and head over to Holly House B&B to soak this cure for the first time. Kenai is starting to cloud up some...not bad if you are soaking eggs with a scent line to follow but its dirty enough to make lure fishing a little more difficult. I need to kick back for a couple hours and watch the river flow by if nothing else. (I almost never fish AOJ headquarters for salmon....just trout. George has a nice comfortable dock, electric tram, cleaning table, chairs and a nice view of all the folks over at Centennial campground boat launch parking lot fishing so its easy to see if the bite is ON!]

REPORT: Closed to reds but still good for trout. Weather was Awesome... no rain!!!(but the sun was skill hiding) caught four good ones(12 inch plus) and few little ones. I was hitting them using faded pink globug and nymphs with copper beadhead. Saw another guy hookin using a purple leech. Majority of people was using beads. (I don't think they open till end of this week, I could be wrong)

Good time to fish with freedom, no one is going out there and you could have the whole section of the river to yourself.

Note: Take a small trout net out there. It makes it easier to take out hooks, get good pictures and puts less stress on the fish. I saw guy holding a beautiful bow but squeezing the life out of it. I'm pretty sure that the fish died.

Tight lines, Elliotj

[AOJ: Beads are legal on the Russian and Kenai FFO right now IF the bead is tied to the shank of the hook or threaded ON the hook shank and secured. That constitutes a legal egg fly just as your glowbug. A bead pegged on the leader is not legal until after August 20th.]

REPORT: Went around 5am to Jim Creek and had my limit by 7:30am. 6 and 9 lb silvers. Caught on a pink vibrax. It was windy and cloudy. Water was down a bit and clear til the silty water line. People said it was slow. Some were snagging a lot! Looked like they were fishing for reds on the Russian River. Wish the water could be patrolled more. These guys need to get tickets and to get out of there. Let's all keep it clean out there. Pack out your trash!

REPORT: Spent Thursday night thru Saturday afternoon with my son Jason at our cabin near Talkeetna…couldn’t ask for a better trip as silver limits were to be had and grouse were cooperating…almost had a hat trick, but Mr. black bear was too quick for us!

REPORT: Spent Sunday afternoon with the kids on Quartz (below bridge near campground). Used egg patterns and and flesh flys with a 5wt and 6lb leader. Daughter only caught one DV but only because she and my boy could not get through the reds. Tried our best to stay out of the center channel but they hit it about every time we put a line out. Any advice on getting to the DV? I heard they are real sensitive to egg patterns and maybe we had the wrong pattern. We were using red and orange both on a 8 hook. Headed back this weekend to try and find a spot at campground and fish Saturday.

[AOJ: Indeed the Quartz dollies are so "spoiled" by the blizzard of eggs washing down the stream that they can get in a "rut" and feed exclusively on only eggs of a particular color and size, ignoring everything else. On this creek matching the hatch (exact color/size) of the eggs drifting downstream can improve your success. But some years the reds are so thick you can walk across the creek without getting your feet wet and in the peak of the spawn the water is white with milt. Brad Hanson (AFO's editor/contributor/fly tier) has a number of egg patterns listed on the site. His Claymore eggs are among his favorites. But he has many patterns and methods of "tying" you should check out. AFO's Egg & Flesh Flies Patterns]

REPORT: Not a fish report, just FYI for you honest folks, start or continue to lock those car doors. I believe it happened Sat. or Sunday night, a young Airman that works for me had his pistol(460) stolen from the front seat of his truck while he stood not a few feet away fishing. It is reported stolen, hope your hunting season turns out to be a good one.

REPORT: Took the red eye flight / drive up to Sunshine this morning. We got there about 30 minutes before sunrise. Both the wife and I limited out, but sadly my 7 year old only caught one very tiny salmon fry. I felt bad for her she did try too darn hard again.

Anyways fishing was really hot for the first hour. I actually got my limit faster then the time it took to get my darn waders on. The super duper cure with wings worked well again. Lot and LOTS of silvers schooling around. Orange spinners seemed to work well too. Once the people started piling in fishing tapered off pretty quickly. I saw a few other get their limit while I was waiting for my wife to get hers. All in all most people did not get one on or get limits. Looks like the balls of fire with krill strikes again.

Very nice trip except for the construction traffic on the way back. Also a little handy tip - They closed access to Sunshine Creek mouth to all motor vehicles. So prepair yourself for the long walk back up the dreaded hill of doom! =)

Tight lines!!

REPORT: Put the boat in the water at 0700, but the fog was crazy thick, probably only 100 yards visibility at best. We sat around just outside the harbor with a half dozen other boats for about an hour and a half. Once we had what looked like about a half mile visibility, we started working our way out. Very slow ride. North of Pigot Bay, the fog cleared and it was beautiful bright sunny skies. Hadn't seen that in so long we had to stop and take pictures!! Trolled around with a small group of boats, but only caught a few very blushed pinks. Didn't see anyone boat a silver. After a couple hours, we put the trolling gear away and fished for rockfish for a while. Our original plan had been to head to the south end of Culross, but after the rather stressful ride to Point Pigot, complete with countless remarks of "OMG stop! I think I see rocks (or a buoy, or a log, or a boat etc)...nope it's nothing", the guys were content to stay where we were.

In the end, we all got some sun on our faces, we got a few fish to stretch out our lines, and we got home. Can you honestly ask for more than that?

[AOJ: Ah I was in one of those "tense" moments once on a duck hunting trip to upper Kachemak Bay many years ago. Those "ghosts" out there were really dungeness crab pot buoys....which I finally confirmed when the boat was no longer moving forward after snagging a buoy rope across the lower unit. I shut down, raised the motor to clear the line and the fog lifted. I was in a patch of at least 100 buoys....as far as the eye could see in every direction. Don't know how I made it into the middle of them at slack tide without running into the ones on the fringe. NOW DAYS the regulations state that shrimp and crab pot buoy ROPES cannot float on the surface at slack tide and must remain submerged to prevent such boating hazards.]

REPORT: I made a fool hearted overnight trip to Valdez on the 14th hoping that the silvers would be available from Allison point and had a blast pulling in the pinks and chum. No silvers were available as of yet but I caught the pinks until my shoulder was sore from reeling them in! I only kept one (making sure there are plenty for the rest of us) for my dinner and headed up the road early the following morning. I stopped in Copper Center for some coffee and was told that the fish wheels are clogged with fish and that the reds were heavy in the Klutina but the campsites were empty. Soooo.... I had to take a short break on my way home to pick up one. In just about one hour I landed one and foul hooked and released two more using a "yarn fly". I should have stated that I am new to sockeye fishing and Alaska as well having only moved up here in mid May so a more experienced angler would probably have limited out.

REPORT: Snuck out to Rabbit Slough this morning to check it out. Never been there before and wanted to take a look.

There were a few fish around. It was a mix of spawned out reds, Strippy Chums and a few blushed silvers thrown in for good luck. Individual fish or small schools of 4 or 5 were wandering back and forth. None of them were in a biting kind of mood.

They ignored or ran away from pretty much any kind of lure, fly or eggs thrown at them.

The canoes wandering up and down the creek did pick up a few, and one bank fisher's eggs were better than mine and he picked up two by sight targeting and boping fish on the nose with the eggs. (no MY eggs were not Pautzke cured eggs, just an older attempt at curing eggs that is now officially junked as crap although the hordes of minnows in the creek thought they were delicious!)

REPORT: Went to Homer for my annual halibut charter only to be rebuffed by the weather. Oh well, maybe next year. On the way down we flipped for Reds in Soldotna. In the thirty minutes we were there I turned one and saw no others. On Sunday we hit the Anchor fro the morning high tide. Fished in the upper tidal zone and saw about a six or so be caught with several others moving through. Eggs and flesh flies seemed to be the hot item. I wasn't prepared with either but now I know!!

Fish On!!

[AOJ: As you can see on the chart for the Anchor Coho Thursday was a hot day and FRIDAY was the big slug I expected. Saturday and Sunday were dramatically lower counts. Oh well, these slugs slide ±2 days from the long term average which over time is slowly expanding the chart bump as more years' data is added. NEXT Year I'll probably be down there waiting on 'em.]

REPORT: A few fish in the creek but still a bit early. Actually more in there than this time last year. Had to work hard to get one but it was chrome and had a bonus of free tackle stuck in the belly, back, and mouth. He looked like a tackle box.

SATURDAY was definitely the day to be fishing Fish Creek for silvers. 533 silvers were counted compared to 21 on Sunday~!

REPORT: Hit the Little Su early. Not too many boats relative to the last few weekends, till around noon anyway. Then it was like they were giving away fish in the lower end and every boat in the valley and beyond showed up. But I digress... We started hooking early on upstream but the 2 out of three were pretty red. Then we moved downstream and fished hard, bobbers w/eggs, backbouncing eggs, kwik fish, we did it all. Hooked and lost several. Ended up taking three fish home between the two of us, including two nice females with some really nice eggs for next week.

Sure hope they keep coming. The chart says it's not supposed to peak till the end of the month. Sure hope that holds true, but looks a little iffy.

REPORT: Ok here is the deal. Did not get down to the Anchor for the whole weekend as predicted. Was planning on spending the weekend down on the river at a friends but only got a chance to hit the Sat. evening tide which was far from stellar (at least for us). Lots of people fishing, folks standing in the middle of the holes we like to hit (literally standing mid river "in the holes"). So we moved up river and made do. We managed to land a few dollies and a nice silver that made great BBQ fare(thanks DB). We landed the only silver that we saw all night....but who knows if they hit them lower on the river where we vacated. 10 mm cheese bead w/ tiemco hook below was the ticket but may have lined it in the mouth?? Not the action I was expecting....can't wait to see the charts to see if we just struck out or if there were few silvers coming in on that tide???

Staying at the Quartz Creek Campground next weekend with my ladies (wife and 3 daughters) to play with all the dollies that are following those spawning reds up the creek. Have fished this spot three times already this August and done well. Hope to get the girls on some catch-n-release dollie action & hope the weather turns from crap to nice!

Take care all & enjoy the fall fishery that Southcentral presents...great fun!! By the way...saw a V formation flock of geese fly by my office window on Friday...seems way too early.

[AOJ: Yes it will be interesting to see what the chart numbers are for the Fri/Sun period. F&G were providing weekend counts I thought back during the king count but maybe I was mistaken. Monday will tell. I won't be off til 3pm to get back and update everything. I almost headed down there myself but opted for grouse instead. Saw a family of 5 sandhills training their young-of-the-year on how to ride the thermals to altitude then they dropped back down to the swamp. Seems a bit early for their training sessions too. Usually beginning of September for that.]

REPORT: A few humpies showing up at mid-Kenai River but not much else, the water level was going down by the Russian River with growing schools of red-reds showing up at last, but mid-Kenai seemed to be as high as last week or even a little higher but what do you expect with a record breaking 28 days of rain (hey I just realized RAIN is a 4 letter word).

[AOJ: Make that 30 days straight. It rained yesterday and today. And the only time RAIN isn't a 4 letter word in my dictionary is during waterfowl season~!]

REPORT: Got to the fishing hole around 6 am, got to the spot at 8:00 after waiting my turn. Caught a nice bright Red right away, then a Silver, caught and release several Big pink salmon, around 10:30 caught and release a 20 pound King, dang I thought never caught all 5 in one day in one spot. Now I have never caught a chum at Bings before, ever, but it hit around 11:00 am, complete all 5 in one spot in one day. ended up with 6 Reds and 2 silvers, Yes I have a proxy. Day I will never forget.

REPORT: Me and my dad, sister, and my best friend got there around 11:30. Left around 6, but we all caught our limit plus some because we caught and released til we found the chrome ones we wanted. Everyone around us would catch every now and then but not as good as us, because there's a secret no one would do. Almost all of our fish would follow the hook all the way in til about 2 ft from shore then gulp it in, so when you're finishing your cast just drag your pole to the side to give the fish some more room and time to strike. I mean almost every fish did that. Like one time I was just fooling around testing to see if my vibrax spun right by just sticking my pole in the water only like 2 feet then dragged to the right and bam FISH ON! We caught every fish on vibrax except for one which my sister caught on roe.

PS just from our experience yesterday if you didn't have a fish on within your first 7 casts with a hook, you need to swap. Also right as soon as you get one on swap colors. No joke they wouldn't bite the same one twice until you got one on a different color. The pattern was pink, yellow, pink, yellow and so on.

Extra PS You must bring polarized glasses to see the strikes, and followers so you can prepare or slow down for it to catch up. Because all day long there were schools of nothing but silvers in front of us, which no one else could see because they weren't wearing their glasses. Good Luck.

REPORT: The family went out to Jim's last night all I can say is slow... we were ou there for about four hours and saw about seven fish pulled in, only two legal. The only good thing is one of those legal fish was my dad's!

REPORT: Got to the campground at about 1pm with some guests from New York. We crossed over the slough to the point there and dragged eggs. I got a tagged Silver on my fourth cast. Nice little 9 pounder. Then just concentrated on our guests catching. They were hooking up but just could not land due to the log salmon stuck on the river bed. They really enjoyed themselves though. Beautiful day. Eggs were the ticket for silvers and chum. Pink vibrax were catching alot of pinks. Gonna try again in a day or two.

REPORT: Fun but stressful fishing trip, especially for a beginner like me. Learned a lot. I didn't catch anything but birthday boy caught about 8, all pinks, half were snagged, and only 2 he actually landed. Man Humpy's are ugly! Did not catch any in the Little Su or Eklutna. Also showed up at Campbell Creek at 10pm Thurs. night and did not catch anything but it was fun. It seems like the same people catch fish one after another, and the rest don't. Right on the banks of the Sue, there was bear poop everywhere which was neat to see. Also learned how to read the regs, it took me studying it about 5 times like you said. I couldn't figure out this one question and asked a Fish and Game trooper at the gas station and he was stumped, too! They need to make a checklist of some sort to make it easier for those of us like me who don't have PhD's in the subject. Overall, fun times!

[AOJ: Well its still early in the Late Summer/Early Fall fisheries so don't give up. When you look at the coho run charts in AOJ you will see a lot of streams don't hit their prime until later in August and early September.]

REPORT: Spent Friday night and Saturday morning at Sunshine Creek. My buddy and I floated eggs and soaked them on the bottom but nothing. The next morning we went out and did the same until some folks started catching on pink and orange spinners. We switched and I caught my two and my buddy caught one of his before we decided to head out. It rained Friday night, but Saturday morning it opened up for a bit and this big bright thing showed up behind the clouds. Hadn't seen the sun in quite a while. The bank wasn't crowded at all and for the first hour and half there was only one other guy out there. The silvers are definitely there, but they are very stubborn. All in all we fished 6 hours and caught three fish. It was quite relaxing after a long week.

REPORT: Very slow today, only saw some mostly spawned out reds and a very small silver taken. Fished 0430 to 0800. Vibrax, Drifting eggs. Slowest I have seen it this year. Fished the Little Su from the bank, managed to hook into (snag) 2 spawned pinks at once. Drifting eggs. Also tried spinners and yarn with corkie. Otherwise did not see any silvers taken except those with boats. Sign at the ranger station had 260 taken yesterday, 27 today.

REPORT: Saw and landed a few pinks but horsed mostly chums ashore. The chums were congregating in pools downstream from the bridge. Lots of fun for kids and I enjoyed myself too! Silvers? Not unless you believe in ghost stories!

REPORT: In reply to Bobtrout, I have searched for walk-in access to the cut banks just above the private property line downstream of Skilak ever since my 2 cycle became illegal in July. I believe the trail head is almost as you described.. "South on Feuding Lane 2 miles, left on Kenai Keys Rd. 1.5 mile, continue left 1.2 mile to end of the road. Parking. Trails lead .2 mile to river."

But about 200 yards before the road into Dot's Fish Camp is a sharp 90 right turn and a trail that looks to be the one to reach the river. It has been created by ATV's and is muddy. My GPS said I was going in the right direction, but I didn't have time to confirm that by walking in. I would like to hear if this is the correct trail and the time needed to reach the river. Good luck, let me know.

REPORT:

REPORT: Well that was a bust. But the boys had fun playing in the mud.

Last minute switch to Cottonwood from Fish as we were running a little late and had to be back earlier than I planned. The morning tide was pretty much a bust. I DID find the fish... but was disappointed by the low numbers. On the incoming tide they filtered through by ones and twos every 5 to 10 minutes or so for about an hour then it just stopped. Hit several right on the nose with eggs but no takers (No the eggs weren't pautzke they were an older cure I tried before Yo0gee let slip the secret) but they should have been better than that.

Saw 3 fish on stringers for the morning... one caught way down as the mouth and 2 from an angler walking back from near the marker. My guess from the tackle I saw that they were caught flipping.

It would be interesting to see the count from Fish Creek for today... unless the evening tide is a whopper I bet it's under 50.

REPORT: OMG was it windy this morning. Not too many people today.... I wonder why LOL. Anyways, only one fish for me today but Kevin got his two. We were both floating eggs. My bro-in-law and other buddy were hooking into fish but both skunked out. Bigkid and his buddy met up with us there as well and they both got their limit with bugs. Goodluck all!

REPORT: I've been out of town a while...dreaming of catching my coho limit like y0gee and the guys. My question is, are you all fishing in the old spot near the table or along the bank to the left and towards Mat-Peak? Thanks for keeping up your reports it helps this Tlingit not miss home as much; however, I can't wait to get home and fish!!

REPORT: Qustion on access. Anyone know if you can hike from Kenai Keys Rd. to the vicinity of Torpedo Hole? In Gunnar Peterson's 2005 Kenai River book it says "South on Feuding Lane 2 miles, left on Kenai Keys Rd. 1.5 mile, continue left 1.2 mile to end of the road. Parking. Trails lead .2 mile to river." Is this access information still correct?

Any info is much obliged. Going next week and want to try for some pinks/silvers.

[AOJ: I've got one Kenai River map that shows Kenai Keys Rd. going all the way to Torpedo Lake but if you GOOGLE EARTH Torpedo Lake you'll see that in the Aug.2004 sat imagery there is nothing but a 4 wheeler trail through the trees and swamp barely visible. If you go to Google MAPS and do the same search there is a faint subdivision indicated with the extension of Kenai Keys Rd. bordering those river lots. If there is a road it had to have been built after 2004. I haven't been out there for years and only access that area by boat.]

REPORT: Not many silvers coming up Ship that I saw, but managed to put a blushed buck and two chromers on the rope in a few hours on the evening incoming tide. Flipped some yarn when I could see one hiding next to a rock and lost a few others. Not too many pinks either? I saw maybe 15 silvers go by in 2 hours, less than I expected but good first silver trip to Ship for me. Went back last night and the rain made it so murky that it was a waste of time :( I gotta find the great y0gee and beg for his egg secrets soon too. Thanks for all the great reports and info on your site all!

REPORT: Decided to try something close to home that I never fish and hit the Swanson River last night. Glad I did as I walked out with two nice silvers in no time! Going to the Anchor river for the weekend and hope to hit it on one of those crazy days when hundreds rush in. Love silvers on the fly!!

REPORT: We have a group of military guys on our last weekend here. We have a halibut charter booked from Valdez on Sunday but we want to fish Saturday the 14th near there. We were planning for Allison Point but I saw the report earlier that the silvers aren't there yet. Does that mean we wont catch any salmon? (we don't really care about the type as long as they are good eating). Should we go somewhere else? Thanks in advance for any advice!

[AOJ: Its still early for silvers at Allison Point but there might be a few cruising around by now. Expect mostly pink salmon there at this time and I'm sure you can find some chrome bright fish in the mix. Saltwater pinks are good eating. And in fact more pinks are commercially caught in Alaska than any other salmon for the markets.]

REPORT: I went to the viewing damn and to my disgust there were three guys fishing by the pipe up at the wire and I watched them cast up under the wire and snagged some cohos. When I saw that they kept one they had snagged in the back I told them they were lucky I didn't have my iPhone on me so I could get there picture and report them. They soon decided to leave.

Its people like that that screw things up for the future returns and make it harder for the rest of us to enjoy fishing when we are busy babysitting other anglers. So maybe next time I'll get Fish and Game down there and see if they can help these guys learn the rules for next time.

[AOJ: Many people don't realize how IMPORTANT those Ship Creek kings and coho are that make it through the gauntlet of anglers to the safety of the closed waters. Snagging and poaching salmon from those closed waters is not the same as snaking out a few from Montana, the Russian or the Kenai. SHIP CREEK kings and silvers that make it upstream are part of the hatchery egg take program that provides the "seed eggs" for restocking the creek's two salmon runs and provides additional fish for stocking in other streams and landlocked lakes. Taking fish that would become part of the Egg Take removes hundreds or thousands of future fish from Ship and other fisheries. Many times, sometimes year after year the F&G department has come up short of the number of kings in Ship Creek needed for getting enough eggs to meet the hatchery program's needs and has shut down the sport fisheries completely. That's another reason why the creek closes at night during king season to try and reduce the impact of snaggers on the supply of fish needed for the future. So it is imperative illegal activities in your Home Sweet Home Waters is reported to Fish & Wildlife Protection officers. Those snaggers are costing you future fish.]

REPORT: Friday the 13th? I guess so.... or at least the the morning started out bad. Anyways, the egg bite was slower this morning compared to the last couple of days. I still managed to land my bag/proxy limit but it took a few hours though. Goodluck all!

[AOJ: When is that creek gonna run outta fish?]

REPORT: Got out on Jim about 0230 this morning with only two other guys to keep me company. Fish moving through when I got there so got the drift going and bam!! Third drift and I'm on a silver. It was early and he was pretty average so I set him free and continued fishing. Ten minutes later number two caught and released followed by two more in the next half hour and a suicide dolly.

The sun started coming up, the crowd followed and the bite went cold. After flogging aimlessly for a couple hours I turned to the oh-so-wise and honorable y0gee who schooled me in the ways of floating eggs. 30 minutes and two fat, bright pigs later I was paying my respects to the mighty y0gester! You are the man! Thanks for the eggs and advice, oh wise one.

To the crotchety old farts out there who can't seem to find anything to do better than bitch and moan. You know as well as I do that the fish at Jim Creek want to run in the clear, shallow water close to shore but not everyone knows that, especially those that are new to the area and perhaps even new to our state. I appreciate you trying to give advice and telling these folks to move back but once you've said it once or twice, just let it go. It gets really old listening to the same people do nothing but grouse about everyone else out there. They're fisherman, same as you, and just because they don't do it your way, doesn't make them wrong. I understand it moves the fish out further but please, give it a rest.

[AOJ:Ha, the mighty y0gester! As a matter of fact, on the way home from work this evening I was thinking...."got to send a note to the y0gee master and ask what an affordable yet durable fly reel would be for this Lamiglas 10wt I bought the other day." hahahaha Maybe I need to "make him a corner on AOJ"for Q&A's to get us all up to speed on everything fishing. He seems to have things dialed as well as a few other "regular reporters" out there. I USED TO BE that successful in my younger days!]

REPORT: Just back from the mouth of Willow. Very few fisherman fishing, for a good reason no fish! Very slow. Last year at this time people were catching all kinds of different species of salmon. This year is a different story. A couple of weeks ago the action was a lot better. My advice spend your time elsewhere.

[AOJ: Wow, that's starting to become the THEME for a number of fishing reports/streams lately. Even the Deshka counts have crashed although that river can see thousands show up in a single day...but still. I haven't hit the Kenai yet for silvers....was planning to go ptarmigan hunting at 2500 feet with AKJake this weekend (days off for a change) but I think its probably snowing up there!~~!~! I noticed that the snow on the Kenai Mountains hasn't melted off yet this summer. And to top that off...I JUST GOTTA MENTION THIS....just in my neighborhood walking the dog I have seen AT LEAST 30 different types of mushrooms in the past two or three weeks, some the size of dinner plates even. Never seen half of these species before and I've been here 41 seasons now. Heard two guys talking at the liquor store while I was standing in line....one said...."been 28 days straight" and the other nodded agreement. I think they were talking about the last time the Soldotna area had ONE FULL DAY OF SUN!~! OK, now where did is set that beer? I might have to go bag a few fresh Kenai pinks for the freezer and Jake's special dinner mix if things dry out on Saturday. Might soak some eggs at Holly House for silvers. EARLY FISHING this morning was back at the lodge next door at 10am with 4 anglers limited on SILVERS and one in the box was pushing the 13 pound mark...looked like that one Tina C. was showing off in a report below. And they lost a couple bigger than that one!]

REPORT: Took the kids to the tailrace for a couple hours this afternoon. Very slow fishing. I haven't fished here in over a decade, so I was quite surprised to see the access and parking area that there is now.

Kids' patience limited out after an hour. I tried for another hour to no avail. Drifted and floated eggs as well as flinging a vibrax. No love. Every five minutes or so there would be a fish rolling, always no more than ten feet off the bank. A lady told me she spotted the bear with cubs on our side of the slough, so I figured we may as well move on. As we were loading up the truck a gent walked past with a silver in hand. It was the only fish I saw landed. Only saw one person with a fish on, and he lost it after about 30 seconds. He was using an orange pixie.

REPORT: After this crummy summer of fishing I'm hoping this weekend will be productive on the Anchor River. Is there any hope????

[AOJ: Based on the chart and this apparently normal timing run I'd say Sat/Sun/Mon may be the "day" when the slug hits the river for a day. If you are there with the right timing you won't be fishing long before limited. Fish low down in the tidal zone and first holes.]

REPORT: Made the early morning trip to Eklutna today. Fishing was pretty slow... people are catching fish, but a lot more are not catching fish. I was fishing roe on the bottom (my least favorite way to fish) and missed two.

There are a lot of fish flopping around in the tailrace itself, but the majority are reds... and the silvers that are making noise have seen it all, and aren't biting.

From the "cute kid seen fishing" department, there was a young boy, probably not more than seven or eight years old, and he was doing a very elaborate windup as he pitched a vibrax... but I noticed that he was landing it just-so, and retrieving it properly... he fished for a while, but didn't get any bites... so he walked back to the family car, got some hip boots, and waded out to the point with the old codgers... shoulder-to-hip... and wouldn't you know it, he landed a nice silver. I was rooting for him, and the old folks helped him out. Way to go kid, and way to go, guys at the point.

A black bear wandered down to the Knik, stepped into the water, grabbed a fresh fish, and walked back into the woods. He wasn't looking for carcasses and he wasn't in the garbage... just fishing, like the rest of us. I saw one do the exact same thing last weekend... I presume it was the same bear... but on the weekend, someone decided that discharging a gun into the water might be a good deterrent. I think it is a decidedly bad idea, especially with a couple hundred people around. So far, this bear seems like a good candidate for share-and-share-alike. Leave him alone, and let him get his fish, and he'll go off into the woods.

Addendum: about the kid... after he got the fish on the stringer, he got back out there, and started telling the men next to him that his fish weighed fifteen pounds. Now THERE's a fisherman!

REPORT: Lots of fish rolling as mentioned by other reports and few being caught.

Was there from 6:30-9:00 or so this morning and saw 2 silvers/one pink come out of the water near the confluence. Heard hooting for one other fish, but for the number of people there, not a good production rate.

I'm new, but some of the lack of catches looks like technique as some others mentioned... I may not be from around here but a plain silver vibrax doesn't seem like its going to be visible at all in that silt.

I was fishing with a slip bobber setup, two split shot, and eggs with a bead at the hook for the bulk of the time. Tried all sorts of depths from 2' to probably 6'... If anyone's got any ideas or one of the "limited in 30 min at the tailrace" people wants to show me what I'm doing wrong, I'd be glad to learn.

Might give Sierra Dragon's setup mentioned below a try, but I think I'm going to try and stick to more of the sight fish areas where I've had limited success at least...

[AOJ: You might try curing up some eggs with Pautzke's Fire Cure. Seems to be a fairly productive cure this year for silvers.]

REPORT: Went to Hope with the Kids after driving past Bird and seeing zero action. Run at Hope is essentially over, peaked about a week or so ago. Kids caught and snagged a couple old pinks and still had fun. Got a nice bright Silver that spit the hook when it got up near the bank. Still kicking myself over that one- haven't ever seen a silver that big at Resurrection. Hope is one of the most beautiful spots to fish in my opinion with the inlet and mountains surrounding you on all sides. Fishing with kids is about spending time together and as I tell them, catching fish is a bonus, don't let not catching fish ruin the experience.

REPORT: I don't fish the Deshka very often but should there be pike in this drainage? Sounds like badddd news for salmon runs if you ask me.

[AOJ: Pike have been present in the entire Big Su drainage, including all tributaries such as Alexander Creek, Deshka and Yentna rivers for many decades now. Its the reason Alexander has no other species in the lake and hardly any kings returning to the stream. ADFG nets Alexander Creek each spring...I think this year they scooped up 1500 pike from the creek if my memory serves me correctly. All the side sloughs, backwaters, and frog waters within the Yentna and Deshka drainages are the hang out for a great number of pike but few anglers target them. I would imagine there are a number of 20 pound plus fish lurking about without a care in the world. And they do feed voraciously in the spring on the outmigrating smolt and emerging fry as well as have an unlimited spring food supply of hooligan that they gorge on to fatten up for summer.]

REPORT: Anyone heard if the silvers are in at Allison Point yet? Flying into Anchorage tomorrow and was going to be heading out that way. Thanks for any info!

[AOJ: The latest ADFG Fishing Report for PWS and Valdez doesn't mention any silvers at Allison yet. Culross, the Arm and Naked islands have been the boat area producers right now. However they do mention that Eyak River and Ibeck Creek have been consistent producers of silvers and it appears the coho season in Valdez is stacking up to be a good year.]

REPORT: Fished this morning, caught two silvers, a king and a pike on a vibrax. He was almost 2 1/2 feet long.

REPORT: Took my daughter to the Little Su boat launch. I did not see one person hook up with fish (although one did roll over her line). The count at the rangers station was only 3 silvers when I arrived, it did not change when I left. But the people on the boats were able to bring some in. I hope it's not over up here already.

The Tailrace also seemed pretty slow when I drove through there.

[AOJ: From a technical point the Little Su coho run is really still in its early stages timing wise. The bulk of the run arrives through the latter part of August and into September. Right now they are just arriving at the counting weir upstream of the Parks highway but the numbers to date are 56% below what normally is counted by this time. So the jury is still out on the Little Su coho. Could be what few are entering are being taken by the boat anglers leaving nothing for the bankers.]

REPORT: I made a last minute suicide run again to Jim after CDubbin and Bigkid called me wanting to go. Chris and Mike limited out with bugs while I hit all of mine with eggs under a bobber again. Weather was good and the water level has dropped. Goodluck all!

REPORT: Either hope does spring eternal, or I am an infernally slow learner, but I tried Bird again yesterday evening on the incoming tide. Started three hours after dead low tide, using eggs and vibraxes, and in two hours got nada. During that time I saw a total of two pinks snagged, one pink rolling, and one nice king fair caught and released by a guy drifting yarn with a fly rod.

During the previous two afternoons, I tried Ship, starting at the midpoint on the incoming tides, and it was basically the same story. I managed to land one smallish male silver and saw hardly any others. There are essentially no fish coming into these creeks this year, and I would sure like to know why.

[AOJ: I'm sure the ADFG department has the same thoughts and NOW that pinks are not showing as they should for a even year that has added another variable in the equation. Kings took a hit, sockeye in some streams got hit while others like FISH Cr got slammed with a return, silver runs widely differing from stream to stream and now pinks not plugging the streams by now as they should.]

REPORT: I am wondering if anyone know what the current fishing in Hope for pink salmon is right now? My wife, kids and myslef went down there last weekend a caught at least 30 and the kids had a blast. I am wanting to plan a trip down there for this coming Monday 16 Aug but don't want to drive down there if the fish are no longer in the creek. Thanks for the info.

[AOJ: The pink run is pretty much over on that creek with just blushed fish hanging around and deteriorating quickly. There may be a trickle of silvers and dollies but not enough to drive that far for.]

REPORT: Did the early morning run to Jim Creek for probably the last time this year... (may try tomorrow one more time with the boys)

Silvers are wandering though at at steady pace. Caught my first 10 min in at the upstream end of where the hog line tends to form up this year using the Jim Creek Standard lure. (#4 hot pink vibrax). Then the hog line showed up and pushed the fish out into the silt by 6:00am and the bite died hard... The fish were still out there but just moving on past unless they happen to get snagged in passing.

Coop is exactly right about the standing out too far... I know I reported that silt fishing worked well last week but Knik water has come down and Jim Creek is back to it's more normal behavior.

Walked away from the crowd up and down the bank trying to figure out where they were comming back into the clear water... Finally around 8am figured it out and 10 min later had my second on eggs under a bobber. (Thanks y0gee for the tips on egg cures and drifting under a bobber, I'll thank you personally one day when our paths cross on the river :) )

Stopped by Eklutna to see what the action looked like... Fish were moving around steadily but no-one was catching anything... To me it looked like it was a matter of technique rather than a lack of fish... saw one guy drive up hop out with the Eklutna standard rig (drifting eggs with a 1/2 oz weight 3 ft up and a small bright corky) and show everyone how it was done by bringing in a nice silver on his first cast. Several people switched their rigging to similar setups and suddenly the bite was on. Saw 6 or so landed in the last 15 min I watched.

REPORT: Wow - what a strange sockeye season. I have been trying to fill my freezer with 2nd run reds with limited success. Two days ago (the 9th) the sockeye run really turned on in the upper. Lots of fish on the move - in the quantities that we should have seen about two weeks ago. There must have been a big party in Skilak Lake that kept them there. Too late... much of the take is ripe with a 5 to 1 kill ratio being about right. I kept 2 of 11 fish landed in less than 2 hours fishing on Monday and 2 for 9 Tuesday in 2 hours. I could have taken some blush fish for the smoker but I am a bit choosy. Ironic they are closing the Russian. My bet is that there will be a significant increase in the numbers in the weir very soon.

I have not seen any Silvers up here yet, but the trout fishing was better yesterday (the 11th) than it has been all season. Fishing the orange 8 or 10 mil bead a bit deep off gravel beds was the ticket. I had no problem catching fish at each stop and caught a few 22+inch on the drift. You can tell there is not as much food in the river as normal as the dollies are rather snakey. The bows are nice and chunky, though, leading me to believe they are a step higher on the food chain. My wife and I had the river almost to ourselves on the evening (5 to 9) drift from Sports to Jims. Normally I would be cursing anyone that let out info that the bite was on at this time of year because the river gets so crowded. Not so this year. Come on down and fish and don't forget to spend some $ in Cooper Landing... not a banner year for tourism.

[AOJ: I've just activated the RUSSIAN COHO RUN CHART and they have counted a total of 9 silvers through the weir to date. So a few have made it up to the upper Kenai now. Indeed it has been a double whammy for the concessionaire at the Russian this year with two bad runs in a row. With the Russian second run tracking 68% below an average year run size and this late in the run its not likely F&G will even reach the minimum escapement goal of 30,000. The sockeye counts in the lower Kenai are dropping very fast and there is no unexpected big pop/surprise inriver this year. The irony is last year when ADFG raised the bag and possession on the first run to 6 & 12 it also killed the concessionaire's business because everyone stayed the max. amount of time trying to fill 12 fish over midnight for two days' limits. So they couldn't gain any extra anglers to make money and in fact it was the opposite...they made less than if the limit had been set at 6 & 6. Oh well. Next year is only 9 months away!!!]

REPORT: I couldn't take it Tuesday night... Staying home while I knew there were fish to be caught.... I chalked up Mondays Skunking at Jim Creek to a lull in the run, low water....I looked for any excuse to go back..

Went out last night, fishing by 6 pm... WOW, has the water come down. The hogline was crowded and again for some reason people seem to think standing in the clear water up to their waist is the place to be...I didn't see any fish on or any on the bank, so I headed up... Found some clear water where Jims comes into the Knik and started soaking eggs... The water is low and there was virtually no current to provide a drift. Fish were non existent and the ones there were spooky... I ended up sight fishing for the shadows on the edge of the clear water seam, and hooked two....Literally had to gently land the eggs right in front of their face...or they weren't interested....

The fishing last night confirmed my results from Monday night. It is time to move up the Parks. The few fish that I saw are starting to blush some, they are spooky and the numbers just aren't there to have big days...even the snaggers and twitchers in the hogline weren't hooking fish... Fishing all day for a limit of 2 silvers isn't my "happy place".. I will be dusting off the 6 wt and hitting the Pinks and chums up the road this weekend...

REPORT: My sister and I had geared up for a rainy morning of fishing at Swiftwater for silvers Saturday morning (8-6-10) not knowing what to expect. The day before had been successful in the morning but slow the rest of the day! We set up our chairs, got out our poles and proceeded to egg up!(cured roe in bait loop with 3/4oz.weight) I always end up putting her eggs on for her. Just to sit and watch the activity on the water was a sight in it's own, pinks rolling like crazy and silvers jumping every now and then. Definitely enough to keep your hopes high for a catch! We had been fishing for about 1/2 hour and I decided to check my eggs, re-baited and cast in where I had been watching a lot of movement in the water, not 2 minutes later my pole was a bendin', yelling to sis, "I got one", this bad boy surfaces with a jump and all my sister can say is "Holy ^&$%", I can't believe my eyes, I am yelling at her to get the net, hurry, hurry. Last year I had lost more than a few this size and did not want to lose another one. As he made a dash in my direction I saw him bleeding from where he was hooked in the mouth and knew I had him pretty good so I told sis to hold off and let me play him and wear him out, so I did. AAHHHH... the sound of the drag on your reel whining as the fish makes a run for it, I LOVE IT!!!! As we are whooting and hollering a small crowd has made their way to our backs without us even realizing it. As he wears down I reel him in to the bank where sis has staged herself ready to work the net! Sis gets him in the net and we still can't believe how big this silver is! Well my sister's husband shows up and the small crowd is around for me to proudly hoist my catch for all to see! I have never been so proud of a fish I have caught as this one, what a FANTASTIC day of fishing. Definitely one I will never forget!


[AOJ: Now that is definitely a HOG! Congrats~!]

REPORT: Found rod attached to a tree hanging under the water. It didn't look like it had been there long. It had a bobber on the line. I want to see this pole go back to it's owner, it's a decent setup. So if u lost ur pole on the Little Su this last weekend call and describe to claim. My number is 907-854-8819.

The fishing was excellent for 4 out of 5 species of salmon. Saw ALOT of reds, pinks, and chums. I only caught 1 silver same with my friend but his managed to escape off the end of his line.

REPORT: Just got back from Montana Creek. Slow fishing for silvers reported at the mouth and lots of pinks to wade through. It has rained a lot and Montana is pretty high for this time of year and really dirty. The pinks haven't really moved into Montana yet, just a few here and there and most are holding at the mouth.

REPORT: Went to Willow on Tuesday as it was grandpa's last chance at some salmon (he is up from Oregon, leaves tomorrow). So we went back there to try and tie him onto a silver or 2. Well, it was DEAD! In 4 hours dad foul hooked a little pink and then caught a nice big chromer lady silver, still had sea lice on her! I caught her boyfriend about a half hour later, It was kinda cool how it turned out. I had a snag on the the far side of a log, so I was out as far as I could go, got a little water in my hip waders, then reached around as far as I could, anyway, after about 5 minutes, I finally got my lure out, and as I was pulling it out of the water, I big ol buck jumped out of the water about 2 foot tryin to get my red #4 vibrax, well, he missed it, so I stripped about 5 feet of line off of my reel as fast as I could, and stuck it back in the water and let it "drift" through the hole. Then I snagged it up on the log, so I thought, so I yanked on it trying to get it out,(meanwhile stil past my waders line in water and reaching out as far as I could, tryign to get to the other side of that log) and it yanked back! Put up a great fight right up till I got it on the bank. Good size fish too, I'll send a picture here in a couple minutes.
Tight lines!
CameRon

REPORT: A woman who likes to fish and wants to take her son out to catch a salmon!! Have nothing but respect for this woman! She is rare!! Best of luck to you, may your line always be tight and may you find many fish on your rod!

The first fish my oldest daughter caught she named Strawberry Shortcake (Red that was starting to blush.) I didn't have the nerve to fillet it up, so we let her go...
Best of luck and I hope he had a Great Birthday with his mom!
Uncle Buck

REPORT: Went down to Fish Creek after a buddy at Sportsmans told me bout it..I was there literally 45 mins and musta released 17 pinks and kept 2 well over 8 lbs and a fatty rainbow(released cause their pretty and I love catching 'em) and just as I hooked the silver I had been stalking it got a 20 ft run down stream and the pixie I was using came out and got me right in the cheek..shot up some lidicane and jerked it out. It hurt like hell but it was a great trip. :)

REPORT: Fished the Cross Over with eggs and a flatfish and the eggs worked best. Picked up seven nice fish but all turned out to be females (thought the males came in first). We also lost as many as we caught and weren't bothered by pinks as we had been on previous visits. Tried again on Monday but things had changed and we only got one silver and lots of pinks. All conditions are great but high tide was too early to fish and late tide was very late. Things improve as the week goes on. Fishing pressure is light at this point.

[AOJ: The Kenai silvers are strange. One day we will hit all girls and the next all bucks then next trip hens again. They seem to run segregated quite often.]

REPORT: I will brag on Jim's again! Caught my limit in 5 MINUTES! Caught and released two more in 30! I got on the water by 5 AM and left at 7AM after cleaning the fish. Only thing that drives me crazy is that you will have fish with their dorsal fins out of the water swimming past you and ppl think that getting further in the water will up their odds of catching fish but all that does is push them further out in the deeper silty water. Truly if ppl would stay shallow the fish will come right in to you. So to catch your fish for the day beat the masses there before they ruin it and catch them in the shallow water.

Also stopped by Tailrace and Ship Creek on the way home. Tailrace was typical as of late. Lots of fish and none getting caught.

Ship was full of pinks and chum. Not many ppl fishing it either. Hitting Fish Creek next weekend though. I'm excited for that!

Good Luck! Tight Lines!

[AOJ: I just updated Fish Creek COHO chart through WEDNESDAY counts. If the timing is right there should be another slug of silvers arriving any day so maybe they will hit this next 3 days of weekend fishing.]

REPORT: Headed up there at 7 a.m. made it to Yoder around 9? Started fishing, there was a lot of kings up there.......a lot. Managed to hook a couple trying for bows but none to be had this day. Got in the car and went down to the mouth and hit a fish almost every other cast on the fly rod. The water was a little up but it seems the Big Su was the river running high. I watched a lot of people and they were just over casting the fish, I could see them running right next to people, and the people were throwing to the other bank........... so anyway after about a few hours of fishing there and a sore arm and back from fighting fish we headed home.

A word of advice to people, get a pair of polarized sun glasses, and spend a little for a good pair, it does make a difference.

Tight lines people!

REPORT: Responding to the good report for the Anchor River, we fished this morning, but where are they? In two hours we saw only 4 fish for over 25 people. I'm new to the area, so would appreciate advice on when, where, how to hook into a nice silver on the Anchor.

[AOJ: It is a bit early for good fishing on the Anchor but I just updated the chart through Wednesday counts and the run is now passing 100+ a day through the weir which is about 50% more than an average year. Anchor is coming in with a solid, above average return so far. Watch those SPIKES on the chart. Those occur EVERY YEAR almost on the exact date every year. If you have the luxury of a 3 day window to stay down there a day or two before and after the chart spikes you will see a lot of fish moving very fast. Its a repeatable phenomena. Deshka kinda has those monster days too but not as set to a specific date as the Anchor. Good luck.]

REPORT: This is fishing girl, thanks to all who responded to my questions. Really it helps a lot. So this is the plan I made before I checked the weather report-I'm going to take him to Montana Creek Fri. night through hopefully Sun morning. I've never been there but on my way out we will try Willow Creek and maybe Eklutna too. When I called down to the campground the lady said the silvers aren't in Montana yet but the pinks are and you can walk 10 minutes to the Sue and fish for silvers. The regs are confusing, but I think after Aug 6th you can use bait, right???

Thurs. night at 10pm I'll take him to Campbell Creek and try there. Thanks, guys!

[AOJ: Indeed we have the most complicated fishing regulations for any state in the Union. Some folks even take their lawyer along to read the booklet for them. Ha The Unit 2 streams along the Parks have the most confusing write ups since the king fishing throws a lot of complicated tackle and bait restrictions in during those runs. There is something that all of us get messed up on now and then when it comes to the WORDING in the regs booklet I'll describe.

Each Unit or Area listed will have a GENERAL set of regs that define the typical seasons, types of tackle, whether bait is allowed, areas that are typically catch and release only for some species (like upstream of the Parks highway on those streams) for all streams and lakes in that Unit/Area. Then as you can see if there is an EXCEPTION to the regulations for a particular stream that stream is listed separately to identify the additional changes or restrictions from the GENERAL regs. Here is the sneaker.... IF the regulations don't say something is NOT ALLOWED then it IS ALLOWED. (That doesn't mean snagging is legal because its not mentioned BECAUSE snagging is covered in the statewide section of the regulations.)

A couple examples (and this applies throughout the book for fishing) - Montana Creek is in Unit 2. From Sept.1 - May 31 only UNbaited single hook artificial lures allowed including flies. June 1 - July 13 allows UNbaited artificial lures. NOTE the subtle change...the second wording allows a treble hook or two single hooks now, but still no bait. OK they don't list the rest of the calendar year!! THAT MEANS from July 14 - August 31 you are ALLOWED BAIT and Multiple (treble or two singles) hooks for your tackle.

The other part of this Montana example is the exception listing detailing NO salmon fishing upstream of the Parks Highway BEYOND an ADFG Marker 1/2 mile upstream AND its Catch and Release for grayling and Rainbows with UNbaited, single hook artificial only tackle for the entire year. BUT NOTE, it does not say ANYTHING about Dolly Varden above the Parks Highway so DOLLY VARDEN would then be regulated in the GENERAL REGS section at the beginning of the Unit 2 description. That allows you to keep 5 dollies with only ONE being over 12 inches but you still can only use single hook artificial for them.

So you really need to read these things forward, backward, sideways and upside down...and then two or three more times to feel comfortable. Because of this complexity you will encounter a number of folks fishing with illegal tackle, fishing in closed waters, fishing for species not open, etc. Never just follow the crowd! Always be the one that KNOWS the regs in those waters. Good luck. Take your camera. Send in some pics. I'm sure everyone will want to see how its turning out. -KK-]

REPORT: Well.... decided to take a break from Jim Creek and stay closer to home today so off Kevin and I went to Ship after dinner to try our luck. We started below the handicap platform @ 9pm as the tide was going out bobbering some eggs and within 10min, Kevin had landed one. After that..... NADA! I didn't get a nibble the entire time.... the kiddo beat me LOL! Anyways, since it was already getting late, we only followed the tide to the restaurant and left @ 1130pm. Saw very few hookups and few people fishing! Good luck all! Uncle Ted, THANK YOU and may you R.I.P.!


If anyone is interested on where I got Kaylani's kids waders, here's the link: http://www.oakiwear.com/oaki/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=8

REPORT: Floated Little Su from Parks w buddy Jake, goal to reach Nancy Lake confluence to camp 1st night, lets just say the reds were boiling to say the least. Pulled in around midnight fish hitting catarafts, feet the whole bit!! At the time didn't know they were reds, and had the feeling of bear central!! Started fire and cked things out.

Since 2nd time floating Little Su ,didn't expect reds like this and susped when nothing hit, in the morning hooked into many, was pretty awesome. 1 other boat showed up. Continued down and to my amazement seen turkey perched in tree, supposed to not be any here, and got video! Nobody believes me!! Come to find that people have seen quite frequently. Chum and pinks bigtime, esp on black flys !!!

Silvers started further down 10 river miles up from Burma, at least that's when we made an effort, due to time restraints you need at least 5 days to effectively fish the holes, overall very awesome trip, the boats close to Burma, for the most part were respectable, except dumb ass north river that buzzd by us, still can't figure out why there is no restrictions on boats, in my opinion it should be drift only Burma up and no restrictions down, esp since I was run over by drunk ass in my boat 3 ys ago and almost killed my buddy, and nothing was done about it by troopers. Lets just say it matters who ya know !!!! enough said!!!!!!!!!

REPORT: Went for the opener and easily got my 3 fish limit. Was surprised to see so many more cars, even more surprised when there was only one person in the best hole on the creek.

Fishing Girl, take your boy to Hope (Ressurection), Fish Creek, or Montana Creek (if its not sunny). Get some light pink yarn with a single 2/0 hook or some pink bunny flies from 3 Rivers, a 2ft leader with a couple split shots, and your boy will catch fish in any of these streams. Good Luck

REPORT: fishing girl I second the motion to bring him down to Campbell, between all of us there we will have all the gear you need. Bring poles/salmon eggs we will put your boy on some fish.

REPORT: Where before Victor Rd, next to Dimond are you talking about? Like which way are you coming from?

[AOJ: I think he is talking about where Campbell Creek crosses Dimond Blvd. You can see a map of the creek and streets on Page 37 of the fishing regs booklet. Or view it on this PDF file. Anchorage Fishing Regs.]

REPORT: Fished Sunday and Monday,limiting out each day at the rate of a silver netted every half hour. Fished the corner across from Eagle Rock with eggs and sardines, lime corkies. Saw more fish caught Sunday than Monday, was told that it just started the day before, Saturday the seventh. The Kenai is nothing more than a nice two month silver fishery anymore and that season is finally here, not very many fishing it yet, nobody out early.........

[AOJ: Ah, you must not have gotten that 4stroke yet...no Kenai king reports for July if my memory serves me correctly. Me too. But its coming.]

REPORT: Just got back from Hope. When I left the campground there only was two campers left. This will give you an idea how good/bad the fishing is. It seems like the pink run is pretty much done and the fish are not holding up in the creek as they normally do. Hooked more than my fair share of fish and didn't see any fresh ones. The ones that I saw were turning and they were not the numbers that usually run up this creek. You might try Ingram Creek or Montana Creek behind the campground at the bend, those are both good. Haven't tried them this year.

REPORT: If you want a sure bet for kids, hit Ingram Creek along Turnagain Arm and its just before you start heading up the hill onto the Kenai Peninsula. I had my son and daughter (5 and 8) fish there last weekend on a return trip from Homer. 2 pinks each in less than 20 min. and it made their entire trip. Water is crystal clear, calm rapids, abundant fish, and sparse crowds. Even better it's 30 minutes closer than Hope. Tight Lines

REPORT: This is late I know. Fished 20 Mile with some buddies on the 4-5th. Lets just say that I know that 20 Mile is a sketchy river normally but dang when it hits flood levels....hold on! First day river was easily 3-5 feet above normal so no fish...nada. Every slough that we normally fish was a raging torrent and blown out.

Spent the night on a beach. Didn't sleep too much due to paranoia about the rising water level. Had to keep checking and marking throughout the night. Did finally manage to catch some z's and when we woke found the water level had gone back down causing our G3 to beach....oops. Oh well. Once we got back to fishing, had a great time catching silvers and dollies on every type of hardware you could think of. Flies, Vibrax, Eggs, Spoons....it didn't matter. Was especially impressed with the size of both the Silvers and Dollies. Either way, we each kept our two and bugged out of there. Will hit it again in the next week or so! Tight lines!

REPORT: OK decided to take one for the team today and get a report for Ship Creek Tide instead of going to the 'race as was my first instinct.

Well you can dispel the conspiracy theory of everyone keeping the Hot Zone at Ship Creek a secret. It's not hot. Needless to say my record of 0 fish landed at Ship Creek in 4 years of trying is still intact.

There are silvers to be had, and I saw a few anglers with a couple here and there but for the most part the tide brought in Pinks and Chum. Not many anglers for this time of year but that was a small consolation for the crappy fishing.

It appeared the fly fishermen were the most successful, variety of colors and types were being used. Pink yarn on a hook was the only fisherman I saw with two takedowns. (He was still trying for his third when I gave up.) Roe didn't appear to be very successful other than for Chum's. Even the pinks were tight lipped compared to their usual behavior.

Anyway... there are silvers, just not very hot and heavy like it normally would have been on a monster tide at dawn on the second week of August.

[AOJ: 4 years...that's a pretty good string you got going. You should have seen the spoof report on Ship I got the other day. Everyone limited...everyone. All up and down the bank. Big monster silvers too. Fortunately I didn't fall off the turnip wagon yesterday so you folks aren't privy to such chenanagans.]

REPORT: Hit the water around 3pm. Very crowded. One guy was catching silvers with shrimp. Got his limit in 1 hour. Otherwise pretty slow for the lawn chair fishing crew. Sad to see a group of three guys snagging off to the side. Plenty of fish breaking the surface but only a few biting eggs. Seems to be hit or miss over the last several days.

[AOJ: Someone needs to try one of those pink WOG flies on those cruising silvers. I've heard and seen silvers chase them down and nail them on the surface. So far no one has reported trying something like that when there are definitely fish present.]

REPORT: Between the 5th and the 10th I have put in 25+ hours on the Parks highway streams. And they haven't been lights out on the bead like they should be. Don't be afraid to switch it. Up and throw a flesh or streamer. Fishing is below average, especially for this time of year. None the less, there is nothing better than being on the water.

Oh and another note: there is very few kings in Willow Creek. Lots less than normal.

REPORT: Silvers and Octopus in Seward, the boy's with Swiftwater Reds. Had another great trip. Reprat


[AOJ: Wow, a seven legged octopus~! Oh I see the 8th. Couldn't find a fishing report with these photos. But I guess the pics speak for themselves, eh?]

REPORT: Here’s my youngest son with his first salmon, a pink at Montana Creek on Aug 7, 2010. Fishing was pretty slow but he stuck to it and landed his first "keeper." Huntin Dawg


[AOJ: Looks like dad needs to buy him some taller boots! ;-) I think I saw y0gee's 5 yo daughter Kaylani wearing a kid's pair of hip boots that were just the right size. Good way to kick off the next year's season with a new rod/reel and boots to get him excited.]

REPORT: Fished the Russian River on Sunday (8-8-10) for rainbows and caught several quality fish on a beadhead nymph copper John. God I love that river! Here is a picture of one of those beauties!


[AOJ: They are indeed a beautiful fish. Nice Pic!]

REPORT: To answer the question about where to go to get your son a salmon and since you aren't picky- just go down to Hope and fish Ressurection Creek. So many pinks there you will catch and snag plenty. Mostly catch and release but a great kid fishery- I take my kids every year. Pixies and small spinners. Have strong enough line so you can drag the snagged ones up to release.

REPORT: I guess based on the report I just read I should have been there in the A.M. Anyways, went after work, and it pains me to say this..... But I got skunked... a big fat 0..... one bite, I missed... I soaked eggs, then threw a vibrax, back to eggs... nothing...first time this year i got a big zilch..... Water is down alot since last Fri morn....but so was the fishing....

\as far as the birthday boy... There are / well were alot of pinks at Sheep Creek by the Parks hwy bridge on Sunday, chums too.... People casting vibrax were catching some, foul hooking some...but there was alot there....

Willow Creek camground next to the highway usually has a bunch of pinks and chums there that are fairly easy to catch. Neither place do you need hipboots, but if you have them it will help you get down or up stream some and away from a few people. You might also try Fish Creek, and use eggs under a bobber around the tides....report I got was that there were a good number of pinks and a few silvers there..

REPORT: Just got back from Eklutna and had a great time. Managed 2 fish in 3 hrs, then caught and released tons of reds for another 5 hrs. Early in the morning was good but quickly died off when people showed up.

fishing girl: When fishing silvers or any salmon, it works to just take a look around and see if anyone is producing and with what. If it's a slow day, do some experimenting. With eggs, I personally like to use a bobber rig because it gives the eggs a more natural look. Experiment with depths or just free-drift. As for spinners, spoons, lures, you want to get the lure as close to the bottom as possible seeing as that's generally where the fish tend to be. If nothing works, just keep on casting out, look around, and keep trying. Eventually you will get into some fish.

I would personally try Eklutna or some of the creeks along the Parks. Remember, persistence pays off! Good Luck.

REPORT: This is a great creek for the birthday boy to catch a salmon a lot of locals who are very nice. Fishing is pretty slow at times but you wanna be there around 10pm bring roe and a chair. I know everyone down there. We will get your son to catch a fish. Its right off Dimond Blvd right before Victor RD. If you give it at least two hours at max. you will catch a salmon. Good luck, hope this helps.

REPORT: Re: Fisher Girl, i think that was the name.

I would take him to Hope, the pinks are in and it is easy to get to. It's a great place to take younger kids. Although it is most likely to catch pinks, you may get lucky and get a silver. I would use a Russian river coho fly ( any color will do - I only use red and white combo colored ones ) tie on a fly and place 3/4 oz weight about 36 inches above fly. ( make sure your knots are good and tight ) pull out about 15 - 20 feet of line and cast up stream to about 11 o'clock, let fly drift down to about 2:30 and pull out of water while casting back in the water at 11 o'clock and repeat... ( now when your pulling your fly out at 2:30 make sure your ready to set the hook because that's when most time the fish are going to bite. Another thing to remember is that you should feel the weight bouncing on the bottom of the river, if you don't feel the bounce you may need more weight ). If you feel the weight stop bouncing during your drift to 2:30 give the pole a tug, you either have a bite or your getting hung up on the bottom. ( you only need enough weight to feel a bounce, so youight only need 1/2 weight but I use 3/4 oz there most times. This method is for when the tide is out and the current is strong. ( note: if your facing the river - think of straight across the river as 12 o'clock )

When fishing the river area at high tide or when the current is not strong enough to get a good bounce with your weight, switch to spinners black, pink, green, blue, orange or chartruce. Tie on a swivel and attach the spinner to it ( no extra weight is needed ) cast out and reel back in at a rate just fast enough not to get snagged on the bottom. You can mix it up with the speed you retrieve just try not to get snagged on the bottom, that can get expensive.

When fishing with eggs, you can either weight them about 36" from the eggs ( about 2-3 oz to keep them planted on the bottom (depends on how strong the current is, may need more or less). Keep the line tight.

When fish with a bobber set the bobber up about 36" above the eggs and cast out and let sit until the drift to far from where you want them or you need to check them for freshness ( lots of times trout will feast on them and you won't know it ). Keep the line tight enough to set the hook though.

When fishing with eggs make sure you give the fish long enough for it to take it before setting the hook, most mistakes are made by jerk reactions and pulling the hook out of the fish's mouth. So be patient.

I hope this info is of help for you and your son. Good luck this weekend and let us all know how you do!

REPORT: So we hit the water at 6:30 today and had a blast. My buddy and I hit our limits in a few hours and were happier than two pigs in the mud. Fatties too! Nothing like wild silvers vs. Ship silvers! Anyway the fish are there if you're willing to battle the ppl, winds, and mud at Jim. Well worth the effort and fight if you ask me. Tight lines all!

REPORT: THE SILVERS ARE COMING IN!! Went out for the first time for them this morning. Beautiful morning and not very many people. I caught 7 in the 3 1/2 hrs I was there. (Yes, I only kept 2, released the other 5) All on Pro-Cure eggs I cured last year. Expect the fish to start coming in really heavy by next week.

One note about the Anchor's king run. You may notice that F&G has been comparing the 2010 run to the '08 run. I say, let's look on the bright side. Numbers have been steadily declining over the past 6 years or so. This year the numbers are actually up approx. 900 fish above the '09 run. I'm really hoping that last year was the bottom and maybe the run will start recovering. Anyway, just my 2 cents...

[AOJ: Not sure what F&G comparison you refer to. The AOJ charts are generated from F&G daily counts. The "comparison" on the AOJ charts (the dotted line) is the long term average over many years and not one specific year. The Anchor king chart shows a 7500 fish 6 year average run size. Believe it or not there are still fresh kings entering the Anchor River and from August 1st - 8th 145 kings have been counted. This puts the current escapement at almost 4400 and only 600 below the 5000 escapement goal. And last year only 34 kings were counted for the same period. Perhaps we have turned the corner on the decline.]

REPORT: Headed out of Whittier for a two day trip down to Jackpot and hit the Jackpot! PWS gave up some of its bounty - hit a few silvers trolling, lots of pinks biting and by day two we were out of trolling herring so went to artificials and they produced. Set the shrimp pots down and got a nice 5 gallon bucketful on a one night soak. I caught the only halibut - nice 35 lbs. Caught a few yellow eye and some cod that we cooked that night - excellent table fare. Went up in our secret river in the zodiac and caught pink after pink but did manage a few nice silvers on blue fox and pixies. Lots of bear sign but did not see any. Water was flat calm and a fantastic trip. Just got through eating a plate of shrimp and yellow eye - nothing better! Next report will come from the Kenai for silvers.

REPORT: Had only a couple hours so followed a rumor down to a hole on Eagle River.

No salmon to be seen, rolling, attacking lures or otherwise. I did have what looked to be a very nice sized Dolly (definitely over 20 inch) attack one of my lures but I wasn't expecting it and I didn't get the hook set.

Now to figure a good place for the morning for a serious attempt.

REPORT: Hi all, I need some help. My son, who's turning 10 on Saturday, is obsessed with fishing. So am I, only problem is we are beginners and for the last 3 years straight we've just been winging it wherever we go. We go almost every weekend and have YET to catch any salmon in any river. The only thing we've mastered is Eklutna, and the lakes. Well he wants to catch a salmon and I want to give that to him this weekend for his bday. We went on the Upper Kenai with a friend and caught 0 on Friday. Then I took him to Knik River on Sunday, again, 0. So I have some questions-when you say you used eggs, does that mean you let the eggs sink to the bottom? Or do they hang closer to the top of the water? Same with the spinners, are they supposed to bounce on the bottom (with a weight) or are they supposed to be higher up? Where do you think the best place is for this weekend and fishing? I don't care if it's pinks, and I don't have a boat. I'm tired of standing around fishing and not catching....thanks for any info you have.

[AOJ: OK boys, let's get this gal and bday boy hooked up! Fire away.]