20 Aug Fishing Report August 20, 2017
Fishing Report August 20, 2017
Time sure flies when you are catching fish. It has been over a month since our last fishing report was posted and a lot of great fishing action has occurred since then. July came and went in a whirlwind and provided a virtual lifetime of great memories for our guests. Both the late run of sockeye and king salmon saw strong returns and fishing for both was very successful. Sockeye fishing picked up steam in the first week of July and never looked back. Although we did not have any huge number days like we have seen in the past, daily counts averages 20,000 to 30,000 fish a day for the majority of the month and this was more than enough fish to ensure steady limits for all of our anglers. The fish were bright and healthy as usual and allowed everyone to take home full fish boxes. The sockeye run continues into August with good numbers and is still providing limit fishing as of this report. The late run of Kenai kings rebounded significantly this year and angler success in the lower Kenai was excellent. Starting around July 15, king salmon action was extremely consistent aided by excellent water conditions and lower river levels than normal. The bulk of the fishing success seemed to be in the holes below Eagle Rock and on a number of days full boat limits were the rule. It was actually a little bittersweet to see the level of harvest taking place after the cycle of low abundance we saw just a few seasons ago but we did do our part in releasing a number of larger fish and we also saw many other anglers also releasing the larger more unique Kenai hawgs. This marks two complete seasons with “normal” runs for the late run Kenai kings so hopefully we will see this return stay strong and healthy for the foreseeable future. New regulation with no bait and no retention of kings above 36 inches above the Soldotna bridge will go a long way toward ensuring the run remains sustainable and plenty of big fish make it to the gravel. The neighboring Kasilof River also saw a very strong return of late run king salmon and fishing was good to excellent for most of July. Moving forward into August, the silver return started off somewhat slow with not a ton of fish entering the river in the first week of the month. It did however pick up steam in the second week of August and now as we are past mid-month, the run is in full swing and limit fishing has been the rule. Fish are big. Bright and healthy and are being caught on a variety of methods including Kwik Fish, Blue Fox Vibrax spinners and cured salmon eggs. We look forward to very good silver fishing for the remainder of the month and then well into September as the larger and more plentiful late run Kenai Silvers hit the river. On the West Side of Cook Inlet, our fly out fishing for silver also started off a bit on the slow side but quickly changed to wide open action with daily limits being caught on a regular basis. Rivers like the Kustatan, Bachatna Creek and the Chuit are all reporting high numbers of fresh coho present with new fish arriving daily. Big River Lake also is seeing a good return of silvers and angler success has been high. Back on the mighty Kenai, trout fishing has also been very good but anglers are seeing a higher abundance of smaller rainbows and fewer larger fish. We look forward to lots of great rainbow action as the salmon spawn hit full stride and the single eggs bite beginning in earnest. Indeed it has been a very impressive season thus far here ion the Kenai Peninsula and surrounding waters and we still have a good portion of our season still ahead of us including lots of great silver, trout and also steelhead action. Stay tuned for more reports and enjoy all the awesome pictures from the last several weeks!
