Kenai River Fishing

Fishing ala Bruce
So you want fish on the Kenai River. I have lot's of friends that come visit from outside who want to know what to expect and what to bring. This document is a run down of a typical one-day trip geared towards the angler who has a vehicle but doesn't have a lot of money for a guided service. Sorry, I won't tell you about where to go, because that depends on the time of year, how the run is doing, various fishing reports, if you will be in a boat or from the bank. If you want more specific info, email me and I'll see what I can do to help.

What to Expect - My typical day trip would target sockeye and rainbow, being drive and wade affair. Depending on where the fish are, we go get our limit on sockeye (three to six depending on the runs) then go hit a couple of prime rainbow spots. You can count on a long day with a 5 AM departure and return time of whenever. The sockeye fishing is not "A River Runs Though It" experience so get that idea out of your mind. It can be brutal hand to hand combat fishing, but when the fish are there, it can be an amazing experience. Typically the crowds are thinner for the end of July. The trout holes are much quieter.

Clothing and Like Gear - Your absolute minimum would be waders with felt bottom boots, day pack, bug juice, fillet knife, a few gallon size zip-lock bags, a camera, and whatever other do-dads you like to take with you while you fish (I talk about fishing gear later on). Breathable waders work just fine and are what I normally use. I wear shorts and wool socks under my waders and can fish all day without problem. I also pack a wool sweater and a rain jacket for the occasional rain shower.

Bears - Typically you should have at a minimum bear spray for bear protection. A lot of individuals at the popular fishing holes (i.e. the Russian) will have a sidearm, so bringing your own is not necessary. Just because I see a bear doesn't make me stop fishing. My rule of thumb is I keep at least twenty people between me and the bear as I'm fairly sure the bear would take out one of them before it ever got to me. At the less popular sites (i.e. the Canyon) someone in your party should be armed. The best defense however is staying together in a crowd and making noise. There has never been a documented report of a bear fatality with a group of four or more people, and with group of that size, attacks only come if you surprise a bear or disturb its cubs or food.

Fishing Gear
For the Sockeye I use
-A two piece 9 foot medium-heavy bait cast Shakespeare Ugly Stick
-5500-3 Abu Garcia bait cast loaded with 30 lb test mono, I use the same for leader
The absolute must is the 30 lb test mono.

For Rainbows I use
-9 foot 5/6 with Floating WF
-6 foot 10lb no taper leader weighted with split shot to bounce the fly along the bottom
I recommend you bring your own fly fishing gear in that FF is a rather personalized experience.

Terminal Tackle for Sockeye
-1/2 ounce or 1 ounce banana weight augmented with #0 split shot to bounce the fly along the bottom
-I use Russian River Coho flies or a 2/0 Octopus tied with a snell bait loop to hold a small bit a yarn.

Terminal Tackle for Rainbow
-#12 hooks with a trout egg beads are best
-Egg sucking leach or other egg pattern 2nd best
-Flesh flies if appropriate

Kings and Silvers - We are now talking some more complex tackle with bait loops, cured eggs, sardine wraps, poppers, spin-n-glows, pixies, quik-fish and other more unique items, so I won't really address that here. Plus, there are a lot better places to go than the Kenai if you are limited for time and money. If you want more info, email me.

The Flip - The flip is the key to successful bank fishing on the Kenai. When you see photos of people lining the banks of the river, what you are seeing is a ballet of fishing lines all vying for the chance to hookup a prized sockeye. The flip is simply this, flipping your line upstream and letting it drift downstream then performing a smooth flip of the line to do it over again. And again. And again. And again. The trick is to get a fish to get your leader in their mouth and when you do the flip at the bottom of the drift, WHAMMO - Fish On!!. The details are having about ten feet of line out with a 18"-24" leader between your weight and fly. Have enough weight to light bounce the sinker along the bottom (you'll feel a light tapping as it bounces along the bottom). Too much weight, you'll snag up, too little weight and you will be out of the area for the sockeye. Depending upon the location, you may need more leader, less weight, more line out, a faster flip, or some other variable you don't know of. The best plan for success is watch what others are doing. If someone is having good luck, check and see how they are fishing, how much weight they have, how far out into the current they, etc. And yes, there are "sweet spots" along the river. But as I mentioned before, if the fish are really in, it really doesn't matter.

Playing and Landing the Fish - Fish On!!! Those are the most awesome words a fisherman can say. Make sure you say them, because it lets people around you know that you have a fish in play. Typically, the flip will have set the hook enough so you don't need to do much more. Sockeye mouths are a bit soft so a super strong set will rip the hook from the mouth. The fish should not be taking much line. If it is, it is either foul hooked or your drag is set to loosely. Point your rod upstream and set the drag to stop the fish. Use the flexibility of the rod as the show absorber to keep the hook from coming out. A trick I have learned is that while I have my rod pointed upstream, I drop the tip into the water. What this does is it keeps the head of the fish down in the water making them less likely to fight. If you do this and it still fights, you most likely have a foul snag. For me, however, I never release of fish until I have someone or myself confirm the fish is foul snagged. To release a fish, tighten your drag all the way, point the tip of your rod at the fish and yank. This will release the majority of foul snagged fish. If it doesn't, you will have to muscle the fish to the shore to manually get the hook out for the release. If a fish is fair, by dropping your trip into the water with the pole pointed upstream, you can get the fish to practically swim right to you. Once I can see the fish and confirm a good hook up, I will get it as close to the shallows as I can, then quickly flip my rod down stream, while keeping tension on the line drag the fish ashore. This is not always easy or graceful because the fish will often make one last dart for the deep often between yours or someone else's legs, under a log, around a boulder etc. All of this is happening while you are trying to walk backs out of swift moving water on slippery rocks. I typically fall a few times a year. You do, however, get extra points if you fall and still successfully land the fish; double if you injure yourself in the process; and triple point if you go back to fishing after becoming injured. The fun really begins once the fish hits the shore. Grab the fish right behind the head and sink your fingers into the gills. If you collar the fish like this, it will not get away. My hands are big enough so that on most fish I can touch my finger to my thumb through the gills. I call this "scruffing" the fish, coming from how one would pick up a small puppy by the scruff. Grab a rock, a stick, a billy club, or whatever and whack the fish on the head. Not a light tap, not a nudge, not a slight knock - whack the begeezers out of hit. Think hitting it hard enough to knock one of its eye balls out. Blood will splatter, goo will be on your hands, fish line will be wrapped everywhere, your rod will probably be in the water, and you will be wearing a grin on your face as you have just put dinner on the bank.

Caring and Cleaning Your Catch - After landing a fish, I will rip a gill to allow the fish to bleed out. I'll keep the fish on a stringer in the water where it will keep nicely for all day long if need be. For cleaning, I generally scrape scales with a dull fillet knife. I then thoroughly rinse the fish.

Filleting - I have a special way I fillet that is a bit unconventional. My first cut is at the tail where I put a vertical slice to define the rear end of the fillet. I then cut the fillet from the tail along the backbone up to the rear most lateral fins on the bottom of the fish. You now have about 3 inches of meat (for your typical sockeye) dangling from the fish. I then cut along the top of the fish from the point I left off going forward to the gills. The knife runs along the back bone just so tip of my knife slides along the backbone. Be careful not to cut the ribs. You will feel the pin bones being cut. After this cut, I will make a cut top to bottom just behind the gill plate to define the front of the fillet. At this point the upper half of the fillet will pull away from the fish. I then take the knife and with long smooth strokes, I cut the fillet away from the ribs and cut the belly flesh to define to lower limit of the fillet. I work back to those rear lateral fins where I normally have to use a bit of force to break the cartilage connection between the left of right fins. This final cut at the rear lateral fins will separate the fillet from the body. I will generally then trim the jagged edges and remove fins.

Storing for Transport - I rinse each fillet briskly in the river to clean off any extra slime and blood, shake it off a bit in the air to remove excess water. then put the fillet in a gallon size zip-loc bag. Do not let the fillet stay in the water as it will degrade the flesh. Normally I can get about 3 fillets per bag. I then get them to ice as soon as possible. I just place the bags on the ice and head on home.

Freezing and Storing - The sooner you get you fish to the freezer the better, so after your three hour drive home don't poop out with a beer in front of the TV. Get those fish to the freezer. My process is I take the fillets from the zip-loc bags used to transport the fish home and give them another thorough rinse job with cold water. No matter how good of a job you did at the river bank, the fillets will be covered with blood and slime. This is OK for the ride home, but not good for the freezer. After rinsing, I pat the fillets dry with paper towels so there is no extra moisture on skin or meat. A vacuum pack the fillets and not on the bag the date and species of catch.

Prepping Fish for Eating - No recipes here, just a couple of tips on physically preparing the fillet. Defrost the fillet while it is still in the vacuum bag either in cool water or on the counter top. Remove from bag and rinse with cold water to remove any excess slime. Now is a good time to pull the pin bones out of the fillet. The freezing process will likely have exposed the pin bones a little more than when the fish was fresh. I have found it easier to pull the pin bones after the fish has defrosted than when it is fresh. Trim off any undesirable parts of the fillet (i.e. bits of fin, cartilage) then dowse and rub with lemon juice. Most people cook with lemon juice anyway, so the flavor won't be a problem. Dowsing and rubbing with lemon juice I have found removes any (I know this sounds funny) of that weird "fishy" taste that one often gets with frozen fish.

In Conclusion - Well, these are my tips and tricks. If you surfed in here and have questions, post a comment or drop me an email. Tight Lines!!!