Red Salmon and the Kenai

Saturday morning July 30 we left Hope and headed to Soldotna where Dick had heard stories of how easy it is to catch salmon just along the river by the visitor’s center. Several folks we had spoken to him in Dawson City and outside Denali praising the spot and told of their limit catches there of Reds (red or sockeye salmon).

We needed to dump the RV and when we got to Soldotna we went straight to the Fred Myers store where they offer a free RV dumping station and potable water. They also offer RV’ers free overnight parking for up to three nights. When we met the attendant the store provides to monitor and assist at the dumping station, he offered us a space and we decided to stay in their parking lot alongside about a dozen other RVs. It turned out to be very quiet during the night.

We toured the area and discovered the beautiful public park system in the Soldotna area. Tourism and fishing make up a significant part of the Soldotna economy. There are four very nice and easily accessible public parks for fishing in and around Soldotna and they include campsites for tents and RV’s, boat launches and fish cleaning stations. In each of these parks and all along the Kenai River, in conjunction with the appropriate state, local and volunteer organizations, strong efforts have been made to protect the banks of the river in a natural and undisturbed state in order to protect the young salmon fry and yearling salmon prior to their trip to the sea where they stay for 2 or 3 years to mature before they return as adults to spawn and die in the stream or river where they were hatched. Sunday we moved to the Centennial Park Campground. Centennial is a large and beautiful campground right along the famous Kenai River adjacent to the Visitors Center. We were able to move into a site that backed right up to the Kenai and the boardwalks and aluminum stream entry points provided in the park. We had a fabulous view of the river right out the slide out window of the RV.

Unfortunately, as always, timing is everything. The season on King salmon is ending July 31 and the King run was actually all but over several weeks ago. The main run of Reds had occurred two weeks ago and when we arrived it was near the end of the second and final run of Reds and a week or two before the Silver (or Coho) salmon would start to run in earnest. That did not deter me or many other fishermen, including a lot of local persons, from trying to catch the Reds. Looking out on the fast flowing and probably 150 yard broad bright blue Kenai I could see large fish surfacing and even sometimes jumping out of the water. Other fishermen informed me that the large ones toward the center of the river are the last of the Kings. The smaller ones still quite a ways from the bank were likely early Silvers. The Reds were still running and they swim very near the bank of the river.

The stairways built over the banks lead you down into the river about three or four feet from the actual bank into water that is between knee and waist deep on an adult. Waders are essential and the flow is so swift the standing is near impossible at depths above the crotch. In many spots the riverbed falls off deeply just a couple feet further out. The method used to hook the Reds is very much the same as I described in the previous post about fishing at Hope, i.e. trying to lip snag them by getting a line across their mouths. It’s amazing how some people seem to have an innate knack for fishing this way while many others including me just try to imitate them. I spent Sunday afternoon and evening fishing for the Reds, watching, imitating and chatting with some very successful fishermen who were standing only a few feet away from me. Two gentlemen caught their limit of 6 each within 25 feet of me. Pat stood on one of the platforms above the bank and filmed several catches and even filmed my participation as the assisting man with the net. I was amazed how quickly the successful folks could fillet their catch and throw the large carcasses into the river. It was not uncommon to snag a carcass and in the fast current even retrieving them was a struggle.

I did manage to hook into several Reds and even got two right up by the net. What a fight they gave before breaking off. Finally early Sunday evening I did hook and land one Red assisted on the net by a kindly nearby fisherman whom I had likewise previously helped. The Reds are named for their flesh which is much darker than the Pinks I had caught in Hope and are even more tasty!

Monday I spent much more time fishing and hooked several and landed one more Red.

Pat and I also took a drive up to the town of Kenai above Soldotna and drove past Kenai to Captain Cook State Park where we wandered the rocky beach at low tide. The variety of the rocks there is amazing and due to the glaciers of many years ago. Surprisingly we had the entire park nearly to ourselves.