10 Dec 2015 Fishing Season
As we begin to make our way into the New Year we would like to thank all of our guests from the past year for helping us have a great 11th season as Alaska Drift Away Fishing. As a whole we were blessed with solid fishing from June thru September, let’s break down 2015 by each month for a closer look.
June
Rainbow Trout: Oh boy! 2015 June was by far one of the best early season trout fisheries we have seen in a long time! A huge Pink run in the fall of 2014 and solid winter Silver run gave Kenai Trout plenty to snack on from late fall into spring. Once the Kenai opened to Trout fishing (June 11) it was game on. 30-40 fish days, most of which were 20”-24” of pure chrome super chargers, each day brought close encounters of fall-fat fish over 25”. The best part?……. Trout were crushing streamers on the swing! How will this June pan out? We don’t know, but June is one of our favorite times to target Trout!
King Salmon: June started with good King fishing on the Kasilof River. We absolutely love no bait! The recent restrictions on the Kasilof to preserve the natural King run have helped deter angling pressure and makes for a great fishing experience. If your looking to target early run hatchery Kings the first two weeks of June is the time!
Red Salmon: We start targeting Reds on the Kasilof mid June ish. This year started consistently inconsistent. One day would be amazing the next was tumbleweeds. Most of this can be attributed to the giant tide swings we had during the month of June, but once the party got started the fishing became great.
July
Rainbow Trout: The trout party carried over from June and stayed strong until mid July. There is usually a week lull during mid July, but the last 12 days of the month offer some of the best trophy Trout fishing all season. Attention Trout anglers we highly encourage you to try the end of July. Not only are you going to have great trout fishing, but you can also bring home salmon, and the weather is usually awesome.
King Salmon: Due to the continuing low returns of native run King Salmon to the Kenai and Kasilof rivers Alaska Drift Away Fishing has decided to not target them in order to help preserve this amazing fish.
Red Salmon: We can’t complain about the 2nd run of Reds on the Kenai or Kasilof last July. Limits happened most days. The Reds have been a great source of freezer filling the past few years as we no longer target Kings. Most guests prefer fishing Reds over Kings anyways (I know we were surprised too). The reason? Reds offer continuous action and typically anglers leave the river with more tonnage of fish for the freezer. Preserve Kings and still fill the freezer with great fish, everyone wins!
August
Rainbow Trout: Early August produced some nice fish as usual. We still believe that late July through early August is on of the best times to target trophy Trout.
Mid August fished strong due to the late run of Reds, we normally see this time as a lull for Trout as food sources become limited due to the end of the Red run and beginning of the King spawn.
The end of August was great! We actually had a strong king spawn! It was great to see some numbers of fish spawning and spawn beds staying active. We were seeing Kings moving upriver and making beds well into the second week of September!
Red Salmon: The first week of August fished very well as usual, and we kept seeing great numbers of fish and limits well into mid August. Typically we do not see this, however, salmon show up when ever they want.
Silver Salmon: 1st run Silvers on the Kenai fished well but weird, we were consistently getting limits and quickly, the weird part was we could only find them in a few places. This run also fished well through the end of August into early September, which is historically a slow point between the 1st and 2nd run of Silvers.
September
Rainbow Trout: For Rainbow Trout September was great, for those hunting them it was pretty good. The Kenai saw a solid return of Reds to the river, with a good portion showing up pretty late. It was definitely nice seeing Reds spawning down river of Rainbow Alley. With this return of Reds coupled with low and fairly clear water made for tricky fishing conditions. Not to mention the Snow glacier ice damn blew out causing a spike in the water level during the second week.
Early September started strong, huge wind events threw a definite curve ball into the equation but a strong King spawn kept us finding quality fish. As we progressed into September a glut started due to all the spawning Reds. The Trout were still there, but had plenty of eggs to feed on, the quickly changing water levels due to the ice damn kept fish and food displacement constantly changing. Patience, perseverance, and stealth played an important role in hooking the temperamental trophy fish.
The end of September picked up a bit as the abundance of food kept most Bows hanging around, but the dropping CFS (water levels) kept the fish ultra sensitive to boat pressure. Through it all we landed many big Kenai Bows and tickled even more. We saw many new faces this September and were excited to see the reaction of folks as they battled their first Kenai River trophy Trout.
Silver Salmon: The low water also impacted the Silvers. We were able to find a few places that consistently produced, but once the morning bite was over it seemed like there was quite a bit of work to scratch out a few fish. The nice part was the early morning was good! We doubled up several times catching most fish in 18” of water or less! 2nd run Kenai Silvers run large averaging 10-12lbs with fish over 15lbs not uncommon. Conveniently the trout bite started to turn on as the Silvers turned off. It made for great combo days.
There you have it, 2015 in a large nutshell. We are very excited for 2016, which is a pink year (= big rainbow trout in the fall). There are still spaces available for peak dates throughout the summer, but they are filling up fast! Have a great winter!