01 Aug July 2017 Fishing Report – Another Great Month of Fishing
As usual, July came and went in a hurry, and as a whole, it was another great month of fishing. Our guests had great times on the Kenai River, flyouts, and salt water. Keeping up with the norm, the Board of Fish and Alaska Department of Fish and Game entertained (mostly infuriated) Alaskans and tourists with their continued inability to effectively manage the interests of user groups and fish returns. More on that in the Sockeye Salmon portion of the blog.
Sockeye Salmon
As a whole the fishing for Sockeye during July on the Kenai River was tough. We were getting limits almost everyday, but they did not come easy. Fish and Game did a great job of preventing fish from entering the river with extensive netting, don’t worry this was all in the name of resource management. At one point during early/mid July the commercial fisheries had just shy of 1 million Kenai Sockeye netted while 150,000 made it into the river. Follow this link to read a well researched and written article laying out this debacle https://craigmedred.news/2017/07/16/the-curtain-falls/
The past few years have been riddled with poor management choices from Board of Fish and ADF&G, slowly their practice has become publicized and is floating to the surface much like a turd in a pool. After this past year it will be very interesting to see how the public acts and what will be done with this problem. Only time will tell, but a motivated and educated public has the power to make the necessary changes so all user groups can fairly utilize the resource.
Rainbow Trout
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, JULY 20th – AUGUST 5 IS ONE OF THE BEST TIMES OF THE YEAR TO TARGET TROPHY RAINBOW TROUT ON THE KENAI!!
The reason? This is the first real opportunity for Kenai trout to eat a ton of food, sockeye anglers are filleting and throwing the remains back into the river where a steady supply of hungry trout eagerly await an easy meal. When the planets properly align this time of year can and will compete or be better than the fall trout fishery. We highly encourage you to give it a try!
For some unfortunate reason, we had very few trout only days this July. Typically we will go after rainbows after we get a limit of Sockeye, but with the tough fishing this year most days were spent concentrated on filling limits of salmon. The few days that we did get to focus on trout were pretty fun and hope to show more folks how awesome the Kenai can be for Trout in July.
Halibut
The fine folks at J&J Charters are consistently filling limits and freezers with a smile on their faces! We encourage you to book a day or two with these guys and add some delicious Halibut to the mix. J&J launches out of Deep Creek in the Cook Inlet, this spot allows the captains to only travel a short distance for good fishing (30 – 45 min is average), and the very Alaskan style of launching and loading the boats is always fun.
Flyout Fishing
Our guests had a wonderful time on flyout excursions this year. A steady supply of Sockeye and an above average return of Silvers kept clients entertained and limits filled. A flyout trip is always an adventure and exposes you to the raw beauty of backcountry Alaska. There are several trip options all season, give us a call to find out more.