04 Sep Rainbow Trout and Silver Salmon Sessions (August 11 – Sept 1)
Kenai River Rainbow Trout
What a great time to be fishing Trout on the Kenai! We did not see much of a lull between the Red Salmon food supply and the beginning of the Pink spawn. The Pink Salmon showed up with a vengeance and wasted no time getting on the spawning beds.
The Kenai saw a huge increase in water volume during mid August causing the CFS to hit over 20,000. With a huge rise in water the fishing can be tough, or it can be awesome. We found pockets of water holding fat Trout that were eager to party. During periods of high water it is crucial to think outside the box on where you would normally look for feeding Rainbows, instead, think about where the food is being relocated.
The last 10 days of August had a very consistent decrease of water level coupled with a heavy spawn of Pink Salmon. The end result was nothing short of phenomenal Trout fishing! As we roll into September the current outlook is great, we’ll just have to see what Mother Nature has planned for us.
Silver Salmon
The Kenai River experienced an average run of Silvers this year, but the ones that returned were well fed! A little extra work was required to track these finicky bitters down, however, the rewards were typically over 10lbs.
Due to the intense volume of Pink Salmon entering the Kenai back trolling was not a very good option. It was next to impossible to keep the Pinks off the plugs. Casing spinners and fly fishing was the best solution to the problem, offering hands on action and thrills!
The Kasilof River didn’t turn of until the end of August, but when it did huge Silvers over 15lbs filled the fish box up in only a few hours. We were very excited about the later part of this run.
