Kenai Fishing Trip

Nothing beats a trip to Alaska's playground...the Kenai.  We only had a few days between when Jolene and the boys arrived on the move from Maryland, and the boys' Bible Camp, so we didn't get to time it perfectly with the salmon run, but we did limit on halibut.




We also got the see the bore tide rush up Turnagain Arm. Not many places in the world have conditions that allow a bore tide, but here we do. The surfers in these pictures waited on their boards for the bore tide to rush in, while we watched. Then they surfed the incoming tidal wave for miles up Turnagain Arm. It was pretty cool to see firsthand.




We stayed in Ninilchik and fished a day on the Russian River (between salmon runs, so there wasn't much fish in the river), and a day out on Cook Inlet going after halibut. We also stopped at the Ninilchik Russian Orthodox Church, which made for some good pictures.








Eagles, Moose, Bear, Salmon.  Lots of wildlife.  When you add in the halibut, dall's porpoise, sea otters, dall sheep, caribou (pet reindeer, but we're counting it), and bore tide - we got to see a lot of what makes Alaska great during our short 2 day trip to the Kenai.






Of course, our main purpose was fishing. Above pics are us on the Russian River.


At the confluence of the Russian and Kenai Rivers, trying to decide if it's worth it to join the combat fishing line along the Kenai River.






No one was pulling any in, but I sent both boys out to cast in the Kenai, for the experience. Just not a lot of sockeye running that week, since it was right between the two big runs.


But the black bears were having a good time carting off the leftover carcasses from previous days. This one grabbed some salmon leftovers in front of Landon and I, while we were casting mid-river. He then tried to jump to shore with the salmon in his mouth and proceeded to slip and careen head first into the bank with a loud thud. As we laughed, a different mother bear and two cubs came out of the bushes behind us. Luckily they didn't cross, since we were pre-occupied watching the clumsy bear across the river.




But farther up river, at the Russian River Falls (no fishing allowed there), we got to watch some of the salmon that were bunched up at the falls make their jumps upstream. That was pretty cool to watch.




Then it was off to the halibut part of the trip....being driven into the surf by the tractor is always cool in Ninilchik.








Grayson pulled in the first halibut, from his "lucky corner" spot.




Landon wasn't far behind, pulling in two shortly thereafter. His second one ended up being our biggest of the day (none of ours were monsters, but they will be good eating).






We limited on halibut, and brought home enough fillets to allow for a delicious fish fry (or two or three or four) throughout this next year. Salmon and halibut are in the freezer, but we still have plenty of room for more.