Return to Fall

During my trip home, I encountered so many people that were interested in the blog and were hoping for more to read. I guess I didn't realize that so many people have been following along. So I will return to earlier this fall and post about some things that I didn't get around too.

First up is a cold October day on the Upper Kenai River. The river had dropped down to a fishable level after heavy rains pushed the river to flood stage. I got the boat all ready and made sure to put in the propane heater up front for Rose!

 

The target on this trip was trout, dollies (dolly varden/bull trout), and hopefully a silver salmon or two. For trout, we were using beads that mimicked salmon eggs. For silvers, we were using large flies made out of strips of rabbit fur. These large streamer flies were called dolly llama's and were to mimick leeches.

 

 

We were doing ok, picking up a trout here and there but nothing overly fantastic. It was a cold day and Rose was taking full advantage of the heater up front. We had a hole in mind where we'd hooked into some silvers a few days before. As we rounded the bend in the river, we had pits in our stomachs, hoping there was no on in our spot. But as the hole came into view it was apparent that someone had the same thing in mind. I slid over into the slack water above the other boat and anchored, we would wait them out.

While we waited for them to move downstream, we fished without much hope as we knew that the majority of fish would be below us. They landed 4 or 5 silvers while we anxiously awaited their departure. We had caught a couple of dollies and then out of the current to the left side of the boat I hooked into something big! I didn't know if I had a big dolly or a silver at first but it became apparent that it was a big silver! I was able to bring him in out of the current and slowly get some line back on the reel. Rose and I both could see the flash of silver in the greenish-blue water and knew we had a good fish on the line. As he neared the boat, the fish took off on a run, stripping line. I got him stopped and began gaining ground on him again. After multiple runs, the fish began to tire and then we had short battles near the boat. He would go around the front of the boat, under and back again. With Rose ready with the net we were finally able to net a beautiful Kenai silver salmon!

With all the whooping and hollering, I think we distrubed the boat below us and they pulled anchor and left. I'm sure we looked like a bunch of fools scrambling around the boat but heck, it was tense fishing! And we were having a good time.

We slid into their spot and we fished for a good long while and Rose had a number of hook-ups but nothing that would stay on the line more than a couple of seconds. I caught a smaller female silver that had turned a bit red and we released her.

Rose had finally had enough and was frustrated that I had caught two salmon. She didn't care much about the trout fishing and really wanted a salmon. We continued on down river and made several attempts to get her a silver but it just wasn't meant to be that day.

I finally got her to put a line in the water at the last place to fish before the boat launch. While trying to entice a silver to strike her dolly llama streamer, she hammered a big fat dolly. It put up quite a fight and after a few photos, she sent it back to the water.

 

I pulled anchor and we were just leaving the hole and Rose had another hit, out of the deep water against a rock shelf. I hoped it was a silver but instead it was a BIG RAINBOW! I was already hitting the current and I said, just hang on and we'll take it down to the boat launch with us and land the fish there. We reached the takeout and Rose was out in a flash. By the time I got out of the boat with the net, she already had that fish to the beach and it got loose before I could snap any photo's of her with it.

What a great cold drizzly day on the Kenai! As I sit here at my desk with it snowing outside, I can't wait for more summer and fall days on the Kenai...