What do you usually do when you have a great
experience fishing? I usually talk a lot about it.
Last fall, a friend of mine and myself
fished the upper Kenai River around Coopers
Landing, specifically the Russian River. The
upper Kenai River is located about 100 miles
from the Anchorage. and considered road fishing
as opposed to a fly out. In previous years I
had only heard stories about off season fishing on the
Russian, it was time to check it out.
On the river, spent or dead sockeyes abounded
everywhere, dolly varden and rainbows were
keying in, just downstream, on spawning beds
for loose eggs and salmon flesh. We quickly
found out that it wasn’t hard to match the hatch.
We also had a time with fresh sockeyes and
silvers.
While on the river we ran into folks from
Anchorage that were more than willing to supplement
our knowledge by telling us about an opening of
the Anchor River for a ‘silver salmon only’ run.
Tired of releasing spent sockeyes, we were soon
on our way toward Homer to try our luck on the
Anchor River.
On the Anchor River, we shared the area with
only a couple of folks from Utah that had never
fished anything larger than a 4 wt rod. After 5 PM, the
locals would more than double that number. Of course
the silvers were pushing through and a time was had
hooking up with what can only be termed as rainbows
on steroids.
Lodging and transportation concerns were never a
problem for 2 fish bums. We were always able to find
lodging for two. That was last year.
After mentioning last year’s trip, this year’s trip
included a group of 11. Eight had never been to Alaska,
so most didn’t have a clue what to expect. Some had
never flyfished before, either.
Part of the group leaving San Francisco
Airport- Bob Langland, Craig Gittings, Dave Pehrson,
Andrew Gittings with Gatti tube, and Steve Foti.
Originally published c. 2003 on Fly Anglers Online by Craig Gittings.