Road tripping for Kenai River coho salmon

A friend kept inviting me to fish the Kenai River with him, and I was finally free to join hime. He asked if I wanted to fish for coho salmon or trout —- and that was a no-brainer for me. I like the size, power, and taste of fresh-from-the-ocean salmon. He was bringing the boat, and all I had to bring was some fishing gear, food, and some money to spilt the cost of our cabin for the night.

In order to reach Kenai River in time to start fishing soon after it starts getting light, we met at the Mat-Su commuter parking area off Trunk Road at 5 am, and started cruising toward the most known fishing spot in all of Alaska. I normally enjoy the scenic drive along Turnagain Arm and through the mountains toward Kenai Lake. On this trip it was rather dark, and I must have been so keyed up about going fishing that I had been unable to sleep the night before. Once in the cab of GEne’s warm truck and cruising through the darkness I quickly started getting drowsy.

I became more fully awake as it started getting light enough to see the Upper Kenai River near its confluence with the Russian River. I was on alert from that point until we pulled into the boat launch at the south end of Kenai Lake. We had an unexpected delay at the boat launch, and did not get as early a start as we had hoped for, but eventually we were bundled up in warm clothes, waders, rain gear, and personal floatation devices and boating toward the outlet of Kenai Lake and into what is called the middle river below the lake.

Watching Gene and other boaters navigate this wide slow section of the river below the lake, I quickly realized a driver should either know the water, or proceed with extreme caution. Fortunately Gene appeared to know where he was going, and we were also running in a shallow draft boat equipped with a 50 horsepower jet outboard. Gene stopped at one spot in this upper section, and we casted single-hook spinners toward a shallow slough entering the river. We caught some weeds and dredged bottom a bit. Gene had mentioned that he and another angling buddy had caught a silver salmon at this location the previous week, however, the water level had dropped significantly since then. We tried a few more casts, then Gene puttered along with the motor as I casted toward the side of the river for a ways further. Nothing felt, or seen, so after I pulled the lure from the water one last time, Gene hopped us up on step again and we cruised downriver until we were downstream of the Upper Killey River.

The Upper Killey River is not much of a river, it really looked more like a creek to me, but once we were downstream of the confluence regulations allowed us to use multiple-hooks and use bait while fishing for salmon. Gene had me anchor the boat at a spot where he had seen some other anglers catching coho on previous trips. He explained that he had watched them catching salmon by casting large plugs, so I started casting a MagLip Flatfish and Gene started casting with a Mepps Spinner. We were casting toward shallow water where a gently sloping gravel bank came down to the river. The bank was littered with salmon carcasses from fish that had spawned in the shallows or floated down and washed up on the sloped bank. For a while all we caught was weeds and the only live salmon we saw were zombie-looking fish that had already spawned out and were being washed back downstream by the current.

Felt what I thought was a large weed near the bank, but then I felt some motion on the end of my line. When I set the hook, sure enough there was a chrome salmon thrashing at the other end. Was bringing the fish in easily out of the shallows near the bank, but then it started to run and got out in the bigger current. Gene asked if we should pull the anchor and follow the salmon, but I said no, I would bring him back. Feeling the fish take off in the faster water, I pulled a bit too hard and the hook pulled loose. That is when I made up my mind that if I hooked any more salmon I would be gentle and take my time — especially if the fish got out in the current.

A show time later, I felt that same soft weed-like drag on my line, and again it was a salmon. Just like before it got out in the deeper water and took off in the current, but this time I waited for it to quit running, and took my time gently pulling it back upriver toward the boat. Gene was waiting with the net, and soon we had a large chrome coho in the boat.

Gene hooked the next coho on his Mepps Spinner, or at least we thought it was a smaller coho. It fought well and thrashed around along the river’s surface, but when we got it close we could see a pink rainbow of color along its side. Gene unhooked his spinner and let the trout loose. The brief bit of action shut off, and we were back to casing, but only catching real weeds. Gene later switched to a Kwikfish plug and briefly hooked one more fish that quickly came off. We briefly tried drifting salmon roe under bobbers with no luck, before moving on and fishing several additional spots.

We saw lots of gulls and bald eagles along the river. They appeared to have as much too each as they could choke down. I am familiar with gulls making quite a racket as they squawk over fish scraps, but these gulls mostly stood along the gravel bars or lazily pecked at one of the plethora of fish carcasses along the river’s edge. The eagles and gulls hardly paid any attention to each other as well. Even with the cool weather and snow, I purchased a bag of ice to put in the cooler with our fish.

We fished several spots with no results, before Gene found some coho that provided some action. This time all of our action was on bait drifted under bobbers. We missed several bites, had some fish come off, but harvested one more coho each. There were some gulls out in the river near where we were fishing, and we were careful to keep our baits from drifting too close, but somehow a gull got tangled in my line. I think it was more work dragging that tangled gull upstream in the Kenai River than catching the coho. Fortunately we were able to get the bird untangled and let him loose. All the remaining gulls took notice and move away — so no more accidents.

It started snowing that evening as we were boating across Skilak Lake toward the boat launch. Even with all of our warm clothes and foul weather gear, we were both cool by the time we got the boat loaded and climbed in the truck. The heated cabin Gene had reserved for the night was well worth the price.

It was cold the next morning with fog along the river and ice on the boat ramp. We each caught one coho salmon and I also caught and released a rainbow trout (that we once again mistook for a salmon before bringing it close to the boat. On the second day all of our action was on bait drifted under bobbers. We each tried lures again the second day, but were unable to hook a single fish on our spinners and plugs. The ice in the cooler, from the previous day, did not melt at all during the trip, so we were both glad we had brought plenty of warm clothes.

All of the coho salmon we caught were in great shape, and Keani River remains open to coho salmon fishing downstream from Skilak Lake though the end of October. The daily bag limit is 3 per person, but there is quite an array of regulations for specific stretches of the river downstream from Skilak Lake. I would advise reading fishing regulations carefully, and caution anglers new to this fishery — a person needs to pay attention to know what specific stretch of river you are on, and which regulations apply to that stretch.

Good luck and Fish On!

Andy Couch is a Mat-Su Valley angler and fishing guide who primarily targets ocean-run salmon during summer months.