Surf fishing on the Kenai

As I write this, I’m getting ready to head down on the Kenai to surf fish with Randy Sisco and his new Compassion Thru Fishing guiding business. We were originally scheduled to drive down in our RV on Monday, overnight in one of the campgrounds in Ninilchik, and go fishing on the Tuesday morning tide. Plans are always subject to change in Alaska!

My wife isn’t feeling well and decided not to go. We also have a puppy dog who appears to be under the weather too. And, to add insult to injury, the weather forecast is for higher winds blowing through the Turnagain Pass area on Monday. I’ve driven the RV around Portage and nearby areas before in high winds and it’s no fun when a gust of wind hits the side of the RV.

I’ve got to call Randy to get directions to his fish camp to meet on Tuesday morning and to let him know there will only be one instead of the two originally booked. Hopefully, he’ll fill the other two spaces he has available for this trip. At this point, I’m watching the weather reports and planning to drive my truck down early Tuesday morning and probably returning home later in the day after the fishing trip. Weather update: We’re rebooked for Wednesday since Randy says it will probably be too windy there to fish on Tuesday.

I’ve been following Randy on Facebook with his postings about surf fishing, and I must admit to being fascinated by the whole concept. I’ve read about surf fishing on the East Coast but never thought about it up here. In my short phone conversations and emails with Randy, he commented on the surf fishing activities he guides.

Randy learned how to surf fish on the East Coast and was taught the techniques for distance casting and other activities from knowledgeable experts. He came to Alaska and, given our tremendous amounts of shoreline, was amazed surf fishing wasn’t an established activity here already. He started assembling gear and working with Fish and Game to become properly licensed to guide anglers.

This 2021 season marks his first for his guiding business. Based on his posts and photos on Facebook, it appears to have been a successful season for him.

According to Randy, the best times to fish are from two hours before high tide to two hours after high tide. The best tides are the ones with the lower height changes between high and low. The reason for this is the tidal currents on 30-foot tide changes make it almost impossible to keep bait on the bottom where the halibut and other fish feed.

He also has told me that to reach the areas where the halibut are, a cast of 100 yards or more from shore is needed. That requires some specialized fishing rods and reels. In the spots where Randy tends to fish, a rod capable of casting 10 ounces of weight plus bait is necessary to reach the distance and hold the bait down. These rods are usually spinning rods of anywhere between 10 and 16 feet in length with a heavy action. The spinning reels are necessarily large as well, needing to hold 300 to 400 yards of 17 to 20-pound test line.

He uses either circle hooks or “J” or “octopus” style hooks with either frozen herring or octopus as bait. The weights are rigged on a slider above the hook setup to allow the fish to move with the bait without the hinderance of a fixed weight on the line.

That’s the basic information I have learned from reading posts and talking some with Randy. I want to go fishing with him to confirm the proper gear requirements, where to purchase the specialized rods and reels, ask whether mono or braided line is best, if I can use lighter weights for at least some surf fishing, and have him demonstrate the proper long-distance casting techniques.

The species his clients most commonly catch are dogfish, or small sharks, sole, flounder, Irish lords, greenling, the occasional skate, and, of course, halibut. The halibut tend to be smaller, in the 10 to 20-pound size, but his clients have caught nearly 70-pound fish on rare occasions. The dogfish seem to be the most common. Never having eaten dogfish, I’d like to give it a try!

Assuming I make it down to fish (my wife too), given weather patterns and scheduling space, I’ll let you know how things went.