Kenai Peninsula

Soldotna, Alaska

Soldotna is a city on the Kenai Peninsula known for its world-class fishing, particularly for sockeye salmon on the Kenai River. The city is located along the mighty Kenai River about 10 miles east of the shores of the Cook Inlet. Soldotna is about 150 miles southwest of Anchorage on the Sterling Highway (AK-1). The drive from Anchorage is spectacular and the highway curves around the shores of the Cook Inlet with mountains towering on all sides. About two-thirds of the way to Soldotna, you pass through the community of Cooper Landing which is known for its fishing and rafting on the Kenai River. This is where Kenai Lake drains to form the Kenai River which flows through Soldotna on its way to the Cook Inlet and the Pacific Ocean.

The community of Soldotna is known to have some of the best salmon fishing in the world and people flock here by the tens of thousands during the salmon run in the summer. The year-round population of 4,300 swells in the July when the sockeye salmon run up the Kenai River and the whole community seems to be geared to capitalizing on the anglers who come ever summer. There are tackle shops everywhere and there are numerous businesses geared towards packaging and flash freezing salmon for fisherman. The town has several large camping lots specifically setup for people who come to fish during the salmon run. Many of the campers actually have freezer chests, sometimes multiple ones, to preserve their fish to be enjoyed throughout the coming year.

Another amazing sight are the boardwalks that run along the banks of the Kenai River that have been erected by the city to aid anglers. There are stairs that lead down to the boardwalks and then additional stairs that lead straight into the river for anglers to wade into the water. There are even fish cleaning stations for anglers to filet their catch. It is really a remarkable infostructure set-up to support Soldotna’s fishing tourism and let me tell you, they come from all over the world. A large percentage of the anglers are Alaskans who come to catch sockeye and fill their freezers. Then, there is another group of fishermen who travel from the lower forty-eight specifically to fish for sockeye in the Kenai River every July.

And let me tell you, the fishing is spectacular with sockeye running up the Kenai River in huge numbers. The Alaksa Fish & Game have a sonar fish counter in the river and on the peak day this July, they counted 230,000 sockeye salmon running up the Kenai River at Soldotna in a single day. Anglers don’t have to be too patient to catch sockeye salmon during the July run. The standard tackle setup seems to be a small weight with a brightly colored piece of yarn or lure attached to a hook at the end of a lead 3-4 feet in length. The fishermen just wade into the water off the bank and flick that lure into the current. They let it drift a little bit and yank. Apparently, the salmon aren’t looking to eat but rather find the lure annoying and go after it. The limit for sockeye on the Kenai River is six per day and I saw many fishermen with their limit. These are all fully mature sockeye salmon too, probably weight 10-12 pounds each!

Big River Lakes

When I decided to travel to Alaska for the summer, the top experience on my list was to go salmon fishing with the bears. I had seen a few YouTube travel videos of people having this amazing experience on the Kenai Peninsula, and I knew this was the quintessential Alaskan memory that I wanted most. After doing some research online, I found a company named Talon Air Services that offers just the experience I wanted. They fly guests out of Soldotna for a day of fishing and bear viewing on the remote western side of the Cook Inlet.

After arriving at Talon Air’s float plane base at 8:00am, I was assigned to one of the four float planes that landed on the lake and pulled up to the docks. The plane was loaded up with all our gear and I, along with seven other passengers, boarded to join our pilot and fishing guide who were seated in the cockpit. The engine fired up and our pilot quickly had us airborne for a short 20-minute flight heading west over the Cook Inlet. We flew over the inlet at 2,000 feet giving us great views of the Kenai Peninsula and inlet below with snowcapped mountains visible out the cockpit window. Just as it appeared the airplane was heading towards a collision with a mountain, the pilot descended and gently touched down on secluded body of water known as Big River Lakes.

The float plane was met by flat-bottomed fishing boats and we exited the plane right onto the boat. My guide for the day was a young man from Montana named Levi. It worked out well because the other three fisherman on the boat with me were three friends from Libby, Montana so they had a lot to talk about with Levi. Our first destination on the lake was Wolverine Creek which is a location where the salmon jump out of the lake to make their way up the creek to spawn. It is a popular location with all the fishing guides due to the presence of sockeye salmon, but there is another frequent angler to Wolverine Creek: grizzly bears. When we arrived, there were already about ten boats there and there was one large boar in the water near the boats. Levi explained that this bear was known to wait patiently to steal fish off anglers’ lines. The bear was maybe 10 feet from the nearest boat, but it wasn’t frightening at all. This bear only had fish on his mind and we enjoyed watching him swim around for about ten minutes.

With so many boats fishing at Wolverine Creek, Levi explained that there is like a queue system to fish the hot spot so we might have to wait a while in order to fish if we wanted sockeye. He suggested, and we all concurred, to go after silver salmon (also known as coho) which we could fish for at several locations on the lake. So, we motored across the lake to Levi’s favorite honey hole, but we found that the water was way too choppy due to the windy conditions. We had to abandon that first location for a more secluded spot and Levi quickly had us with lines in the water. It is great fishing with a guide because he does all the work and you take all the credit! Levi set us up with a weight and salmon eggs as bait to fish on the bottom. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day to be enjoyed because we had no luck at this second location either. Levi informed us that the windy conditions were likely to blame for the poor fishing and that he’d be thrilled if the boat could catch a total of six fish which is half our three fish each limit.

At our third location of the day, Levi had us try using some bobbins in a grassy area but the cooler remained empty. It was already around lunchtime and we only had a few more hours to fish before we had to catch our flight back. The wind had appeared to die down a little so Levi suggested we try a spot he knew where the river flows into the lake that might be secluded enough from the wind. We arrived at the fourth site of the day and the water conditions looked favorable as we put our lines back in the water. Even though Levi had spotted fish rolling in the water, nothing had happened for thirty minutes and Levi said we’d give it another ten minutes before moving on to a new location. I noticed the slack in my line disappear and then the tip of the rod bent before relaxing again. Optimistic, I picked up my rod just as a fish took the bait and ran so, I yanked the pole to hook him. I’ve never had a fish this strong on my line before and he fought hard even momentarily going under the boat. Levi was able to finally get him with the net and he was a beauty: about a 9-pound male silver salmon. Game on!

The energy level on the boat immediately jumped with the catching of the first fish of the day. Within ten minutes of my catch, one of the guys from Montana on the other side of the boat caught a silver salmon himself. Levi had obviously found a good spot for us to fish. I soon caught a second silver salmon in roughly the same location that was slightly smaller than the first. Since some of the guys on the boat hadn’t caught any fish yet, I relinquished my prime spot to one of them. Within a half hour of taking my spot, that guy had reached his limit of three salmon. The fourth guest on the boat also caught a salmon so everyone had caught something. As the time approached to head back to the plane, we had a total of eight fish in the cooler which Levi quickly fileted and bagged for us.

We never got back to see more bears at Wolverine Creek as everyone on my boat, with exception of me, wanted to continue to fish and try to catch their limit of three. Other people who had been on other boats reported that they had returned to Wolverine Creek and had seen as many as seven bears there including mothers with cubs. However, our boat had caught the most fish so I guess there was a tradeoff: fish or bears. On our return flight back to the base, the pilot treated us with a sightseeing trip over the mountains and flew down the path of a large glacier. It was a spectacular day that met all my expectations. This had been the Alaska experience I had dreamt of and now I have those amazing memories plus some salmon in my freezer!