(Re-run here from a while back. TL/DR, so duck out as always). Stoked as it's inside 30 days my group returns to Soldotna, AK to slay the sockeyes for a week. We go every odd # year in the historically hottest week of sockeye run. Some great dudes on the trip, including retired Navy Rear Admiral Jack Natter of B'ham (literally, "war stories" in camp). The lodge we book is a sweet setup, walk from your cabin down some stairs and you're standing in the Kenai hauling 5 - 12 # sockeyes in from 7:00 a.m. til sunset about 9:30 p.m. if you want. Most of us pause for draft beer and porch chair banter at good intervals. Lodge is 21 miles from the mouth of the mighty Kenai, and it takes a salmon about 24 hours to reach our camp after sonar detects him at the mouth.
Drop a line or three ITT if you have restaurant reco's, craft beer / bar stops, must-see spots not too far from Soldotna. We'll be there July 15-23.
For those curious, about 320,000 sockeyes will rage up the mighty Kenai in the mere 8 DAYS we are in camp. Last summer, from July 1 - Aug 19 (the last day of sonar counts), the cumulative sockeye salmon count was 1,383,696! Lawd! Little fishing skill required El Oh El. Limit 12 "reds" each per day. Will ship app 125# frozen back home. Kings ("Chinook") are making a big comeback too, so we'll do a 1/2 or two to hook a big King. I'll prolly release any I catch, need the resource to thrive again.
To break up the tedium of sockeye fishing and see more of the Last Frontier, we like to book 3-4 fly-out or short drive trips. Gonna slay some halibut in the Gulf of Alaska (mm, my favorite fish and it's not close), 1/2 day rainbows (some monsters too) fly fishing, fly-out to Lake Clark. And new this year, which I'm stoked about, four of us are flying De Havilland Otter bush plane up to the legendary Dick Proenneke's Cabin at Twin Lakes (on the national register of historic places). We'll fish the lake by the Cabin, cook lunch lakeside, and surely see bears.
https://www.nps.gov/lacl/learn/historyculture/proennekes-cabin.htm
Drop a line or three ITT if you have restaurant reco's, craft beer / bar stops, must-see spots not too far from Soldotna. We'll be there July 15-23.
For those curious, about 320,000 sockeyes will rage up the mighty Kenai in the mere 8 DAYS we are in camp. Last summer, from July 1 - Aug 19 (the last day of sonar counts), the cumulative sockeye salmon count was 1,383,696! Lawd! Little fishing skill required El Oh El. Limit 12 "reds" each per day. Will ship app 125# frozen back home. Kings ("Chinook") are making a big comeback too, so we'll do a 1/2 or two to hook a big King. I'll prolly release any I catch, need the resource to thrive again.
To break up the tedium of sockeye fishing and see more of the Last Frontier, we like to book 3-4 fly-out or short drive trips. Gonna slay some halibut in the Gulf of Alaska (mm, my favorite fish and it's not close), 1/2 day rainbows (some monsters too) fly fishing, fly-out to Lake Clark. And new this year, which I'm stoked about, four of us are flying De Havilland Otter bush plane up to the legendary Dick Proenneke's Cabin at Twin Lakes (on the national register of historic places). We'll fish the lake by the Cabin, cook lunch lakeside, and surely see bears.
https://www.nps.gov/lacl/learn/historyculture/proennekes-cabin.htm
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