Gone Birding July 25, 2011 Bargain Hunter
Bruce Glick is traveling in Alaska this summer. This week he reports on ?combat fishing? on the Kenai River.
?Combat fishing? on the Kenai River in Alaska
In a departure from my normal birding reports, this week I want to share my fishing experiences on the Kenai Peninsula. Although I?ve done some fishing along the way, we planned to drive down to the Kenai River around the middle of July for the big second run of Sockeye Salmon (called ?Reds? here in Alaska).
Driving through rain, our arrival at Soldatna was actually one day late. As it turned out, the biggest run of Reds took place on that rainy Sunday, July 17 ? an estimated 250,000 salmon moved up the Kenai River that day. Of course we didn?t know that until I went fishing next day. It is a major accomplishment just to find a 10 foot space to fish anywhere along the Kenai this time of year. As one local put it: ?half of Anchorage is here plus all the tourists?. I?m sure this person was underestimating.
Both times that I fished it was a matter of getting to the river and then waiting in line for an hour or more until your turn came, as someone got their limit of three fish, or gave up and left. When it finally was my turn I was quite nervous ? every cast could hook the neighbor on either side. In addition when any of us hooked a fish, the others had to try to get out of the way. Often the call of ?fish on? was followed by a call of ?fish off?. In addition some fish were ?foul hooked?, meaning the hook was not in the mouth. Such fish had to be released right away.
Although people were catching fish (most of them in the 8-12 pound range), folks kept talking about how great it was the day before. Although I was not planning to ?catch and release?, that?s what happened with my five fish. One broke the line, another got off after a five minute fight, and the others put on some spectacular jumps and got away. Still it was amazing fun ? I can see why so many people are addicted to salmon fishing in Alaska.
That night I couldn?t sleep well ? dreaming of the fishing the evening before. At 6:30 I was awake so headed back down to the river. It was as full as before, and evidently had been that way much of the night. The fishing was much slower, as the 60+ people fishing along our little section of river bank were definitely not all catching fish. Again I had a number of near misses, the closest being a fish that I had brought right up to the net when it broke free. After three hours I was totally exhausted from standing in the fast moving river and constantly casting and retrieving. I gave my spot to the next person in line before I fell in the river, which happened to at least three people while I was there.
After I hung up my waders, Helen and I drove over to see old town Kenai, located right at the mouth of the Kenai River. The mouth of the river was full of people fishing, boats coming and going, and people, tents, vehicles everywhere. In this section of the river, you could see that people were fishing three or four deep ? meaning that most of fish being caught were actually traveling up the river between the people fishing.
Whew! It?s time to return to a more sane sport ? I think I?ll try birding again, although the thought of going out on a Halibut boat is growing in my mind.
Until next week ? good birding!
Bruce Glick
birderbruce@yahoo.com
