Last Trip of the Year....

[DocSpotty]

Amazing how much difference a week can make. The weather has been fabulous in Alaska this summer but fall hit hard about 3 days ago….it went from fishing in 60 degree weather last Saturday to fishing in barely 40 degree weather yesterday. Also it was cloudy and drizzling all day….then the wind started blowing to just to complete the late season ambiance. Where we had a plethora of boats, both private and guided, on the Kenai last week there were only a few today with the less than stellar weather conditions. This will probably be my last Kenai River excursion of the year….so I wasn’t about to cry about the weather. Got to the boat launch early and were still beat out on the water by 3 other guided boats:



Whereas the last two weekends the dollies predominated the catch…as it gets latter the dollies are off to spawn somewhere and the rainbows come on strong. Although my first few catches were still dollies:





It wasn’t long before the rainbows started kicking into gear:





And even though most of the big, spawning dollies from a few weeks ago had disappeared there were still some great colored dollies left:





We only fished a few hours at our first stop then started cruising down river. I managed a nice rainbow in each of the Kenai River’s three gates:







Then we started running into the other guide boats and decided to go down the small braid we did last week, hoping there were still dollies down there like last week. The water had dropped about 20% but very few dollies were back in this area……although I did make quite the catch of an extremely large white spruce trout:


I played it with unerring skill and tact…but, alas, in the end the big spruce got away (with my bead attached). Within 10 minutes I hooked the same spruce trout and it again escaped my capture. At that point I decided moving downstream would cure the problem. I did manage to catch several dollies and rainbows to 18 inches:



But the water wasn’t moving well, due to the flow decrease…and we decided to move on believing we had chosen the wrong section of lower river to fish......feeling sorry for me now aren’t you? Thanks. But that is not needed for unbeknownst to us a good portion of our fish had moved down the braid to a usually not so fishy part of the river. We spotted a few trout and pulled the drift boat over for a stop. Then we had a wide open rainbow bite for the next hour or so. It was raining pretty good so I didn’t get many pictures but did manage a few:



Then the guide and I both tied into nice bows for a very nice double…..the small fish was about 3+ lbs…the big one around 6 lbs….very girthy pigs:



Right after catching the big one on my next cast I hooked into the infamous TTT…. “TOAD OF THE TRIP”… (white spruce trout notwithstanding). He jumped…we guessed him in the 28” or so category and then bolted downstream way fricking faster than I could catch up. I was well into my backing and applying as much pressure as I dared and “bing” the hook pulled out….didn’t break, just pulled out. Guess that one will have to wait till next year.

As we floated the last half mile to Skilak Lake there were several white-headed buzzards seen looking for dead salmon to eat…..disgusting creatures…..although they do taste like chicken if barbecued:





The weather was looking nasty so we hit Skilak Lake and started the fun hour plus ride to the get out…it was foggy, rainy and generally lovely. As we cruised back we encountered one of our stinky friends munching on disgustingly bloated dead salmon with fuzzy stuff growing on them, on the shore:



As you can tell by his contemptuous stare he not only didn’t care about us I think he was picturing a fine meal. As he ambled slowly along the beach he gave us a big bear moon….with a coy, over the shoulder look saying you ain’t seen nothing this stinky before:



Then he just got bored with us and sat down:



It wasn’t long as we kept motoring, before we met one of Mr. Blackies’ friends….the word must have got out of well seasoned and marbled meat available in that little floating boat…cause he just glared at us like he could taste our brains already:



We decided getting out to shake hands was probably not wise and continued on to the launch and the trip home. Another great year on the Kenai….hope you enjoyed.

Brian

[Troutman65]

Well Brian, Those were some nice trout for sure. It has been a great fishing year for you . Thanks for sharing with all us on FNN. I know I drool all over my key boards at the fish you catch up there. Have a nice winter and will be waiting for your spring 2010 fishing reports .


Is there any ice fishing up there ?

[ldsaylor]

Another great report! I love the Team Viagra Hat!! haha. that is awesome. Those are some beautiful fish. Sorry about that big dog that got away.. Looks like another great summer on the penninsula. Congrats on all the success and thanks for the reports!