Fishing, Fishing and More Fishing: Soldotna, Kenai and Homer

Soldotna is an interesting place. It has a population of about 4000 people, but during the summer the numbers swell to more than double that. The Fred Meyer in Soldotna is probably the busiest store I have seen in Alaska. In fact, one of the busiest I have ever seen. So what are all these people coming to this part of the world for–Salmon fishing!!!

From late June through August tons of people descend on the Kenai peninsula to fish for the annual salmon that run the rivers and fill the bays leading to the rivers. Salmon fishing of all kinds–fishing in the Kenai river and streams, dipnet fishing in the bay (only Alaskans are allowed to do this) and fishing in lakes. I learned more in the week we were there about salmon then I ever thought there was to know. For example, there are five types of salmon here in Alaska: king (they had already finished their run when we arrived and they are literally the most king of the salmon for anglers), coho or silver salmon (we caught a bunch of these), sockeye or red salmon (we caught a bunch of these), pink or humpy salmon (we caught a bunch of these) and chum or dog salmon.

Many different species all converge on the Salmon to get their share of this tasty fish–the three most prominent are humans, bears and bald eagles . It reminds me of the scene in “Finding Nemo” with the seagulls–“mine, mine mine!!!” Mom and I have been picking up the quilt blocks for the row-by-row (something quilters do every summer) for a quilt (mom is going to make mine for me–yahoo!), and the row-by-row was titled “Mine, mine, mine” and depicted these three predators all wanting the same fish. You also have sea lions, seals, sea otters and many more that are after these tasty morsels.

We found a great spot to try our hand at fishing. We stayed in the Morgan’s Landing Campground (it was great). We could walk down to the river anytime we wanted and fish. The campground was pretty full each night, but one night when it was a bit sparse, we were playing the card game hand and foot on a rainy evening. Mom saw something moving outside and it turned out to be a momma and baby moose. My first moose of the trip.

We amateurs, fished the Kenai river and we learned there is a reason they call it fishing and not catching. We did learn the Kenai flick by watching the people across river who were catching fish like crazy. The Kenai flick is the same one we used in Hope, Alaska. You have a big hook with a piece of yarn tied to it and then some weights about 3 ft up the line. Then you flick it upstream, let it sink and drag it along. You are “flossing the fish” and you hook them. They don’t eat the hook. They are so plentiful you hook them. We were doing it right, but were in too deep of water. We didn’t quite figure out how to catch fish very effectively on the Kenai. We later tried using a lure the locals recommended. We all had fish on, but lost them. Once because we had a tiny, little net that just was not sufficient for silver salmon. Dad bought a bigger one.

Finally on a rainy afternoon, Mike caught the elusive silver salmon on the Kenai River. Yahoooo!!

Our next fishing adventure was a tour with Talon Air. It was a bear watching tour with fishing included. We flew in a float plane, from Soldotna to Big River Lakes near Lake Clark National Park across the Cook Inlet. After about 40 minutes, we landed on a lake and then we took a 18ft fishing boat out on the lake.

As we watched for bears, we fished. It’s amazing what happens when you fish with an expert. You catch–not fish. We each caught our limit–one sockeye and two silver (coho) salmon each. The Kenai flick we had learned worked for the sockeye salmon, but for the silvers, we used bait (salmon eggs) and a bobber. It was a whole lot of fun to catch and not just fish. Bill (our guide), knew the best places to go to catch fish.

Even with all that fishing going on, we saw a grizzly bear early in the trip on an island and swimming to the shore. It was pouring rain while we took pictures of him so pictures aren’t the best. But later, after catching our fish we saw at a distance….

So we went in for a closer look. The large male grizzly bear was eating the carcasses of the salmon the fishing boat in this picture had just left behind. He would dive down in the water for a bit and then come back with a mouth full of salmon. I was amazed at this underwater capability. We called him the scuba diving bear. We got up close and personal with this bear. He was on the island eating his salmon and we were in the boat just off shore. The closest we got was probably 20 feet away from him. He was only interested in eating the salmon, but he gave us some great photos.

Look at those claws and teeth. These guys are the best fishermen ever.

I felt perfectly safe in a boat, but I would hate to have been on the island with him. Especially if he thought I was taking his dinner. What an amazing experience that was!!! When he ate his fill, he swam off to the distant shore. We left this experience in awe of the power of these animals and amazed at their ability to swim and dive. Bill said that not all bears will dive like this bear did. You would have thought he was a polar bear.

Our next fishing experience was in the city of Kenai. We found the beach and watch the Alaskans fish by using dip-nets. Only Alaska citizens are allow to do this and it is for a certain time period and only on certain beaches. They are allow to catch a lot of fish each day though. It is dependent on the number of people in your household. One family told us they caught 21 fish that day. It is fascinating. They wait for the tide to come in and then wade out to chest deep and then hold a really long handled net out in front of them on its side and wait for the fish to swim into the net. It is amazingly effective.

While in Kenai we also drove out to the end of the road to Captain Cook State Recreation Area for lunch and to see the sights. We stop at the end of the road at the campground and had lunch looking out on the Cook Inlet and then we went down on the beach. This beach is well known for finding agates. So we went beachcombing. I have always loved rocks and have been interested in them since I was a child. I had a rock collection as a child. So looking for rocks was super fun for me. The ocean has polished the rocks against each other until the shine and in some cases become a bit transparent. I found some really awesome rocks that would make beautiful necklaces if one were so inclined. I also found rocks that looked like eggs. Just amazing things that nature created.

We left Soldotna after a week at Morgan’s landing and went to Ninilchik and stayed at Deep Creek State Recreation Area Campground. It was awesome. It was right on the beach and the first day we arrived was absolutely beautiful and warm.

This beach really helped us understand the tides. This part of Alaska has one of the largest differences in tides in the world. It was absolutely amazing to see the difference at high tide and then at low tide. We would go walking a lot and found the jellyfish above and other interesting things at low tide.

One evening, we spotted the other might fisherman of the species eating dinner–a bald eagle. It was amazing to watch him eat his fish and then get some water to drink and then fly up to a tree. What a big, powerful bird. Beautiful!! I love that this bird is our national bird. You can watch a little bit of him below in the video. I love watching him walk.

From Deep Creek we were about an hour away from Homer. Dad and I decided that we finally wanted to do something that had been a dream of ours for years–deep sea fishing. Of course, Mike and Mom didn’t want to go because it involved a boat on the open ocean (they both get motion sickness). Dad and I booked a halibut fishing tour with Russell Fishing Company (they did a great job–I would recommend them). We had to leave at 5:30 am from our camp at Deep Creek, to make it to the boat by 6:30 am. Hence Dad catching me in a yawn below while on the boat. The seas were extremely rough that day so the boat couldn’t even go out to the best fishing areas. The swells were 4-6 ft. We were in a small fishing boat about 24 feet or so for 8 hours. It was rather unpleasant, but awesome at the same time.

We fished and fished and fished. There were six of us on the tour and only three of us caught our limit. It really was not ideal conditions for catching fish that day. We were quite a ways from any shore, but there were about 6-7 sea otters that hung around with us most of the day. They would push their heads up about 2-3 ft out of the water and just watch us. Then they would disappear below the waves. We kept losing the bait off all of our hooks. My theory is that the otters were stealing our bait. Their pretty smart and it wouldn’t surprise me.

According to our captain, Skyler, and his mate, Badger, we had a perfect combination of things going on to create a bad day to fish. The seas were rough; the highest tide in a while was coming in; and we weren’t able to get to the right fishing grounds. But even with the “perfect storm” of conditions, Dad and I caught our limit. You are allowed two halibut per day and one has to be a small one.

I ended up getting motion sick thought and losing my lunch after I had caught all my fish. I don’t normally get motion sick at all, but this was rough and we were rocking a long time. The weird thing for me is I don’t feel sick before or after I loose it. Just throw up and be done. Just kind of a blah feeling on both ends. That night upon our return to the RVs at Deep Creek we had some yummy fresh caught halibut for dinner. We also filled our freezers with halibut (adding to the salmon we had already put in our freezers.

Deep creek was one of the coolest camp locations. The tides where dramatically different from low to high tide. Below is a picture at high tide and one at low tide in almost the same location near the tire. Although at the highest tide the tire was in the water so it moved around on us a bit.

We attended church in Homer and afterwards went for us nice drive and nature hike at Eveline State Recreation Area. The fireweed was in full bloom and it was absolutely beautiful. Fireweed is everywhere in the Kenai peninsula in the summer time. When the top of the flower blooms that means that summer is ending and six weeks later winter will arrive–according to the locals. We have seen fireweed in different stages of bloom depending on where it was. We hiked the first loop and then had lunch. Then Dad decided to stay in the truck and have his Sunday afternoon nap and the rest of us hiked the other loop. I will leave you with the awesome view at the bottom. The fireweed and the glaciers in the mountains behind them is such a beautiful contrast. I love Alaska!!!!