How to Fish the Kenai

Alaska's Kenai Peninsula is an angler's paradise teeming with coho, sockeye and king salmon, and rainbow trout.

Follow these tips to fish for salmon and trout in the Kenai and enjoy an angling adventure in one of the great unsullied regions of southcentral Alaska.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Medium action rod and reel for salmon fishing
• Fly-fishing rod and reel
• Dry flies in assorted colors and styles, eswcpecially shades of pink and chartreuse
• Bait and tackle

1. Catch salmon along the Kenai by casting silver and white spoons with treble hooks upstream, allowing the lure to drift past you and bounce along the riverbed.

2. Let the line go slack as the lure drifts past you so that it can follow the natural ebb and flow of the current.

3. Bait a 4/0 hook with two or three salmon eggs, if legal during your trip, and weight the line with a 1/2-oz. sinker, casting into pools and slow-moving water where salmon and trout congregate during the heat of the day.

4. Keep baits and lures about 2 inches off the bottom in the strike zone where salmon can almost always be found.

5. Cast flies in pink or chartreuse colors to trout and salmon when the fish are visibly feeding on the surface.

Tips & Warnings

• Spool your reel with as much line as it can hold without risking a snarl. King salmon are notorious for making long runs that will unspool a fishing reel and leave it screeching from the protests of the drag setting. You may need to move down the bank or run along upstream just to keep the fish from breaking free if the brute peels off all your line.
• Check posted regulations concerning bait and fishing times. Fishing with salmon eggs may be illegal depending on time of year.

References

• About Fishing the Kenai River in Alaska
• Fishing the Kenai Peninsula
• Kenai Area Fishing Report

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