Kenai, Alaska

 Carnage on the Beach

I timed the trip perfectly to be here when the main 'sockeye" run of salmon start up the Kenai River to spawn and die....but then, you have to ask yourself....don't we all?

As a survival trick, the salmon wait for the incoming tide and then swarm in as a massed group....you can almost hear the leader say, "Let's go together boys, that way some of us will make it".

These scenes are of Alaska residents "dip-netting". They each get to catch 25 sockeyes this way for each family member. They can get "proxies" to catch for neighbors and relatives. If you are a non-resident like me you can catch three with a fly that has a hook no more than 3/8  inch in diameter.

 I set the alarm for 2:30 AM. It is fairly light outside. I go to a spot in downtown Soldatna where we saw a lot of 10-15 pound sockeyes yesterday leaping out of the water after being hooked on a fly. It's almost deserted at 3AM . I hook two beauties with my flies but after several spectacular leaps the line breaks and they both get away.

Alaska sockeye is the healthiest meat you will ever eat...it's full of omega-3 and gives you a lot of the good cholesterol....no PCB...only 50 calories an ounce....and delicious...they only eat plankton and that gives them the red flesh and the nickname "reds"....

At nine I find a lovely spot on the Kenai with only a few natives fishing...It's a long trek there with Mrs. Phred's broken foot and we forget the camera. My hip boots have a hole in the right knee and I have a hell of a time removing it after fishing...she stands on the platform behind me and gives me useful tips on casting and form that she sees the other fishermen do. She is hopeful that these tips will land me a fish.

I hook three more big sockeyes with a boot full of cold water. All of the break my line...I have three hypotheses:
1. The pounds of test on my line is too light...
2. The line is old and rotten.
3. I'm tying bad knots for the sinkers, swivels and flies, creating failure points....

I buy new 30 pound test line and get a brochure on knot tying...also a patch kit for my rubber hip boot....high tide is at midnight tonight ...FISH FEAR ME!!!

The Reds are Running

Kenai, Mouth of the Kenai River, Cook’s Inlet, Alaska

Cook’s Inlet runs along the Kenai Peninsula for about 150 miles. It’s lined with 12,000 foot snow-covered active smoking volcanoes. I used to fly up and down here once a month to deliver supplies out to a radar station at the end of the Aleutian Chain a few miles from Russia. The trip from Washington State to the end of the Aleutians took 20 hours. After a 100 hour trip to Southeast Asia, you could just squeeze in an Alaska supply trip at the end of the month before running out of hours.


Seeing the volcanoes again from our perch on a bluff brought back the old memories. I remember falling asleep with my face in a radar scope cowl over the remote Pribilof Islands. I remember flying here between pink and purple fantasy cotton candy cloud layers at dawn.

The fishing regs here are incredibly complicated. I read a sign this morning on the Kasifof that says King salmon with adipose fins can only be taken on Thursdays and Saturdays. There is a picture of an adipose fin but no other explanation. I go to Google and learn that hatchery fish have adipose fins removed before release. The fish with adipose fins are therefore wild salmon that get extra protection five days a week.

For part of the season, kings between 44 and 55 inches in length must be released. As I understand it, this restriction has expired, but Kings over 55 inches must be presented to Fish and Game within three days before they are filleted.

The residents are lined up shoulder to shoulder now along mouth of the Kenai with dip nets. They stand in lines of about fifty waiting for a turn to run down the beach and scoop up the reds. It’s called subsistence fishing.

A resident is allotted 25 reds annually plus 10 reds for each dependent. We see a family, cooking jars of red flesh chunks in pressure cookers, preparing for the winter. Reds run about 10 pounds each. This is a big event in summer. Tomorrow is the weekend and with the news of the run, the beach should be even more crowded as the 24 foot tide and fish come in.


I buy some rubber boots that come to my crotch so I can stand on the shore and attempt to snag a red or two before we continue the trip. About 40,000 reds a day will enter the river for the next two weeks. They swim along the shore making them easy to scoop up with dip nets. You have to be a resident to use a net. I'm nervous about catching a fish that violates regs. However, no one seems to be checking.

This morning, I walked down to the quiet Kasilof River. A moose waded out a few feet from me and then swam across the river. These are the moments that a volunteer nature photographer lives for. It’s a job. Someone has to do it.

Finally I’m in a place with enough bandwidth to post pictures to my blog. I catch up on about two weeks worth of blog pictures.