I am heading up to alaska with my brother for the last three weeks of july. We are with a guide on the kenai for a week but want to know what we should do after that. Were should we go, thought about tryin silvers on the little su. Would my pontoon boat do well up there? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. orr......................possibly some nice person live up there and wanna take some poor lower 48er on the fishing trip of their life ?!

I recommend doing a little research on the Alsaka F & G website. They have archives of their weekly fishing reports from around the state for the past several years. See, http://www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/statewide/html/sf_home.htm and click on, "Fishing Reports for Southcentral" for the Kenai Peninsula. I organized a pretty good trip in mid-August for cohos last year.

my buddy and i are heading up to alaska around the same time. his parents have property near the kenai. we have been thinking about spending a day or two fishing for rainbows. if you fish for trout at all, maybe you should set aside a couple of days

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After spending a week on the busiest river known to man ... I wouldn't head to the second-busiest river in the state!

Try some trout fishing, wither Upper Kenai or put your pontoon boat on some local lakes. The ADF&G office in Soldotna will have a listing of stockings they will have made ... and there should be some could carry-over fishing next year as there has been very little cold to freeze things solid and kill off what's already there.

Also, you should try a Seward trip for combo fishing for just about everything that swims all in one day

Depending on how much you have to spend and what you want to do...

I'd recommend heading up to the Bristol Bay area with your pontoons. From Dillingham or King Salmon, hire a float plane, and have them take you to the Moraine. There are a couple of lakes that they can drop you off from. One as I recall is called Mosquito lake. Hike up over a ridge and down on to the river.

The Moraine is about the size of the North Fork Stilly in the late summer months. By the last week of July the Sockeye will have started to keel over, and line the bed of the river with their carcasses, 2 to 3 feet thick in places.

There are VERY large rainbow in this system, 25 to 35 inch fish are not uncommon. Usually when you see pictures of trophy rainbow from Alaska, a good portion of them come from the American or the Moraine. The fish will remind you of steelhead in their fight and weight.

A good day fishing on the Moraine can yeild 20 to 30 fish hookups. A bad day would be just a couple, and there can be bad days to be realistic.

Do not fish these fish like you fish trout. They aren't JUST trout. If you leave a gaggle of line lying about your feet you won't be landing fish! These things take off like rockets!

A technique that guides on this system use to insure their clients get hookups is to stand up stream of their clients and work their feet up and down in the carcasses above a riffle with a deep hole on the backside. This will yeild a feeding frenzy in the hole as the meat from the carcasses spills over the riffle. The result is pretty predictable. HOLD ON and ENJOY!

To fish this 'hatch', tie on a 1/0 Tiemco 7999 barbless with a cream white bunny hair leech over about 1/4 oz of lead wrapped up the shank of the hook. Use about a 6 to 8 lb flourocarbon leader (Seaguar). This is referred to as a flesh fly. Other patterns you better have handy would be deerhair mice, sculpin, egg-sucking-leech, leech, egg puffs. All except the deerhair mouse should be weighted flys. I know they are a pain in the arse to cast but they do help getting down quick.

Hope this gives you some ideas. Oh yeah there is also the Alagnak River, the Brooks River (as seen on TV - where the bears are eating salmon at the falls), Naknek River, Brooks Lake, etc, etc.

The Moraine is a one day float, the Brooks a one day hike, the Alagnak could be strung out to be a week or more as it's about eleven miles long and flows from, if I recall correctly, Nonvionik Lake.

If you want more info about this area let me know by email (use my profile). I used to guide it.

Interesting information..... What else would you suggest to do for two weeks. I kind of want to catch some silvers. We are there the 12-30th of july. i know it is pretty early for silvers but from what i have heard the little su is the best chance to get some silvers early. any other options ? Another question when/where/how can i catch some of those alaska dolly's and big old rainbows without leaving the road system. Kinda limited on funds after dropping $1500 for the guided week????!!!!!!!! Thanks for all the input guys.......lovin it!..........keep it comin!!!

I 2nd what bob said,stay away from the Little Su,wall to wall people and a steady stream of boats...Thanks bob...keep it up!!!

Hey Tahoeboy watch out for the bears , I hear that they are a little meaner than on the Klick!!! See you on the water

check in with rust air in anchorage and see about the cost for a trip up to coal creek. about a two day float no pressure and silvers, kings, sockeye and rainbows all in the system at the same time the fish are like pirahhna's due to lack of pressure' I have had multiple silvers charge and fight over my sh!!t at once!! After fishing almost every system in Alaska it Is definetly my favorite, Rust air also rents raft fairly cheap!!!

Tahoe,

I've seen and heard of great creeks and small rivers draining into Cook Inlet directly north and across from the Kenai Penninsula. More or less directly across from the city of Kenai if you were to use a ruler and go do north across the inlet/salt H20. Supposedly most of the small streams there carry healthy numbers of coho running in August & September. You might be a little early on some of the coho. Check with a local...A guide outfit/resort by the name of Alaska Fishing Adventures knows many of the places there. They are based in Kenai in the summer and here in Poulsbo during the winter. You can probably find them on a web search engine. I don't know if they'd share secrets spots with you but you might get a little beta -or if you had enough funds to give you a days outing with them -they will deliver the coho goods! Those guys slay them with flyrods!!!!
Good Fishing, Darin
By the way, did you live in Tahoe once? -I did, 1991-1997....