We plan to drive to Kenai this summer. We made the drive 30 years ago when it was mostly dirt road. We are trying to decide weather to go up the Cassiar Highway or the more traditional route. Any suggestions? Which has the most near-the-road fishing opportunities in June and which is the most scenic?

Haven't driven it since 2002 but I think the Casiar was better. 2500 miles each way from Hoquiam, WA.

We went up the Alaskan Highway on the way up and Cassiar on the way back. Only about 100 miles difference I think.

Seems to me that once you get on either road you would want to get out of there as fast as you can and skip the roadside fishing.

What a lousy trip and wouldn't want to do it again.

Bad food and high gas prices is what I have found each time.

Bob would be the best to answer this question. He travels it each year and sure he just loves it both ways.

fp

A buddy of mine and I drove from Seattle to Prudhoe Bay in five days one September.

We took the Cassiar route through NW BC both ways. It was washboard, 35 MPH one way: Three weeks later it was completely graded and you could do 60 MPH. Its 500 miles of gravel BTW. At least it was 10 years ago.

I would vote Nay for the Cassiar that time of year.

In the fall, after some drier weather and some grading, it's not bad with nothing in tow. If towing, avoid it all season long.

The amin route is a little longer, but you join just outside of Watson Lake anyhow ... so most of your fishing will be after you merge. While the Cassiar rout will initally follow the Bulkley, then the Skeena, and then cross the Nass, Bell-Irving, and the Stikine, I'm sure that in June all these streams would be highly blown from spring run-off.

There are some nicer looking streams on the main AlCan before you hit Watson Lake, but I have never once seen anyone fishing them and I don't know what the prospects are ... depending upon your timing, I'd blow through and get back into the Pacific watershed as you near the AK border.

Since you now have a truck like ours, fuel stops won't be an issue with the range of the CTD.

You'll be nicely surpised that diesel is about $1 gallon less than gas throughout most of the way!!

We do it start to finish, 2750 miles in roughly 48-50 hours swapping driving.

The main route has all been paved at one time or another. Construction will show you some of the nastiest roadway you've ever seen though ... tie things down 10 times more than you think you should. The sections are usually short, but memeorable

If you don't like motor homes take the Cassiar. It's a long logging road. If you are in a hurry stick to the Alcan. Sort of the difference between camping in a campground and finding a nice spot in the brush.

A lot of people that haven't taken the trip plan to camp and fish, and looky-loo at all the wild-life...bla bla bla bla. What ends up happening is you realize you want to get to Alaska and end up hauling ass . 3-4 days is enough driving. I just put the hammer down and go. But as you'll read below, there's no hurry (there is for me for different reasons). I

BTW...there's a lot of good fishing on the Copper tribs. For my money, it's a lot better action than paying some out-of-state Alaska guide, who doesn't know the river from his asshole, 200 dollars to take you out on the Kenai and skunk your ass.

Then you can pay an additional thousand dollars or so for a few nights accomodations, and $44.00 for a six-pack of beer, and $6.00 for a big-mac and get stopped in a perpetual motor-home traffic jam, with zipperheads, texans and oregonians acting like they own the place. If that's not enough for you, you can also pay the above-mentioned O.O.S-guide too much money to take you sockeye fishing because there's NO ROOM on the banks because of all the above mentioned dickheads from Texas

In summary, take the cassiar, don't get in a hurry to get to Kenai-Sol, and fish the copper system. There's plenty of big-kings, you won't get skunked and you won't get frustrated.

WOWZA!!!!!

Queetsqueef, I think you're spotting, dude! To much estrogen laced chicken, no doubt.

Wow, Queets must have woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

With well in excess of 1500 guided trips under my belt up north Queets, some observations on your comments:

1) Save for college student transplants, your OOS guides as a whole are far better fisherman than the locals. Keep in mind that most fish year-round, giving them more than twice as much much time in a given year. Nearly all techniques in use in the AK fisheries were brought up by OOS guides fishing the lower 48 in the winter months.

I'd rather spend my $$$ who fishes for a living, not one that becomes a guide in the peak months of the summer because he has a boat and then stocks shelves at the grocery store the remainder of the year

2) You might get skunked on the Kenai. That's part of the game when looking for fish of size you won't see anywhere else in the state on a regular basis. Be realistic about it and choose what you prefer, action or size.

You probably won't get skunked on the Ditch to the south of the Kenai, and I'd much rather catch my salmon with over 90% carrying lice vs. those hundreds of miles upstream.

If you / your guide know the in's and out's ... you'll pay less for lodging (a giant cabin on the water) than you will for a motel room in Glenallen or the like and you don't have to fish around others if you don't want to

We drive up there every year. About 2500 miles and it takes about 2 1/2 days driving around the clock. We stick with the Alaska Highway, much more scenic and better roads. The Casiar is only about 75 miles shorter and the road sucks. Time wise I think we saved 30 minutes going the Casiar. This was four years ago and havn't traveled it since.

Game....set.....match!

Went that way this summer (headed North), July it was. Took the Cassiar, wanted to go the other way, the road was good, mostly paved, minimal traffic. There was some construction with minor delays. We stayed at Meziaden Junction, and Boya lake provincal parks, two of the most scenic places we stayed in a 4 month vacation trip. Prices were good too. The worst road we saw was from the US/CAN Border on the AKHWY to Tok, what a lousy chunk of road. Worst trail called a road was the "top of the world highway", lot of nerve calling that ox trail a road. From my observations, speed is the determining factor for vibration damage and flat tires. We had no flats, truck or trailer, but we did have to have a cracked bracket welded on the trailer when we got to Whitehorse YT. Go fasters and trucks wih P rated tires were the ones I saw with flats. You can't have too much rock protection on the vehicle or towed unit, and put a bug screen on the grille to protect radiator/condensers from rocks.

game-set-match my ass!

Let me clarify...I'm not a paying customer. My roots to Soldotna extend back far greater than your "1500" trips. I have my own boats and my own accomodations (on the river)

I'll take a lot of the locals who aren't even guides over any out-of-state guide, yourself included. While you spend your "1500" trips running up and down the lower river, the locals are learning every square inch to the mouth at Skilak.

.

So when I bust-a-nut on the topic of the kenai, specifically out-0f-state guides, who send their Kenai generated dollars back home to Washington, it's for good reason. I know a lot of locals, and local guides who share my beliefs about the opportunists who come from Wash. and Ore., and some (not all) don't know the river from their ass, and have no etiquette (specifically what is a "drift" hole and what is a "backtrolling" hole) But if you haven't been there for more than one year, you wouldn't know that.

I'm sure you're a fine guide, and I don't want to insult you, but when I see the Kenai today and then 30 years ago, I get sick to my stomach. Specifically that any dingus with a boat can get a license to guide.

As far as the size of the Keani King being more alluring than the Gulkana's numbers or the Klutina's numbers and size. I'll argue all day long with you. I see what goes on on that river. I talk to the guides and see the numbers they bring back on a "daily" basis.
I see the waste of big dollars chasing the VERY allusive 60-70lb king.

Sure I catch 60's and occasionally a 70...but your paying customers don't very often. Instead they sit in the boat and get POUNDED by wakes all day, in what is more likely the dream catch of 35lbs. (which they could have caught and released ALL FRIGGIN DAY LONG on the Gulkana and Klutina.) (I've caught and released 50's on the Klutina all day, and they were bright as light. So in terms of "experience", there's no comparison to the Kenai vs. a trip inland (the Kenai bites)

And that was initially my point, and I'm sorry I digressed. But if you're driving up in June, take your time and fish on the way. And don't be fooled, there's brite daddies in them thar rivers. Conversely, there's tomato cans in the Kenai. You might get a 60lb chromer, but then again, you probably won't... and if you do, it might just look a bit rosey.

No offense dude, just one man's opinion.

No offense taken Queets

Don't spend hours running up and down the lower river, 'cuz, I don't choose to guide on the Kenai

Perhaps you haven't looked around the site to see that fact.

Perhaps you also missed that Fishgal (the other half of my operation) grew up in Kenai and the family resides there

Perhaps the $40,000 I dropped on our new truck in Kenai doesn't count, nor the $25,000+ annually to our halibut Captains that live in Kasilof & Soldotna. Maybe the $30,000 to our lodging providers in Kasilof doesn't count either. How 'bout a few thousand in sales tax to the Borough and a few thousand to local restaurants that we drop ourselves ... not even counting our clients!

Sure, I have a few bucks in the bank that I bring home. But you're looking at 6 figure amount that my operation generates to that local economy every year.

I know many locals resent the fact that we are competition, but many others rely upon us and that will be even more important down the road with the impending closure of the Agrium plant.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree ... most of what I've seen from the cracker guide crowd comes from one of two places:

1) College crowd out-of-staters that can't tell a king from red from a silver, or

2) Part-time locals that think because they caught a fish once and own a boat, they IS a guide

I personally don't care for the Kenai either these days ... that's why I don't guide on it. But for some people that want a crack at the giant king, it's still the place to wet a line ... even if you will be with a few thousand of your closest friends and you might go 3-4 days inbetween fish.

I know several guides on the Gulkana and they do have some days there, just as we we do on the Ditch, but I'll take predictable water conditions for people travelling thousands of miles any time over a very hit-and-miss fishery

Yep, fishin' on the Kenai for big kings is shiaty today. And they're all dark, too.



One of my buddies, John, the surveyor here at work nailed this 54-pounder in his first 3 hours of fishing the Kenai.

Sol- You kind of twisted my words around. I've caught plenty of chrome on the Kenai, and a lot bigger than that. But if you're just a weekender, the odds of catching the fish in your photo are "spotty" (as you put it in an earlier post) That was my point. Sure the allure of a 70lb king is always there, but a 35lb fish is more likely, if your lucky. (unless of course you have the luxury of fishing the enitire month of June and July, like myself).

let's not lose sight of my original post (before I went off on a tangent) I was merely trying to suggest that if you drive up the highway in June...stop off and fish a copper trib. The Kenai isn't going anywhere, and you cant fish bait until July.

I appologize if I offended you Bob. I think we understand where we're both coming from and I'l leave it at that. BTW, my best friend works at the plant

I too am heading to Alaska this summer and have found this thread very interesting. We plan on being gone 6+ weeks. I will be taking my fly fishing gear with me (tying stuff also) and hope to get into some good fishing. The only thing driving our schedule is I want to be in Alaska for the summer solstice other than that where we are is where we are. If we find a nice place to spend a few days then we stay and play.

I know about installation of a stone guard for the front of the truck, but how about the front of the 5th wheel? I would like to reduce the amount of damage to my rig and am wondering what those folks who have driven the ALCAN did for their rigs.

From the business point of view and statistics, the odds of running into a freshman guide is higher when you use a local AK guide. Due to relocation, lack of access, etc. the out of state guides have to go through a lot more in a very competitive market to make it up there which means in general you will end up with a higher quality OOS guide.

As for the concept of use your $ on local guides, the people spend lots of $ up there beside the guide service and guides end up spending most their money in AK as well. So I won't worry too much about it. It is like outsourcing. The $ flows to the best and least expensive. You can't stop it.

I forgot about the original topic

I drove up there 14 years ago and even though I took my time, I kept thinking about the destination and missed the journey ... such is life some times