June coming to an end at Great Alaska

                 Final June Report from Great Alaska

Bear on the Run at Alaska BearCamp

Good morning friends and followers of Great Alaska!.  It's June 28th and as I write this the strong sockeye run is continuing, with bright, beautiful 7-12 pound fish jumping nearly constantly all day long for the past few weeks.  Typically, at this time of year the Sockeye run slows down as we wait for the 2nd run Kenai fish to start hitting the river, but this year we are on course to hit the predictions of another epic run of Reds.  The sanctuary on the Russian River has already been raised to 6 fish per angler, and most folks expect the same thing to happen once again on the "main stem" Kenai Sockeye run in July..  As I write this, I took a couple of quick photos- one of them of an angler fighting one of the great early season fish we've been enjoying here at the lodge since late May:

 
The fish have been big, bright and feisty...Guide Steve and his two clients brought back an early limit of fish that "felt like a July trip" he said, with a limit by 10:00 and at least 30 fish hooked up for the two lucky anglers.  The largest fish was over 12 pounds and Steve thought it may be one of the 3 or 3 biggest sockeye he has ever seen taken on his boat.  That is an exceptional fish!

Great Alaska Beach 

The Sockeye run has been incredible now for the past 3 years, and we are looking forward to another incredible one.  Last year, the run hit with 250,000 fish crossing the lower river sonar counter in 24 hours, and the run ended up totaling over 1.4 million fish in the river.  Truly a healthy and vibrant salmon population, and one that has allowed our guests to bring home lots of big, bright, tasty salmon to enjoy back home.

The King run has been a different story the past couple of seasons, however the return for our Kenai river first run fish has been better than expected.  Current count is over 4200 fish, nearly double the entire return of 2013 fish.  With a full closure on the Kenai Kings (no fishing whatsoever in the months of May and June) nearly all of those great fish should make it safely to their spawning grounds and may be the first step in the run's recovery.  July means the second run of Kings, and the river will open to single hook, no-bait fishing of Kenai kings below the Slikok Creek mark of the lower river.  This will mean the fish that have already entered the river and made their way past Slikok will continue to be protected, while the second run fish coming through the lower river will all some fishing.  All the Great Alaska guides are looking forward to doing some king fishing on the Kenai! 

Offshore fishing continues it's strong season

Offshore fishing has continued to be very strong, with every single charter run so far providing a limit for our Great Alaska guests.  The last run was to Seward, where our 30 foot Glacier Craft the "Fair Chase" enjoyed a spectacular day of fishing.  limits of Black Bass, Halibut to 70 pounds and even a few silver and Pink salmon kept the anglers and crew hopping for the entire day!    Here are a couple images of the day:
 

That's Great Bass!

Here's Josh Wels, Great Alaska operations manager of years past.  Josh is an enthusiastic offshore fisherman, and  joined us for a day on the water off Montague Island.  Josh specializes in Ling Cod and Black bass and always seems to get the trophy bass or Cod whenever he's aboard. 

Today, we're running in Cook Inlet today on board the "Stellar" with captain Jeremy and deckhand Fabian looking to enjoy a fantastic morning.  Tides are strong today (20 foot high to a 2 foot low) so the weights will be heavy but the seas look calm and fishing should be good.  I'll post some photos when I have them.

Deckhand Fabian laying out the anchor

We'll have more fun shots soon, but time to wake up the next group of guests...in the meantime, tight lights and we'll see you in Alaska!

Kent

Ladies rule at Gtreat Alaska this week!

Nice day on Cook Inlet for the ladies!

One of our favorite groups that fishes for halibut with us each year had a stellar day out in Cook Inlet aboard the "Stellar" with captain Jeremy and deckhand Fabian.  Nearly constant action, combined with gorgeous weather and dead-calm seas made for a great day.  Here are a couple of the group's photos of the day.

Mt. Illiamna in the Distance

Cook Inlet is a very unique place to fish..with no natural or man-made marinas, so for 20 years we have been launching our boats directly into the surf...(back in the day we'd do it with our own trucks, fishing out of 14 foot inflatable and all manner of craft, mainly for the King salmon fishery that peaked in June)....but for the past 15 years or so it's been the tasty flatfish that are the main draw in this incredible fishery, and the craft we utilize have changed considerably! 

The Stellar

Tractor Launching in the Surf

We back the boats into the surf in giant tractors known as "log skidders".  It's an effective way to access this great fishery with short runs to the fishing grounds.  On bad weather days it precludes us from fishing this area, but with high sides, heavy duty hulls and specially designed trailers we can handle some pretty lumpy seas before we have to call it a day.  Thanks to Deb and her friends for providing the photos to share with you.

Adventure Women in Alaska!

Adventure Women having a good time at BearCamp

Adventure women is a fantastic organization organizing women's only experiences all over the globe, and Susan Eckert and her team have been traveling with us for about 17 years.  It's a match made in heaven!  This year, two groups will be enjoying our wildlife viewing, river rafting, hiking, biking and touring.  For some great images from this year's trip, Check out Adventure Women's Facebook page.
Thanks to the fantastic group of ladies that made of the first group, and thanks to Susan Eckert for sharing these photos for you to enjoy.

The bears were out in full force at Bearcamp!  

Camp manager Caprice called it "Crazy" bear viewing...simply amazing.  Here is one of the many new friends the ladies made...

 Dinner at the main lodge overlooking the Kenai and Moose rivers, at our renowned riverfront Kenai River Lodge.

A great day of rafting the beautiful Kenai River.  

Another great trip with another great group of ladies.

Thanks to Susan and then entire group for their fellowship and great attitude.

We'll see you next year!

Brown Bears at Russian River Falls

Well, yesterday was another eventful day at Great Alaska.  A couple of our safari groups split up and enjoyed two of our most popular hikes..the first one an 8 mile challenge to a view of the Harding Ice-field, and the second a more moderate forest walk ending at the Russian River falls to (hopefully) spot some of the large early run of Sockeye Salmon that have been passing the lodge for the past few weeks.  The falls is steep and challenging, and I believe that for milennia oru fish have had to cross this obstacle, and that challenge, generation after generation, is one of the reasons the Kenai and Russian river fish are such a genetically superior species. 

5 minutes after they got to the viewing platform, a group of fish began leaping up the falls, an eagle flew right over the Blaydes party's shoulders, and the next moment, 2 adult brown bear emerged from the forest and waded into the river to fish.  They caught some of these beautiful wild sockeye salmon almost immediately (these bears are good fishermen!) and Mr. Blayes was able to capture the moment on video.  Thanks to David for sharing this with us.

Not everyone sees an event like this, but in Alaska you never know what is around the next corner, so have that camera ready!

Offshore Report:

We've finished our retro fit on the three offshore boats- The Raptor is ready for it's sea trial today, with new seats, larger gas tank and lots of new hardware.  The Stellar has already completed it's retro fit with a complete re-work of all electronics systems, windshield wipers, improved seating on board plus new Okuma reels.    The Fair Chase got a 2 inch lift on the twin 225 Yamaha 4 stroke motors, (which should help with improved speed, handling and fuel economy) plus a new diesel heater for improved cabin comfort on those chilly or wet mornings, and all three boats received some new emergency equipment to make your trip safer.  We'll be putting the Fair Chase in Seward within the next 48 hours and we'll be fishing in resurrection Bay/Prince William Sound not long after that!

Freshwater Fishing Report:

The Kenai river All-river Rainbow Trout opener is today,and we've got 4 boats targeting our beautiful Rainbow Trout on one of the most beautiful stretches of the Kenai- below Skilak lake to the Moose river at the lodge.  We've been fishing this area for over 3 decades, and it's become our signature stretch of water over the years. 

Our amazing Kenai River Rainbows are a transient species of fish, ever searching, with an innate desire to seek new feeding areas and new stretches of water in which to hunt their prey, On the Kenai, that consists of salmon eggs, underwater nymph - stage insects, fresh and or deteriorating salmon flesh and small leeches, sculpins and other small baitfish.  In Alaska, when it comes to Rainbow trout it's all about "match the hatch"...except rather than impersonating various winged or underwater insects, your guides will match the size and color of spawned salmon eggs.  Different salmon species' eggs  all vary in size, and color, and the longer they are under water, the more faded they become.  The art of matching these different "shades of gray" is part of the art of  being a Kenai River rainbow Trout guide.   Our guides are among the very best!

That's it for today's report.  Caprice is back from BearCamp, so we'll have some more posts from her before she heads back "into the wild".  We'll also have some pictures of the trout caught on today's opener for the next post.  In the meantime......

Tight lines,

Kent

2014 off and running

It's June 8th as I sit at my desk and watch the turquoise Kenai river roll by.  A large cow moose is swimming across the Kenai (Why does the moose swim across the river.....to get to the other side1).  Nesting eagle pair Henry and Henrietta are busy working the river overhead and Summer is definitely here! 

The Stellar is on the water in Cook Inlet fishing for King Salmon and Halibut with a group from Russia, 2 flights to bearcamp are leaving with folks from California, New York, Connecticut and Germany.  The seas are calm and fishing has been...well......Stellar!

4 of today's arriving guests are heading out to Bearcamp as part one of their Kenai Multi-Sport Adventure, with Mountain Biking, Whitewater rafting hiking and Bear Viewing.  Speaking of bearcamp, Here is the latest update from our resident bear whisperer, Caprice:

"From the Field" by Caprice, at Bearcamp

Greetings from Alaska BearCamp!  2014 is up and running in Style!!  With the great early spring weather, the meadows are totally green and the bears are munching away on the nutritions sedge grasses they they love. 

We have at least 5 mating males courting all the ladies...including "Magnus", the star of the Disney Nature production:  "Bears". 

Also from the movie, we are happy to see "Goldilocks" and her three cubs made it safely through the long Alaskan winter and the cubs are continuing their education!

We will continue to give you all updates on one of our favorite bears, "Arthur", and tell you how he's adjusting to being on his own without his momma.  So far so good!

We are looking forward to seeing you soon at BearCamp!  Caprice

Fishing Report

Fishing has started quite well for our early guests.  We landed 8 kings on the Kasilof on Friday, with 5 of them being hatchery fish that we were able to retain.  Our guides released 3 big bright native fish to continue upstream to spawn.   The Kasilof has been consistently producing fish for our guides and guests for the past 10 days.

Rainbow trout have also had a very respectable start to the season, with good water levels, clarity and some traveling fish.  Sizes have been quite good with guide Jeremy E. landing a 31 inch specimen for his guests.  Guide Asa also picked up some very nice trout for fly fishing Tricia and Ryan S.  We are counting on strong trout fishing to keep us fishing the Kenai through the King closure that lasts until the 1st of July

Halibut Fishing

 Halibut fishing started with a bang with the Tay family from Singapore nailing a limit of Cook Inlet flatties.  At happy hour the night before, Ms. Tay let us know that her family had fished the east coast, Yellowstone, Hawaii and a few other locations and were still to catch their first actual fish!  The gauntlet was thrown down and guide Jeremy and deckhand Fabian delivered with a limit of nice, fat flatties for the Tays.  They then followed that up with 2 kings on the Kasilof river, so the Tay family has a successful fishing experience behind them now.

Final Funny River Fire Report

The fire is still smoldering in some spots, but for the most part it is now a part of the history of 2014.  Thanks to all the fire fighters and volunteers that helped save so many homes and properties and put there life in jeopardy to protect us here on the Kenai Peninsula.  We've found a few good spots to check out the impact of the fire- here is a photo of Operation manager Andrew hiking in the funny river area where the fire first started. 

In this photo, you can see the green starts already beginning to take hold and break through the ash and soot.  It will be interesting to see the forest change from a Spruce - dominated landscape to Willow, Poplar and Birch forest.  That is the same thing that happened many times over in this area over the last few thousand years.


Well that's it for today.  Our guests arrive in a few moments and it's time to get to work!
Kent

Summer nearly here, cont'd.

24 hours and counting to first clients 

Well we are counting down to our first clients now, and we've hit the 24 hour mark!  It's been a very busy and eventful start to the season, what with in incredible run of warm weather, followed by a mega-wildfire that galvanized the entire Kenai Peninsula. 

As I look out from my office overlooking the beatiful Kenai and Moose rivers, the rain if falling hard and that spells more relief for the hard working firefighters.  At this point we are around 50% contained and the teams are on the offensive, rather than defensive position.   The fire was a big one, and we'll be seeing the effects for years, but with all of the dead timber (a result of Spruce Bark Beetle infestation that the Kenai has been seeing for about 10 years now) it was bound to happen.  Thanks to the hard working fire fighters who risked their lives to save our beloved Kenai.  Here is a shot of a "last stand" that was successful in saving some cabins 7 miles upstream from our lodge.  Amazing.

So......what now?

Now the good news....fires in Alaska bring growth, and that new growth that comes in behind the burned Spruce and Birch and Poplar Hardwood will be excellent Moose browse, (plus look for some incredible Fireweed flower displays, as the quintessential Alaskan flower is the first to re-grow after a fire...hence the name!) so as always, there is a larger purpose to everything.  For our soon - to - arrive guests, the fire has done nothing that will affect your adventure, so keep planning and packing!

BEARCAMP

Our amazing bear viewing camp in Lake Clark National Park is nearly up and running.  Our first clients arrive tomorrow, and the bears are in the meadow, the tents are ready and Chef Heidi is fine tuning our menu, as always.  Our resident bear whisperer, Caprice is re connecting with her beloved bears and learning the ways of the new spring cubs.  As always, there were a few hiccups in getting "ready for business"!  Our barge that brings gear into camp each year grounded on the beach on a low tide, leaving the team to wait out the next high tide.  Then a pretty wicked storm blew in for 3 days, a low pressure whopper with 50 and 60 mile per hour winds that kept most everyone pinned down to wait it out.  The weather report for the next week is looking better, so back to the 60's and 70's we were enjoying all of May would be nice!

Offshore Fishing

The last run to Seward caught the stormy weather that we have been experiencing the past 3 days- 10 foot seas and 30 mile per hour winds kept the fishing to a minimum on the shakedown cruise for the "Stellar", but the boat ran beautifully after a good run of working on systems, readying for a busy summer of Halibut and salmon fishing in Resurrection Bay and Prince William Sound.   We'll be running new bilge pumps, updated electronics and twin VHF's along with new rods and reels for 2014.  We'll be launching in Deep Creek tomorrow and will start tapping the great Halibut fishery available there with our guests this week.

The next report will feature Kenai River Rainbow Trout fishing, as well as Sockeye Salmon and even a status of the Kenai Kings, as we have been seeing them roll in front of the lodge and one of the staff landed one incidentally while fishing for Sockeye salmon.  Stay tuned!

Livin' the dream,

Kent