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