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