Fishing Top Info

Although they don’t have the same cache as trophy King Salmon, Sockeye Salmon or Reds are a very popular sport fish. One reason Reds attract anglers is their numbers. In Alaska’s Kenai River during their runs they are abundant, regularly peaking at 750,000 and sometimes reach 1,000,000! That’s right—one million Reds. Additionally, as far as taste goes, the Sockeye is said to be the best tasting of all salmon (there’s a reason it’s an extremely popular commercial fish). Finally, there is the relatively large daily bag limit, which means you have ample opportunity to flex your Sockeye fishing muscles. The initial Red Salmon run starts in late May as they make their way to the Russian River, a tributary of the Kenai, by first swimming through the lower and middle sections of that river. Reds become plentiful right around June tenth, peaking sometime between the fifteenth and twentieth of the month. Their numbers begin to diminish by the third week, however there’s still good fishing until...

Nine of the ten record setting King (Chinook) Salmon were caught in Alaska’s Kenai River. The average size of Kings in Alaska is 20 pounds, but typically the Kenai yields 50-pound Kings. King Salmon spend 2 to 5 years in the ocean before they come back to spawn. Thus, the size of these fish can vary quite a bit. The largest King caught on the Kenai weighed 97.25 pounds. What makes the Kenai such a popular spot for fishing fanatics? There are certainly other rivers in Alaska that host greater numbers of salmon. (This isn’t to say that the number of salmon in the river is small. There’s plenty to go around for all wanting to have a great day, week, or month fishing.) This river draws fishermen for three primary reasons—size of the Kings, abundance of varieties of salmon, and the number of runs for each type. Along with the King, the Kenai is stocked with Sockeye (Red) Salmon and Coho (Silver) Salmon, with each of the species having two runs between May and October. And then there’s the s...