Reeling in silver salmon from Kenai River in Alaska

After two days of fishing on the Talkeetna River, we departed for the beautiful town of Seward on the Kenai Peninsula. As we climbed out of the Talkeetna River valley, the big mountain — Denali (formerly called Mt. McKinley) — was towering like a giant ice cream cone above the timber. Many tourists visit Denali National Park and never see the mountain. It’s often shrouded in clouds, mist and rain. But we saw it every day on our visit.

I love Seward, Alaska. It’s on Resurrection Bay and surrounded by beautiful mountains. The bay was named by a group of Russian sea otter hunters who were lost in a violent Pacific storm for almost two weeks. They had given up all hope of being saved. Then, on Easter morning, they woke up to a bright, shining sun in a beautiful bay. Thus, they named it Resurrection Bay.

The harbor at Seward is home to hundreds of boats — most of them fishing vessels. Randy and I walked to the harbor late one afternoon to watch boats returning from the day of fishing. One group was taking pictures with 10 big halibut, 15 silver salmon and one rockfish. One of the halibuts was near 100 pounds. Halibut are deep-sea fish that look like big flounders. But they have no scales like a flounder — just brown skin on the top side and white underneath.

Randy got excited when he saw the halibut. He had plans to meet his daughter, two sons-in-laws, and three friends in Seward to fish the following week for halibut. I love to eat halibut but would rather fish for salmon.

After enjoying the beautiful scenery around Seward in the afternoon, we went to bed early because of an early morning of fishing on the mighty Kenai River near Soldotna. We had to meet our guide at the dock at 4:30 a.m. and we had a two-hour ride from Seward. That meant the alarm would sound off at 2 a.m. You really have to want to fish to get up at that terrible hour.

We met our guide, Andrew Chadwick, owner of Chadwick Fishing Guide Service, a few minutes before 4:30 a.m. He was eager to leave since he had landed a limit of big silver the previous morning. Most guides had only caught a fish or two. We had to anchor on the exact spot before others, who saw him catching the limit, could get there. We made it in time. Traveled a short boat ride and anchored before daylight.

Andrew baited two rods with clusters of dyed salmon eggs and floated them under bobbers down the river. I cast a big crank bait-type lure into the current and just let it wobble behind the boat. Randy was casting a spinner from the bow.

It didn’t take long for the action to get hot. And the sun wasn’t even up yet. A powerful fish slammed my lure. The girls reeled their eggs in quickly so that I could land my fish. When the big silver reached the boat, he went wild — leaping, twisting, thrashing and running. He didn’t like the looks of the boat, the landing net or Andrew’s headlight. Finally, the big net engulfed him. What a beautiful fish! Almost 12 pounds and bright silver.

“These fish have only been out of the ocean two to three hours,” Andrew said. “They’re fresh and full of power from their years in saltwater.”

Most of the salmon migrate from the stream where they were hatched, down the river and into the ocean. They usually mature in the saltwater in about four years. Then they migrate back to the exact stream where they were born to spawn and die. They are programmed by the Lord with an accurate GPS.

All four of us caught our two fish silver salmon limit. Most were caught on the salmon eggs. I used a spinner the remainder of the morning and caught one more salmon. The problem was too many pink salmon in the river. I caught, missed or lost a pink every cast. Thousands of them could be seen swimming in the river.

“In all my years of fishing in the Kenai I have never seen so many pink salmon,” moaned Andrew. “Just getting the bait to a silver is a challenge with so many pinks in the way.”

You can blame the influx of pinks on COVID-19. Due to workers in the canneries being sick, they shut down. So the commercial netters in saltwater had no market for their pink salmon. So they didn’t fish them and millions of pinks that would have ended up in a can in your pantry swam into the river.

After we had our fish limit, Andrew took us on a boat ride on the Kenai. It’s a powerful river. The ride brought back memories of fishing with a guide on the Kenai with Bobby and Carolyn Whiteside. We were fishing for big king salmon and filming a TV show. All four of us caught our one-fish limit. But when your one-fish limit weighs almost 40 pounds, who needs more?

Beth and I have now been to Alaska eight times and we add memories on each trip.