Trout & Salmon fishing the Kenai Peninsula with a pole!

So I had to try my new 21ft and 18ft carbon fiber poles...as in no reel.  I posted one video last year with my son catching grayling but I ended up shattering that rod.  Argh.  But I replaced them recently and took them out trout fishing on the Kenai Peninsula this weekend.

These poles are a blast!  Light enough to have fun with 8 inch trout but strong enough to land two silvers!  Great for the kids as they got the hang of it immediately since there was no reel.  Great fun for the adults!  Landing the silvers was a test of patience and wearing the fish down a little bit.  Not necessarily ideal for catch and release but we were using size 8 single egg hooks and we were targeting trout.

I typically don't post the names of smaller streams I fish with limited space but anyone who has been there should know where this is at.

Oh forgot my 6wt echo fly rod and lamson reel there.  I know it's probably easier if I stated where but either the folks there when we left have it or they don't.  $200 dollar reward for return!  It's ok, totally a blunder on my part because I was too pre-occupied with the kids, but it just means I am going to upgrade rods!  Don't tell my fiancee!  If she finds out, the reward is only $100!!!  lol.


Here's a  video with mainly the still pictures but also a short video segment of landing one of the silvers on the 21ft pole.

Russian River/Kenai River confluence 091312

So I decided I had to take the day off and hit the Russian River.  The great news today is Michele came along to try flyfishing for the first time ever.

Parked at Grayling parking lot and decided to walk downstream.  There was so little water in the Russian River that we couldn't find more than a foot deep hole until we walked down to the sanctuary area at the confluence to the Kenai River.

Set up with 6mm and 8mm beads in assorted colors.  We stayed in one spot since Michele had never held a fly rod in her hand.  She did great.  We hooked maybe a dozen trout and land half of them in a three hour span which isn't bad given we worked a 20 yard stretch of water the entire time.  No real pattern as to what they were hitting.  6mm, 8mm, orange, pink, transulcent, mottled, eyed...didn't seem to matter.  We obviously were not doing something right most of the time as I said we worked the same hole and every 15 to 20 minutes we would hook one.  I'm sure an expert who can dead drift beads would have much better luck.  LOTS of bright red tomatoe sockeyes in the water.  Michele hooked a silver but lost it right away since we were using trout sized hooks.

Amazingly enough she landed two dollies.  I have yet to catch a dollie on the upper Kenai in a half dozen trips,  Always rainbows.  I guess that's more of an observation than a complaiint as I would rather catch the rainbows.

Lots of bear signs so keep your head up looking around if you go!!!