Kenai River Fishing Trip


After a night of celebrating and staying up entirely too late, I was invited to go on a drift-boat down the Kenai River from Cooper Landing to Skilak Lake (about 16 miles of river). The Kenai River is one of the main rivers that people up here fish for salmon, rainbow trout, and dolly vardon - depending on the time of year.

I didn't have any gear with me, so they loaned me everything. It was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky. The Kenai River is another glacier-fed river, so it too is cold and torquoise color. It flows to Skilak Lake, which is a huge lake.

This is one of many bald eagles that I saw that day. I was able to get very close to this one as he sat at the top of a tall pine tree.

The Kenai River is cold and has several rapids we had to manuver through. It was a little exciting at times and once we even hit a couple of trees.

This picture is near the mouth of Skilak Lake, where the Kenai River flows into it. We were carrying a 7 horsepower outboard engine in each driftboat, so we stopped here and attached them so we could motor across this HUGE lake.

As we motored across the lake, the sun started going down. It took us an hour and a half to get to the only boat dock. Normally this lake has high winds and white-caps. Fortunately, this day it was very calm. If your boat tips over, your chances of surviving are almost zero. The water temp is 34 degrees and that only gives you about 4-5 minutes before death. Several people have lost their lives in this lake.