I love this picture. Here's Dad and Josh with a few fine looking fish from the Kenai river. Nice work guys! You wouldn't know it by looking at the sky, but it was taken at around 3:00 am. Look closer at their eyes and you can tell they are running on fumes. For those who may not know, the Russian river is a small tributary of the mighty Kenai, famous for its world record King salmon. The section we fished was at the confluence of the Russian into the kenai. Kenai lake is glacier fed and is therefor full of silt. The water is a merky greenish-grey color. The Russian, on the other hand, is crystal clear and just beautiful. About 80,000 Sockey Salmon (Reds) swim up the Kenai from the Ocean headed for the Russian River - thats 80,000 just heading for the Russian. There are thousands more that head up
other tributaries to spawn. When the fish arrive here at the confluence, Combat Fishing ensues. Thousands line the banks of the Kenai and Russian Rivers to llimit out on what is supposedly the best eating off all pacific salmon species. The fishing is fast and furious, requiring the novice to put in hours of time before landing a fish under these conditions. Most people out here are friendly and understand that there are going to be tangles and all sorts of other mishaps. It is all a part of the experience. I fished this very setion of the river for an estimated total of about 12 hours, hooking well over 20 fish, and landing only 9, and keeping only 6 (a couple were foul hooked and released). It is tough fishing durring the day, but we found it less crowded in the wee hours of the morning and had better luck as well. What a blast! The flash from the camera in this next picture makes it look dark out. It was actually quite light out. The darkest time of night is from about 1 - 2 am. and even then you dont need a flashlight to tie on flies. This is Ryan 
Schaugaard, myself, and David Porter - good friends. Although we had to be at the docks in Whittier by 7am the next day, we spent the night out on the river fishing. Didn't do too shabby either. Took the three of us about an hour and thirty minutes to limit out once our lines hit the Kenai. The rest of time was spent traveling, filleting and hiking. That was a night I wont soon forget. I actually had a fish take my entire fly line along with about 10 yds of backing. Yeah, the darn thing broke 25 lb backing and took off with my line - about a $40.00 loss. Bummer. I'm sure it was a hog - a massive slab of a fish (or maybe just an average fish hooked in the tail). 
This last picture is of Josh with a nice Red salmon straight out of the Kenai River. They really do look just like big Kokanee, don't they. Dad found a secluded little cove of of the Keani that held some fish. Josh was the man this day... come to think of it, he was the man most of the trip, limitting out on reds when nobody else did, and then hitting that GIANT ling cod out on Prince William Sound. Pics of that baby to come! You will notice that Josh's silvery friend here has what look slike a bite taken right out of its back behind the dorsal. Bear? Sealion? Seal? The Girzzly Man? Who knows. Interesting. Keep looking for new posts as I will be adding more pictures of Alaska in the next few days. Thanks for reading. Tight Lines!
