Fishing sockeye salmon in Alaska: Mackenthun
Summer in Soldotna, Alaska, is full of long days; July 1 is a 19-hour day and the 31st of August runs nearly 14 and a half hours. For fishing guide Andrew Chadwick, long days are just part of the job. Chadwick is a Twin Cities native and University of Minnesota-Duluth graduate with a decade of guiding experience in Alaska. He’ll guide a client a day in June before taking two trips per day in July and August. The long days make such a busy schedule possible, as does the remarkable appeal of the Kenai River fishery.
Chadwick was my fishing guide in early August while chasing sockeye salmon on the Kenai River. Sockeye salmon are widely considered the tastiest of Alaska’s five salmon species; the first shipment of wild caught salmon to Seattle’s Pike Place Market can fetch over $100 per pound but this year started at $75 a pound.
Sockeye salmon run the 82-mile stretch of the Kenai River to Skilak Lake and upstream the final 17 miles to Kenai Lake. Sockeye mainly return to rivers whose headwaters are lakes. The Russian River is a tributary to the Kenai and is also very popular among sockeye salmon anglers. Glacial melt is the primary source of the Kenai River and the fine particles in the water, called glacial flour, give it its turquoise blue color. Running on meltwater, the Kenai reliably runs at around 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
The annual upstream migration of sockeye salmon and other salmon species is steady on the calendar, but pulses of fish can be variable by day and week. Anglers interested in fish numbers can get daily and weekly updates on the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website, where SONAR counters are used to estimate the population.
“You want to be fishing the high tide,” Chadwick told me as he motored us upstream on the Kenai River in the dark. “I like to be fishing two hours before high tide, so we are ready when it hits.” Chadwick explained that the sockeye and other salmon make their migration in pulses, holding in resting spots to conserve energy before making pushes upstream. He noted that the average traveling speed for salmon is in the 2-5 mile per hour range, so sustained swimming is necessary in between breaks.
Chadwick was up early to meet our group. His alarm sounds at 1:50 a.m. each day. He’ll operate from May through September, doing around 150 guide trips in a season.
On the Kenai River, with over 200 fishing guides on the water and licensed by the state of Alaska, the battle is getting to good spots. Chadwick motors our group of five to a gravel bar, sweeping the top with a spotlight. “I’ve run into bears out here a few times,” he explained. Content that the spot is vacant of both anglers and bears, our group hops off the boat donning waders and carrying fishing rods. Because sockeye salmon are krill feeders, we are targeting fish that are singularly focused on spawning and have no use for feeding.
Hooking fish is a ceremonial manner of sorts; the technique employed by sockeye anglers is called flossing. Flossing fish involves casting and swinging a line with a weight tied to a leader and a hook on the end through moving water, hoping that the line and hook will be drawn through the fish’s mouth and caught. Hooks on the body are considered snagged fish and must be immediately released. You are, in effect, snagging sockeye salmon in the mouth. As Chadwick demonstrates the maneuver with one of the rods, he swings from a 2 o’clock to 10 o’clock position with a single rod’s length of line out. The sinker lands with a kerplop, the line swings in the current for a few seconds, and he pulls it in with a sockeye salmon thrashing on the draw. He quickly releases the fish as it is unlawful for him to catch fish on his clients’ behalf.
With the demonstration proof positive that fish are holding nearby, our group grabs rods and spreads out along the current seam flanking the gravel bar. In short order we are hooking fish, a number of sockeye salmon but also some pink salmon. We release most of the pinks, keeping a few for a fresh fish comparison dinner. 2022 is a remarkable year not for the number of sockeye salmon entering the Kenai River, but for the larger size of fish making the run this year. After a few hours, the sun is finally rising, and our group is nearing our six-fish-per-person limit. A few king salmon are hooked that break off, and some pesky pinks move into the prime holding water territory. Everyone rotates through the seam edges, taking breaks to rest and allow new fish to move in, and doing their best to fish effectively. Before long, the final fish is on the stringer and our group is looking sockeye savvy.
“Many days, you’re only as good as your clients,” Chadwick says while expertly cutting up the day’s catch. “Today, we had fishing ninjas.” Our onlooking group of five smiles at the compliment while stuffing piles of bright orange fillets with silver skin backs in freezer bags. “A lot of people who haven’t been to Alaska see 'National Geographic' and the photos of giant schools of salmon swimming up rivers and think it’s always like that. But in reality, it’s all timing dependent and every year is different.”
You can reach Andrew Chadwick at chadwicksfishing.com.
— This is the opinion of outdoors columnist Scott Mackenthun, an outdoors enthusiast who has been writing about hunting and fishing since 2005. You can follow him on Instagram @scottmackenthun and on Twitter @ScottyMack31.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Fishing sockeye salmon in Alaska: Mackenthun
