After just 2 nights at our home in Healy, we were on the road again, headed south for fishing and meeting up with friends.  We caught a few fish, saw another American Dipper on the Russian River, and visited the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center before picking  D&A up in Anchorage.

We were able to show D&A a surfable bore tide on Turnagain Arm before detouring to Portage Valley to look at glaciers since it was such a clear day.  They were happy to stretch their legs a bit hiking towards Byron Glacier.

While staying in Cooper Landing, we spent several hours fishing on the Kenai River.  Only a few sockeye were swimming north of Skilak Lake, so no one was catching much.  C caught one.  D&A got a good introduction to flossing before we headed to the Lower Kenai where sockeye had arrived in record numbers.

Back in January, the four of us splurged with July reservations at Kenai Riverfront Resort,  which gave us access to excellent fishing without the crowds.  The fishing there quickly exceeded our lofty expectations.

Between the four of us, we caught 18 beautiful sockeye the first evening.  We were tired by the time we vacuum-sealed them and got them in the freezer provided at the resort.

The second day we all caught our limit of 6 each, and added 24 more fish to the freezer.  Now we had an interesting problem – we already had about 130 pounds of fish for D&A to take home and another day to fish!  Our friends said we couldn’t keep more than 6 between us (to top off the 3rd box), and that was pushing it.

Fortunately, a large family arrived at the resort who were looking to catch enough for 5 families.   We caught 21 sockeye for them, and didn’t need to do any of the processing.   That was perfect as we all wanted to fish more since it was so easy there.  C caught his limit of 6 each day (18 total), while the rest of us caught 12 over the 3 days.  That is 200 pounds of salmon fillets!

We didn’t fish the last morning,  just loaded frozen fish into 3 insulated boxes and then into the truck.  On our way to Seward, we detoured a tiny bit to drive scenic Skilak Lake Road.

We also stopped at Tern Lake Picnic Area to check out the spawning sockeye.

We dropped the fish off at the J-dock freezers in Seward.  I went to the Alaska SeaLife Center with D&A while C went fishing, and then we all went to bed early.   The next morning, we would need to be at the dock at 7:30 for our boat tour to Northwestern Fjord.  To be continued…