Ask the Pro's: Fishing Soldotna in Late July

Steven,

Congratulations on your upcoming Alaskan fishing trip! Fishing in the Soldotna area is great…there are a bunch of excellent fishing lodges & guides located in Soldotna. You will be in the state at a great time to catch the first run of Silvers. The Kenai River and Kasilof River are large rivers that can be tough for the shorebound angler, hiring a fishing guide with a boat could greatly help your chances. Whereas the Anchor, Deep Crk., and the Ninilchik are smaller rivers and very easily wadable and great fly water for Silvers. There is also very good Dolly Varden fishing on these little rivers.

King season is still scheduled to be open, however make sure you double check current regulations regarding King fishing. Regulations, areas one can fish, and how one can fish for Kings is highly regulated and can change day to day.

All the peninsula is scenic, however solitude or remoteness is typically not found here. I would suggest trying the upper Kenai tributaries such as Quartz or Crescent Crk. The Dolly and Trout fishing can be awesome on these little tributaries, with slightly less pressure than the main Kenai. They also offer an amazing mountain filled backdrop to cast a rod! Thanks for reaching out to My Alaskan Fishing Trip and please reach out to us again or you could reach out to my company, FishHound Expeditions.

Thanks for your time and tight lines!

Hi Steven,

You are going to be arriving right as King season closes, and that is if the season is even still open. Our King returns, for South Central, have been very poor over the last several years so we have had a lot of Emergency Order closures for them. King openings are very hit or miss. Fishing for King's in the Kenai with a fly is difficult, your bank options are very limited and without a boat if you need to chase you are in a tough spot. The Kasilof would be a better option for King's on the fly, Kasilof is a 30min drive past Soldotna. Either way, your arrival time is limiting you to one or two days at best.

You will be on the tail end of Sockeye's and the very front end of Silver fishing on the Kenai River. The Anchor might be a better option for early Silvers per your timing. You might look into a flight across the inlet with Alaska West Air for some Silver Salmon fishing, the western side of the inlet tend to get their silvers first.

A nice nice hike for some trout fishing, would be to hike in to the Upper Russian Lake. You can fish the lake or you can walk the river down fishing it back to the camp ground. The views at the lake are awesome. One thing to keep in mind, you will be in very heavily populated bear country on a river with a lot of sockeye, so you will need to be very bear aware. People due this trip all the time, you won't be alone and we have not had any real bears issues during the trip. If you wanted to get into some Arctic Grayling fishing, you could hike in to Crescent Lake as well.

Any other questions or anything we can do to help, please let me know.

Thanks,

Mike

Although flyfishing for King salmon from shore can be an absolute blast, it is best performed on smaller waters. The Kenai River is not a good option. At the time that you will be visiting, the Kasilof River is the best option. It can sometimes be productive from shore. We have Japanese friends/guests that come almost every year to fish the Kasilof River from shore. It is; however, a labor of love. We do also offer a fly-out option for King salmon fly fishing from shore. In that case, the two options are the Nushagak River or the Chuit with the Chuit probably being the better option.

Beginning August, the Anchor, Deep Creek and Ninilchik River offer good options for small, clearwater shore fishing for silvers and dollies. We do offer a walk-in charters for this purpose.

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