Soldotna, Ak July 20-Aug 5, 2008

We left Ninilchik and headed to Soldotna because we heard the red salmon were starting to run in the Kenai River. In case you didn’t know (I didn’t have any idea of the habits of spawning salmon before this week), I’ll fill you in on the lifecycle of the Alaskan Salmon.
Female salmon carry their roe and lay their eggs in the soft mud of a fresh water creek or river. The male fertilizes the eggs after they are laid and eventually (not sure how long it takes), baby salmon are born. These new salmon live for 2 years in the fresh water, protected by the vegetation along the river banks. At the end of this 2 year period, they begin their trek down river to the salt water of the Cook Inlet and head for the open ocean. They live in salt water for the next 2 years and then miraculously, find their way back up river (swimming against strong river currents) to the exact same place that they were born in order to either lay eggs or fertilize eggs. There are hundreds of creeks, tributaries, streams and rivers in this area, and it’s amazing that these fish find their way back. It’s still not known by what means they find their routes home, scientists have theories but no definite answers. After spawning, the fish die-leaving their bodies on the river bank as food for bears, seagulls and eagles.
So, this spawning happens each year, with a large run occurring in June and a second (usually larger) run in Mid-July. We were fortunate to arrive in Soldotna just in the midst of the second run. We were immersed in waders, hip boots, camouflage, fishing poles,stringers, lures and stories of the ones that got away, the best place to fish, and the best rigging to use.
Being complete novices, Dominic and I hung on every word that these experienced anglers told us. We were ready for the big one! So, we donned our new hip boots, slickers and with poles in hand ventured to the water…There were people lined up along the river bank, approximately arms width apart from each other. They all were facing about 11 o’clock to the water, lifted their poles to about 1 o’clock, dropped the line in the water, let the current take the line back to about 11 o’clock again, and then jerked the line to about 7 o’clock. This technique is called the “Kenai Jerk” and is used to snag the fish in the mouth. It seems that salmon enroute to spawn don’t eat, so they won’t take bait. But, they do open and close their mouths in order to bring water in through their gills. In order to catch a salmon, you need to draw your hook through the water (thus the ‘jerk’) right in front of his mouth (which hopefully is open to draw in water at the exact second your hook is there). I’m not really sure if the Kenai Jerk is the action the fisherman uses, or a description of the fisherman himself!
we watched for a while to get the proper etiquette, proper technique, and to see who was catching. I’ll summarize our story by simply saying that everyone was catching, EXCEPT us! We tried different lures, different line, different technique, standing in different spots, and even bought different fishing rods-all to no avail. Those little fish were smarter than we were!
It took us 6 days of standing in cold water (although we did wear hip boots, heavy socks and rain slickers on) before we saw and caught our first fish! Now, we were empowered! There’s a 3 fish per person limit, and we stayed until we had our limit each day for the next few days. We were getting more comfortable with the technique, the weather was getting a little warmer, and we find ourselves spending a little less time in the water to reach our limits each day.
We were fortunate that new friends that we had made on the trip were also in Soldotna and also fishing for salmon. It was a daily ritual to call each other (multiple times per day) to find out where the fish were running and how many fish each of us caught. We made a daily trip to the processor to have our bounty smoked and each day we came home to rearrange the refrigerator to make room for our stash!
Each day began before sunrise, we arrived at the river in the dark to get our favorite spot and greet our newly met fishing buddies. We lived on health bars and coffee, not wanting to take time to eat and leave our fishing hole. Besides, I really didn’t want to eat too much after standing amongst fish carcasses and roe (fisherman filet their catch right in the river and throw away the rest).
So, we lived, ate, breathed and existed to catch our salmon for the entire time we stayed in Soldotna, and I wouldn’t have changed those days for all the tea in China (or for all the fish in the sea!)