Nine fisheries between late May and September 15
“Imagine fishing the world famous Kenai River one day for record setting Salmon, the next day battling a giant Pacific Halibut, then enjoying incredible sights while fishing out of Seward for Silver Salmon and Ling Cod and finishing your trip with a majestic fly out catching salmon with bears as your partners.”
That is how we have described a stay here since 1981, and it is why this page is a calendar before it is anything else. Every trip we run hangs off the same few weeks, so the chart below shows what is running, where, and when. In our words, it takes Experienced Guides, and the best equipment money can buy, to turn those weeks into a fishing vacation of a lifetime. Pick a row, follow the link, or call us at 1-800-625-2324 and we will build the week around the fish you want.
The run chart, June 1 to September 15
Late May to July 1
June, then mid July to mid August
August and September
August, even years
May till September
From July 1 through August
June and July
Late July through August
Best in September
Check the limits before you fly. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and NOAA can change daily limits, closures and gear rules at any time, and they do. The Kenai River is now closed to king fishing, so kings are fished on the Kasilof and in saltwater only if regulations allow. When a fishery tightens, we move you to the best salmon or saltwater option going that week. Trophy rainbow trout, some of Alaska’s finest catch and release fishing, are best late in the season, in September.
Water one: 50 acres of private riverbank
Our lower Kenai location is the best part of the river, and our riverbank is the largest privately owned property on it. Boats leave from our own private launch. Sockeye come on the second run in mid July, and silvers fill the river in August and September, fished from anchored boats by back bouncing salmon egg clusters or plug fishing. In even years the pinks arrive in the millions in August.
The river once made this the King Salmon Capital of the World, and the world record, 97 pounds 4 ounces, came out of the water minutes from the lodge. Today the Kenai is closed to kings. We say so plainly, and we point you to the salmon we can put you on.
20’
Water two: 30 minutes from the lodge
A shallow river, so it is a drift boat fishery: 20’ Willie drift boats with four anglers aboard. Our guides teach the preferred methods, back bouncing or back trolling, with lighter rods than the Kenai asks for. Kasilof kings average a respectable 15 to 30 pounds from late May through July 1, and the first sockeye run in June is diverted here, which makes it a good place to catch a daily limit.
Waters three and four: one hour and two hours from the lodge
Our halibut average 25 to 50 pounds, with hundreds caught over 100 pounds and the odd 200 and 300 pound fish. We fish from Ninilchik (Deep Creek), about an hour from the lodge, and from Homer, about two hours away, on 33’ Hatco and 43’ Delta offshore cruisers with enclosed cabins, huge decks and marine bathrooms. The season is May till September.
Halibut fishing
All-day charters on 28’ Madeira cruisers for up to six anglers: silvers, ling cod, black sea bass and yelloweye rockfish. Our July and August “Grand Slam”.
Seward trips
Water five: Talon Air floatplanes, from $825.00 per person plus tax
In June and July we fly you to Wolverine Creek and Big River Lakes, where you look down into clear water and see thousands of sockeye. Brown bears work the nearby rocks for the same fish, and you are fully guided. From late July through August the silvers choke the rivers and streams bordering Cook Inlet, and Big River Lakes and the Kustatan River give up limits easily. The flight home goes over the glaciers and Mount Redoubt.
Packages run June 1 to September 15
Give us a call and we will help you plan it. Browse the 2027 packages, read the trip planning notes, or see where you will sleep in the riverfront log cabins. Prefer to write? Email kenairiverbend@gmail.com.