Kenai River Float

[Alaskan Woodsman]

We would like to fish the upper and/or middle Kenai next week (after Sept 11) fishing for silvers, rainbows and Dollies with our fly rods. Any ideas about the float and fishing from Kenai Lake to Sportsmans landing and/or Sportsmans down to Jims landing (above the canyon)? How long are these floats? I typed in Kenai River Silvers and found some good info about flies & beads. Interesting stuff...

Would we be too early for silvers? I haven't floated this in 15 years. Plan to use pinkies, egg patterns, flesh flies, ESL patterns, cotton candy etc. any other suggestions for the silvers or trout/char would be welcome. We will use floating and sinking lines level 12' - 10 # to 14 # leaders with a 10# tippet. Flies less than 1/0 is what appears to be legal. We usually have 4x flies with some smaller as appropriate. < 3/8".

We will use an 18' Cat float fishing, and stopping here and there. For sure want to leave the bears alone.
Waiting for the waters to recede a tad...

 

[kenaibow fan]

you really only need flesh flies and beads to hit trout and silvers on the middle. Um fishing may or may not be slow on the middle at that time, there is a lot of food for trout right now, so they wont move far to feed, as for the silvers just site cast for them with the flesh and they will hit it. Keep in mind that the water on the upper is in bad shape so I have heard, and the water on the middle is up a little hope it comes down before you fish.

 

[Alaskan Woodsman]

Thank you, Kenaibou fan!! I appreciate your advice.

 

[Gary]

I'd check the water levels before heading down.
Right now it would probably be a very FAST float. Probably save on the launch fee, too. I can't imagine they'd charge you to launch from the shoulder of the Stirling Highway.

 

[biglou001]

We floated the upper kenai with a guide today and it was a blast. Water was high, but lots of fish! No silvers, but we caught and released some very nice dollies and rainbows. We put in at the russian river ferry area and floated to Jims Landing. Had a great guide that put us on the fish. I had a great time... We got on the river about 8:00am and were off about 3:30pm. We stopped at several spots and threw beads. Good luck and have fun. You should be able to catch fish..



...

 

[c6 batmobile]

Those are some fat fish. Glad you gave em a work out.

 

[.338WM]

The water color in those pics looks better than I expected. Nice fish !

 

[Gary]

Great fish. I've since heard that the water was high, but relitively clear and still fishable.

My point of rederence was a report mid-week that the water level in Cooper's Landing was 13' high and not expected to crest until today (Sunday). In the same time reference, mid-river was up 10'.