russian river

[fishkid]

went out to the russian walked a ways up the first few hours was a total bust. started to go back to the camp ground and saw a few fish looked down river and saw a massive school making a break for the falls ended up with my 3 plus my proxy. on the way back ran into a few grizzlies and a few blacks luckily we were able to yell and they ran away no animal had to take the wrath of my 45/70. saw a few tourists asked if they had any bear protection and they said no. i said either risk it and be bear food or follow me in. please a fyi for any one that comes up here to fish dont buy the rediculous bear bells all they are is a feeding bell for them. they hear then know its a person and they might have fish. spend the 50 dollars and buy some bear spray atleast. the sow griz probably went around 700lbs and its no joke to mess with. i see these tourists and just shake my head cause they have no idea what it is really like so please spend the money and be more prepared. here are a few pics.

[jwmiller33]

cool pics

[Judge Smails]

Nice- is that redspot in the top photo a sockeye?

[Mike_Top]

As I understand it all the russian river salmon right now are sockeye - "reds"

I got home this morning and wish I was still up there. Judge, congrats on the job up there you are going to love it

[Sherpa]

Nice pics. Wish I would have been able to get out and fish with you while I was up. I didn't even wet a line the whole time I was there. I did do dome flying and messed around with my brothers new Harley though so it was still fun. I can't wait to get back in July. I will definitely be fishing then.

[Down Deep]

That 2nd pic is good one of that nucular red heading up stream.

[Mike_Top]

All the reds are just silver-colored right now, that bright red thing in the 2nd pic is just a filleted fish. You fillet them on the shore and toss the scraps in the water...

Here's a couple pics of my russian river experience earlier this week:

this first one is ugly. It had been snagged several times...tasted great though!

kenai river crowds

russian river

[fishkid]

man that is one ugly red. i woulda hucked it back and snagged another lol. did you fish near the confluence? heard they shut part of it down because of bears. probably headin down to seward and snag a bunch more. if that flakes out go back to the russian.

[Mike_Top]

Yes that fish was ugly...didn't put up much of a fight as you probably could guess (my guess is it probably would have died later that day anyways). We thought about tossin' her back, but we wanted to taste fresh salmon and all the fish I snagged got off. My cousin lives in Soldotna so those fillets were on the grille in no more than 50 minutes, and it tasted much better than the salmon I've bought at Rainbow Foods!!! ha

We walked down to the confluence, "the sanctuary", and salmon were stacked on top of each other down there. Very cool to see for a Minnesotan who's never been up there before. We saw a Grizz and 2 cubs from 200 yards away walk down into the water and pull out a couple filleted fish carcasses and walk back into the woods. This was on the Kenai downstream of the confluence and the ferry parking lot. Saw 3 black bears on the Russian doing the same thing...they seemed to be well-behaved bears that didn't want anything to do with people.

I read in the reg book that they don't officially open the sanctuary 'til Aug 15th or something like that.. Man I wish I was back up there

[deacon]

what do you everyone where under waders to help with cold water?

thanks for advice

[Mike_Top]

wool socks, jeans. its really not that bad. I've got the breathable waders that don't insulate like neoprene ones. I've got a leak in my right leg so i rolled up my jeans and went barefoot and I didn't really get cold.

[Judge Smails]

As I understand it all the russian river salmon right now are sockeye - "reds"

I got home this morning and wish I was still up there. Judge, congrats on the job up there you are going to love it

Thanks, just got the final confirmation yesterday and heading up next week. I'll post pics of my fish across canada tour.