06/01/2009
I had no guest booked today, and needed to travel into Anchorage for an appointment. On my way back I stopped by Eklutna Tailrace for a few minutes. The Knik RIver had risen significantly, and there was lots more water flowing in the channel past the tailrace. The Knik River water still had a bit of visibility into it so that looked good. There were plenty of folks fishing in the tailrace itself, but I did not see anyone with fish during the afternoon. At the time I was there no water seemed to be flowing out of the power plant.
I`ll be out guiding a trip tomorrow afternoon, so check back Tuesday evening for the latest update. From looking at the water chart today, Little Susitna River dropped more overnight, and should remain about the same height for tomorrow.
06/02/2009
I guided 3 people in the afternoon, one of whom caught a 33 pound king salmon on a K-15 Kwickfish. The other people each felt a fish, but I`m suspecting the fish just bumped their lures or lines, but did not grab the plugs like normal, as both of them were not able to hook anything. Water had dropped and cleared up, but should stay about the same tomorrow.
06/03/2009
I guided 4 people, two of whom caught a king salmon, and one of whom caught a sockeye salmon. All three fish were caught back trolling with K-15 Kwickfish. Water as predicted is starting to rise, and could go up significantly in the next few days.
The count of king salmon through Deshka River weir more than doubled yesterday when 82 kings swam upstream. I`m still hopeful for a good push of king salmon up past the weir, but numbers of king salmon through the weir had been slow for over a week and only picked up the last few days.
06/04/2009
I guided a group of 4 people in the morning, one of whom caught a 29 pound king salmon on a K-15 Kwickfish. An additional member of the morning group also hooked another king salmon on a K-14 Kwickfish, but lost it near the boat. We also saw additional fish rolling in the morning.
I guided an afternoon group of 4 guests who had one good bite on a K-14 Kwickfish, but did not hook the fish. We also saw some king salmon rolling, but could not coax a bite from them.
06/05/2009
I guided a morning group of 4 guests, each of whom hooked a king salmon, and 3 of whom caught a king salmon. The fish weighed 29, 27, and 27 pounds. Two fish were caught on K-15 Kwickfish and the third king salmon was caught on a Beau Mac Spinning Cheater.
I guided an afternoon group of 2 guests, one of whom caught a 44 pound king salmon on a Spinning Cheater. We also saw additional salmon rolling in the afternoon, but could not get any additional bites. The salmon still seem to be rather few and far between.
Deshka River had the first daily weir count of the season topping 100, when 140 king salmon swam past the weir today.
06/06/2009
I guided a morning group of 4 guests, 2 of whom caught king salmon on K-15 Kwickfish. The salmon weighed 47 and 37 pounds.
I guided an afternoon group of 4 guests, 2 of whom caught king salmon with K-15 Kwickfish. The fish weighed 24 and 35 pounds. Water was higher than normal, and I expect it to be just as high tomorrow.
06/07/2009
I guided a morning group of 4 people, one of whom caught a 24 pound king salmon on a K-15 Kwickfish. I believe there are more king salmon around, but with the intense pressure over the weekend they did not seem to want to bite much.
I guided an afternoon group of 4 people, 2 of whom caught a king salmon on K-15 Kwickfish. The first fish weighed about 6 pounds, and the second fish weighed 35 pounds. We also saw a bull moose along the river during the afternoon trip, which was exciting for everyone.
06/08/2009
I guided a group of 4 people and fished a couple different rivers, but all we could come up with was one big king salmon bite that was not on the hook for long at all. We fished lots of holes and saw king salmon roll and had them bumping into our lines, but could not seem to get them to bite. We fished all our regular king salmon producers: K-15 Kwickfish, Beau Mac Spinning Cheaters, M-2 deep diving Flatfish, Wiggle Warts, and even tried casting Flashtrap Spinners for a while.
06/09/2009
I guided a group of 4 people in the morning, one of whom caught a 32 pound king salmon on a K-15 Kwickfish.
In the afternoon I guided a group of 4 people, and nobody caught a fish. One guest had two strikes on a K-15 Kwickfish, and one guest had a strike on a Beau Mac Spinning Cheater. Even though they tried to set the hook, we simply did not hook up.
06/10/2009
I guided a group of 4 people, none of whom caught a king salmon. Like has been happening too often we had trouble getting fish to strike.
06/11/2009
I guided a morning group of 4 guests, 3 of whom caught king salmon. All 3 fish were caught on Spinning Cheaters fished along the bottom.
I guided an afternoon group of 4 people, 2 of whom caught king salmon on Spinning Cheaters. The largest fish of the day was caught on our last drift and weighed 35 pounds.
06/12/2009
I guided 3 people, 2 of whom caught king salmon on Spinning Cheaters.
06/13/2009
I guided 4 people in the morning, 3 of whom caught king salmon. 2 king salmon were caught on orange Spinning Cheaters, and the remaining king salmon was caught on a pink Spin-N-Glo. The fish weighed 13, 32, and 42 pounds.
I guided an afternoon group of 3 guests, and no one caught a salmon. We traveled to some seldom fished holes far upriver, but could not even coax a strike at those spots. Water is starting to drop and clear up, and should continue to do so over the next few days.
06/14/2009
I guided 5 people, each of whom caught a king salmon on K-15 Kwickfish. The largest fish weighed 37 pounds and the smallest salmon was about 10 pounds.
06/15/2009
I guided a morning group of 2 guests, one of whom caught a king salmon of about 30 pounds on a K-15 Kwickfish.
I guided an afternoon group of 6 people, 4 of whom caught small king salmon on K-15 Kwickfish. The largest fish weighed 16 pounds.
06/16/2009
I guided 2 people, one of whom caught 2 jack king salmon on a small plug. We fished on fish, and had them bumping or lines in several holes but had trouble getting them to bite. The guests also hooked but lost two king salmon, one fish was hooked while casting a pink #5 Flashtrap Spinner, and the other fish was hooked with a Willey`s Worm plug.
06/17/2009
I guided a morning group of 4 people, one of whom caught a nice chrome king salmon of about 26 pounds on a small plug. One additional salmon was hooked briefly on a small plug, but lost. One guest also had a couple bites on a pink Spin-N-Glo, but was not able to hook the fish.
I guided an afternoon group of 4 guests, one of whom hooked a king salmon on an orange Beau Mac Spinning Cheater, but the fish got tangled in another line and the line with the fish attached got cut.
06/18/2009
I guided a group of 4 guests, 2 of whom caught king salmon. One guests caught a king salmon of about 12 pounds on our first drift of the morning on a magnum Wiggle Wart, and decided to turn it loose. Near the end of the trip the same guest caught an 8 pound king salmon on a K-15 Kwickfish and decided to keep it. A second guest caught a king salmon of about 25 pounds on a K-15 Kwickfish.
06/19/2009
I guided a group of 4 guests, each of whom caught a king salmon, and one of whom also caught a jack king salmon. The largest salmon weighed 35 pounds and the smallest salmon weighed 9 pounds. The biggest fish was caught on metallic pink magnum Wiggle Wart, and all the other fish were caught on K-15 Kwickfish.
06/20/2009
I guided a morning group of 4 guests, 3 of whom caught king salmon on K-15 Kwickfish.
06/21/2009
I guided a morning group of 4 guests, 2 of whom caught king salmon on K-15 Kwickfish.
I guided a group of 2 people in the afternoon, 1 of whom caught a king salmon on a magnum Wiggle Wart.
06/22/2009
I guided 11 people each of whom caught a king salmon. The largest fish weighed a little over 30 pounds, and several of the fish were less than 20 pounds. One guest also caught a jack king salmon. One king salmon and the jack king salmon were caught on a Beau Mac Spinning Cheater, the rest of the king salmon were caught on K-15 Kwickfish.
Water conditions had improved significantly from the start of the weekend.
06/23/2009
I guided a group of 4 guests, 2 of whom caught king salmon on K-15 Kwickfish. We also saw several other king salmon roll, but only got one additional bite which we missed.
06/24/2009
I guided a group of 4 guests, 2 of whom caught king salmon. One king salmon was caught on a Green Rainbow pattern Spinning Cheater and one king salmon was caught on a Brad`s Wee Wiggler. One guest also caught a jack king salmon on a #4 silver and black Flashtrap Spinner. Water conditions are low and relatively clear with little current. The fish that are available seem to be quite spooky.
06/25/2009
I guided a group of 4 guests in the morning, one of whom caught a nice chrome 28 pound king salmon on a Spinning Cheater. Another guests caught 2 jack king salmon and hooked, but lost a king salmon on a Wee Wiggler plug.
I guided an afternoon group of 3 guests, and although we saw some salmon rolling in a couple different spots and fished right on top of them, we could not get a single strike, so no one caught a fish.
06/26/2009
I guided a morning group of 3 guests, who did not catch any fish. One guests had a single bite on a K-15 Kwickfish, and we saw salmon roll in a few spots. We spent most of the trip back trolling with Spinning Cheaters, Kwickfish, and Magnum Wiggle Warts, but also tried casting Flashtrap Spinners in a few spots where we salmon salmon rolling. The water on the river is dropping and looks like it will continue to stay low unless we get some rain. The few fish around seem to be quite spooky in the low water.
06/27/2009
I guided a morning group of 5 guests, each of whom caught a king salmon on K-15 Kwickfish.
I guided an afternoon group of 4 people, each of whom caught a king salmon on K-15 Kwickfish.
06/28/2009
I guided a morning group or 4 guests, each of whom caught a king salmon on K-15 Kwickfish.
I guided an afternoon group of 4 guests, each of whom caught a king salmon on K-15 Kwickfish.
06/29/2009
I guided a morning group of 4 guests, each of whom caught a king salmon. 2 king salmon were caught on K-15 Kwickfish and 2 king salmon were caught on an M-2 Deep Dive Flatfish.
06/30/2009
I did not run any guided trips.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced that king salmon fishing would ben closed starting Friday morning July 3 on the Little Susitna River and all tributaries of the Susitna River between Deshka River and the Talkeetna River.