July 23-24, 2018
Just couldn’t pass up the chance to visit another town of Hope. Hope, Alaska is just a bit off the beaten path on the Kenai Peninsula and the Turnagin Arm- (a salt water basin with a tidal bore). Hope- population about 125 claiming year round residency (but probably not many here in the dead of winter). A couple of campgrounds, restaurants and Salmon fishing where Resurrection Creek enters the ocean. “Combat” fishing as it is known in Alaska- shoulder to shoulder along the water, waders on, in 3 feet of fast moving water. No “snagging” here, single hook that you hope will enter a pink salmon’s mouth…we did not participate for oh so many reasons, however we did talk to a couple of anglers- one from New Jersey that comes up every year to catch salmon, freeze them and take them home and the other a Kenai native who’s family runs a gold mine with mining trips, a fishing charter business and a fish processing business. Local Halibut for dinner at the cafe, where we discovered one of the cook’s was from Peak’s Island, Maine!
Kenai River and Lake- beautiful for sure, however anglers everywhere and guides and outfitters and trips- very busy place! We fished a little here and spent one very foggy day in Seward

– hiked to the foot of the Exit Glacier and then lunch in town- salmon, halibut and rock fish.

 

Fishing on the Russian River was slow as the sockeye were just starting to arrive- we walked up along the river – formal boardwalks and access stairs all along about 1 mile of the river keep people from trampling the entire area. No fish for us, but we did spend about 15 minutes watching a 2yo brown bear (aka grizzly) sun it self 100ft across the river!
We’ve met lots of travelers- many from Texas where it has been over 100 degrees! And spending big bucks to catch sockeye and trophy rainbow is what they are here to do!

We fished a little at quiet Cooper Lake- beautiful, we were the only ones there, this laked is stocked with trout and char, but none landed on our hooks.