King Salmon Fishing, Knik River, Alaska June 12, 2020

[deepmud]

You may have noticed a flurry of posts - partly - I've figured out a way to deal with the resize required by the Zone, and the lack of off-site hosting I used to do.

For this fishing trip - I brought out a project/projects I've worked on for a few years. One - variations on a theme - rear-mounted pivoting fin adapter - which evolved into a mount for a kayak rudder - it even steers. Two - this was version 2 of an outrigger. Version one was HEAVY - it used conduit and 2x2's and a ton of duct tape . Version 2.0 is light aluminum that breaks down to a short/fits in the sup-bag length - still needs work but it's close......anyway - I can fish off it - and the 26" wide Red Elite is seriously unstable at least with me on it - so this really broadens versatility for a narrow focus board. Some other thread (soon) will lay out the outrigger and another for the fin so ... this is about the Knik and - and attempting to catch a King. Kings are notorious for requiring a lot of hours on the river to catch - spoiler alert - I didnt get one.

Andrew Cunningham is the experienced sup-fish-getter here - he usually gets lots of silvers and reds - not in this river so much - and he usually takes his Tower 10x34 - stable and manuverable - but on this big river turning isn't a big deal. His 14x30 Starboard DC is pretty stable - he had zero issues this trip. He's running a shorter flex-fin but it wasn't really required I think.

[deepmud]

The Knik is glacier-fed - cold, murky, silty and lots of gravel and sandbars. Andrew's carrying system is good for getting to things - but he did flip once and could have snapped off the fishing rods. Maybe needs something that would lay flat?

[deepmud]

This is running right up against the foot of Pioneer Peak - we aren't a lot over sea level - and it goes up 6,600 ft from here. It's impressive. When I moved back after college - I was like - My God - the mountains are HUGE!!!

This part of the river - no fish - it's a hatchery run, and they will be coming back to the Eklutna Tailrace (where I did that winter race this spring).

[deepmud]

The Tailrace came up after after a bit - we could have started the float here - but it's More Fun to start up on the old Knik Bridge.

Tailrace dumps in beautiful, clear bluish-greenish glacier lake water (via a near half-mile  long tunnel built in the 50s) into the murky gray and the gray wins out in only a few yards.

Lots of people fish here - usually bait is allowed, it's pretty boring but you can catch King and later Silver Salmon. Only open to residents - it's not a big fishery.

[deepmud]

Finally we got down to where - some - of the fish were. It's a bit early for this run, it seems - we saw 4 or 5 get hauled in but not bites for either of us. We tied off as oddballs in a line of anchored skiffs and fished about 2 hours or so - limited time, limited fish! This area is slightly tidal here and the fish tend to come up and change their minds  - just below this point it's not open. Maybe a good thing - another channel feeds in and the water is really turbulent with boils and spinning whirlpools  - no fun on a sup.
Funny thing - too bad I didn't have my head-mount Go-Pro - I got pulled over by Fish and Game We had packed up and started down the highway where we stashed my car at the start - and this skiff  zooming up river pulls along side. It was friendly enough and I turned and faced upstream to maintain against 3-ish mph current - but as I explained the odd craft I was on, lol, a boil twisted my board and the minor floatation of my pool-noodle ama was overcome by the river - sucked down out of site - and I nearly went it. The 3 officers said they would love to see my license but didn't want to make me go in I could have maybe just kneeled and held onto their boat - but eh, not having to wait longer was fine by me. I was fully good to go as far as license/king tag but it was much easier to turn and burn

The Google link - full sized images -
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wDkvTNtgfcs3AkVk6

[TallDude]

Thanks' for the tour. A neighbor of mine just got back from Kodiak and gave me some fresh Coho steaks. Soooo good.....