salmon | FishingFeeds

Deep Creek Fishing Club on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska

Here is a brief overview in video of my first fishing trip to Alaska. We visited the Kenai Peninsula and fished for halibut, trout, and salmon at the Deep Creek Fishing Club.

This place is amazing. The first day we went out on the ocean and fished for Halibut. There were two boats of us, 4 people on each boat, and one captain and another crew member per boat too. All eight of us caught our limit of two halibut each. The largest halibut of the day was 69.4 pounds on the scale outside the lodge. It was great fun. The weather out on the water was a bit choppy, but nothing too bad, infact nobody even got sea sick. It did get a bit windy towards the end of the day

river fishing the kasilof Alaska — Kasilof float fishing

On the second day, we went fishing on the Kasilof River on the Kenai Peninsula. Some of the video is also from salmon fishing on this river. The fishing that day was pretty good for our drift boat.

We brought 3 salmon to the boat, and had a total of 5 salmon strikes. We released two of the salmon because they were wild king salmon, and we kept one that was a hatchery fish. Our guide Todd who works for the Deep Creek Fishing Club was excellent. He had been guiding tourists who come to Alaska to fish for over twenty years now.

On the final day of our trip, we chartered a small airplane to fly us to some remote lake across the channel. We landed and started fishing for lake trout. We were using salmon eggs, and our group of eight caught about 15 trout in about one hour. Next, our guides and Capta

alaska lake fishing for trout by bush plane — fly-in lake fishing

in Steve aka Captain Crusty fixed up all the fish on the side of the lake with a bunch of charcoal, and we had some awesome fish tacos. They setup a nice table and there was everything you could need for a great meal including wine and beer and best of all fresh caught trout for our taco meat.

Please enjoy the video of the fishing trip to the Deep Creek Fishing Club:

Fishing the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska for Halibut and Salmon

Fishing in Alaska is something brand new for me. Going to a true fishing lodge is also something brand new for me. It’s been just about 7 hours since we landed, and I think I just might be hooked for life.

Alaska is such a beautiful place, and by the looks of all the pictures on the walls of the Deep Creek Fishing Lodge, we are probably going to be in for some super great fishing over the next four days. Tomorrow we are heading out on the ocean or salt as our captain Steve who is the owner of the Deep Creek Fishing Lodge says. We are going to be in search of some halibut, which he says we will be sure to catch within minutes. Our plan is to go salmon fishing in the local river the next day. I can’t wait, this is exactly what I have been waiting for, the chance at catching a monster halibut up here in Alaska.

So here is the quick summary of this Alaskan fishing trip so far. 1) We left San Francisco airport for Seattle, then took a second plane to Anchorage, then a final 3rd small plane to Kenai. All of the travelling was a total of about 9 hours. Once we landed in Kenai, a woman from the lodge picked us up and we took the Hummer about an hour until we arrived at the Deep Creek Fishing lodge.

The Deep Creek Fishing Lodge is amazing in many ways. First off, it is a true wooden log lodge. All of the smaller cabins that are for guests to sleep in are wooden logs too. And it sits on a bluff which is about 50 feet above the sea level, so you have a perfect view across the 38 mile channel to the other side where there are several 11,000 foot peaks/volcanoes to look at. Please enjoy the pictures of the lodge as well as the videos, its super impressive. If the views and the background aren’t enough for you, you will definitely be impressed with the staff and owners of the lodge. Steve who is the owner is full of all kinds of fishing stories. Tonight at dinner (king crab legs and a massive mix of cold seafood for starters) Steve said that he has been fishing these exact waters for over 25 years now and is one of the top captains in the area.

King Crab Dinner at Fishing Lodge — Deep Creek King Crab Dinner

He said he won 9 derbys within that time period, so I am feeling pretty good about our chances at a nice halibut or two or five. The rest of the staff is also super great, and very helpful and there to help you out whenever you need anything.

Since it is early June, the one odd thing so far has been how light it is. It’s 11:30pm right now, and although I know I need to go to sleep to be rested for fishing in the morning, I just can’t. It’s so light outside, and I am getting ready to take some pictures of across the channel to get some good sunset shots of the volcanoes…. Who could blame me.

Some good stories to come soon, I’m not sure if I will be able to sleep at all tonight. Sarah is coming to wake us all up tomorrow moring at 5:00am for a 5:30 breakfast…. life is great up here at this Alaskan fishing lodge.

Here is a photo looking past the Deep Creek Fishing Lodge and out over the water. The mountains with snow on them across the channel are 38 miles away.

Soquel Hole Salmon Fishing is Hot

That’s right, its time to get your salmon gear together and make your way down to Santa Cruz or Monterey California to get your 2 daily salmon limit. The fishing has been the best its been all year for several days now, and its not too far of a crawl to get to the fishing grounds.

Most of the anglers are choosing to fish salmon at the Soquel Hole which is just a 30 minute run for most boats from the Santa Cruz harbor. If you are planning on coming from Monterey it will be a bit longer run to the fishing grounds. And of course if you are making the trip by boat from Half Moon Bay harbor, it will be even longer again. The Soquel Hole is known for great salmon fishing because it is a collection pot for all types of bait fish with the massive depth changes it has.

The sea conditions the past few days have been relatively nice and calm compared to several weeks ago. There has been a really nice calm feel out there early in the morning, and of course the afternoon winds have kicked up every single day so far this week, so get your fishing done early.

As the fish are now being caught closer to the surface, mostly between 30-80 feet of water, more and more people are stopping the trolling and opting to save some gas and energy with their mooching gear. Of course, you won’t escape the numerous troll fisherman who are have tons of success with rigs like pulling a anchovy around or pretty much any other lure these days.

Most of the fish that are showing up at the docs in Santa Cruz have been in the 8-14 pound range, with 20 pound fish coming in daily as well. Good luck, and if you are going out for the whole day and don’t catch anything, we’ll, better luck fishing next time.

Salmon Fishing Monterey Bay Report

The Salmon fishing has been luke warm still in the Monterey Bay. The bets have still been the Soquel Hole off of Santa Cruz with some anglers catching their limits of reasonable sized salmon.

The fishing a bit north in Half Moon Bay has continued to be less attractive to the small skiff fisherman, and many have opted to launch their boats out of Santa Cruz in search of a faster ride to the more productive fishing grounds. But, this surely doesn’t mean that fishing has been a complete waste out of Half Moon Bay. There have been a few limits of salmon reported there as well.

The fishing out of Monterey has been reasonable, just under one fish per rod on some of the boats, and of course some limits and some skunked salmon fishermen mixed in too. Most of the party boats are dropping anchovies and sardines down to relatively low depths of 150 feet or more to find the salmon while on the mooching rigs. Overall, there seems to be a very high percentage of fisherman trolling hoochies and all sorts of other rigs for the salmon. One of the common lures last week was a yellow Crocodile lure.

This week coming up should have some decent days for getting out and making another stab at the salmon if you are still in search of your first fish of the season. There were several reports of boats who kissed their first salmon of the season over the weekend, and if you are still searching, don’t get discouraged.