Its 8am in Cooper Landing and it’s taken me about a half an hour to get all my cold weather gear together.  Underneath my waders I am layered in long johns and fleece with multiple layers under my coat as well. I have been thinking to myself for the past 10 minutes if it is worth all the trouble of getting ready to chase these stories of October Rainbows on the Kenai River.
   At about the time I am starting to change my mind the guide shows up bright eyed and bushy tailed talking about yesterdays fishing and some foreign language about a new bead bite happening.  I throw my lunch bag and extra clothes in the truck and we are off.
    Normally it’s a 30 minute drive to the launch but on this day it’s a bit longer with the first winter freeze the night before.  Along the way we had to slow down due to a bear standing on his hind legs in the
middle of the road.  Around this time I have noticed over the years that the bears tend to be searching for food and like to get into garbage cans.
     We finally arrive at the boat launch to see that there only one other truck and boat trailer there.  After all the gear is loaded into the boat we splash it in the water and start the journey across Skilak Lake.  We make it to the start of the river again and my curiosity is getting the best of me wondering why we are rowing through a hole that we normally fish.  The guide told the boat just to be patient and wait till we get to where he is heading.  
    Now we are about an hour into just traveling on the river until finally he drops anchor and starts getting the rods setup and ready.  One by one he hands us our battle weapons and does a quick run through on safety and how to cast from a drift boat.  It only takes us a few minutes to get the rhythm down of casting together off the sides of the boat.  After a little bit longer Todd on the other side of the boat hooks up and is immediately in battle with a large fish.  We could tell what it was due to the fact when a silver salmon is hooked they go ballistic!  After about a 10 minute fight we had a bonus fish to the boat, a 15lb silver!  
    As I catch myself starting to get jealous over the commotion on the other side of the boat I look down just in time to watch my floating indicator stutter then disappear out of sight underwater.  Immediately I get chills all over my body as the reel is just screaming as the fish takes it into backing in seconds.  I sure am glad I added more backing the previous month after getting spooled by a Dolly. I am starting to wonder if I did indeed hook a trout or something else because the fish hasn’t been aerial yet and is just lugging straight on the bottom. At this point all attention is focused on me and what was on the end of my line.  After some strong runs and a sore arm I finally started to gain some ground on this fish.  I see my indicator coming towards the tip of my fly rod and realize I might just get a chance to see what has been kicking my butt for the past 15 minutes.  My guide jumps up to the front of the boat with the net and starts coaching me on how to manage the fish with such a long leader tippet.  The very instance we see this absolute magnum rainbow the guide swooshes the net and gets it first shot!  I am pretty sure everybody within a 10 mile radius of us heard my hooting and hollering after I realized I just landed the biggest trout of my life.
    We pull to shore to unhook and measure it so we can safely release it to give somebody else the same amount of excitement I just had.  Thank god I remembered to pack the camera that day because this beast of a trout measured at 32 inches long by 20 inches around!  The guide ran the formula for length and girth to determine the fish’s weight.  A true native 16lb Kenai rainbow trout!  I couldn’t believe it but on top of that over the course of the day almost every fish we landed had been swollen and on average of about 5lbs.  What an amazing fishery and I cannot wait for next October to come around to do battle with these monsters again!

Adam

This is a small sample of the underestimated October fishery on the Kenai River.  October is one of the last months for Rainbows and Dollies to feed while there is still food in the river to eat.  Over the past few years there has been a lot of steelhead caught as well.  Although it may not be like the 100 plus fish days of August and September the size of these monsters is what you fish all summer for in hopes of catching.  From beginner to the most expert of fly fisherman the October fishery is one of the best fisheries in the world for trophy class native rainbow trout.

Frank Williams & Bob Rima
Kenai River Drifters Lodge