Kasilof River Fishing

When looking at Kenai River Fishing Trips, most people don’t even consider the Kasilof River, as a matter of fact… most people have never even heard about this “Little Brother of The Kenai”. The Kasilof River is a fairly large glacially fed River that spans nearly 17 miles from Tustamena Lake all the way to Cook Inlet. When fishing the Kasilof River, we break it up into two sections; the Lower Kasilof River is where we generally start our seasons as it is heavily influenced by Tides and sees the first few spurts of Early Run Kasilof Kings showing up. Around the second to third week of June, we will start floating the Upper Kasilof River, as the river starts filling up with a fairly large Early Sockeye Salmon Run. The best time to fish the Kasilof River is from Mid-May to about the Middle of September. Regardless of when you plan to visit the Kenai Peninsula, the Kasilof River is just a short thirty minute drive from the town of Soldotna and offers ample opportunity to Adventure all year!

Kasilof River King Salmon.

The Kasilof River (also known as Kenai’s Little Brother) is just a short drive from the might Kenai River, and hosts the same amount, if not more, King Salmon. Over the last couple of years, as the Kenai River King Salmon run continues to decline, the Kasilof King Salmon run seems to be holding steady.

We begin fishing for the early run of Kasilof King Salmon around the 15th of May. The “Early Run” is primarily made up of Hatchery Fish, which are generally harvestable, and that run will last until mid to late June. Immediately following that early run of fish, we start seeing the “2nd run” which is primarily made up of much larger Adult Wild Kasilof River King Salmon. In the recent years, there are days of the week that these fish can be harvested.

Most of our King Salmon trips consist of drifting the lower portion of the Kasilof River in our 20ft Willie Drift Boat and pulling either plugs or diver & eggs. The takedown that a fresh out of the Ocean King Salmon provides is absolutely unforgettable! They will either leave you day-dreaming of your next trip to Alaska, or Nightmares of the “One That Got Away”!

Kasilof River Sockeye Salmon.

The Kasilof River Sockeye Salmon begin showing up somewhere right around the beginning of June and the peak of the run can be as early as mid-June, but from the second week in July to the first week in August, you can almost always expect limits of these amazing fish!

Sockeye Salmon don’t tend to “bite”, so hooking them is a bit different than the fishing that you’re probably used to. We use a technique called “lining”, which involves a longer lead and fly and you’re basically forcing them to bite.

A trip for Kasilof Sockeye generally begins early morning with a float down to one of our favorite traveling lanes, and waiting for the fish to show up. Some days you can limit in 10-15 minutes and sometimes it takes a few hours, but regardless, its always a great time and it’s the type of fishery that the whole family would enjoy!

Kasilof River Silver Salmon.

If you’re looking for an aggressive fish, that shows up in big numbers… look no further than the Kasilof River Silver Salmon! Some of the fish are similar in size to King Salmon and are much more aggressive.

The Kasilof River holds two different runs of Silvers, the first run generally starts around the end of July and will last through the month of August. The second run of Silvers begins around the beginning of September and can last all the way until February. The Kasilof Silvers in the second run generally range from 10 to 15 pounds, and as the river starts dropping in September, the fishing really starts heating up!

We use several different methods to catch these fun fish; Back-Bouncing, Back-Trolling, casting plugs, diver and bait and even topwater flies. When we can manage finding a school of these fish held up, it’s fun to experiment with different baits and techniques to see what we can get them to bite on!

Kasilof River Meeting Location.

All trips, whether we are fishing the Upper Kasilof River or the Lower Kasilof River will start and end at the Kasilof River State Recreation Area located at 109.5 Sterling Highway, Kasilof AK 99610. Your Guide will let you know a few days in advance what time to meet and what to bring!

Kasilof River Meeting Location