Tsiu & Kenai Rivers By Don Mittelstaedt
Click on a thumbnail to view the larger photos from this trip.
In September, Dennis Larson, Larry Shaw, and I travelled to Alaska along with two other friends. We spent the first week on the Tsiu River which is located about an hour south of Cordova by bush plane. The Tsiu is a short river with a hugh run of silvers. Although I had been to the river before, this was my first trip to the Three Rivers Lodge.
The lodge was comfortable and less expensive than other lodges on the river. The catch is that we had to bring our own food and do the cooking. It actually worked out quite well and the fishing, as usual, was terrific. Twenty to thirty fish days are common on this river and if you really work hard at it you can catch fifty or more in a day. We had the usual Alaska weather with some warm days, some rainy days, and some windy and rainy days Fortunately, we lost no fishing time due to the weather. The major excitement was several broken rods and some of the guys thought the river was for swimming.
After we left the Tsiu, Dennis had to return home, but Larry and I and two others flew to Anchorage where we rented an SUV and drove to Cooper Landing to fish for rainbows and Dolly Varden on the Kenai River. We were guided by Fred Telleen of Mystic Waters (www.mysticfishing.com) who I highly recommend. We spent two days fishing the Kenai below Skilak Lake, the third day we floated from the Russian River Crossing to the Lake, and the last day, because of poor weather, we only floated from the Russian River Crossing to Jim's Landing. Each day we caught 20 -30 fish each and only on the third day were the dollys more numerous than the rainbows. The largest fish caught was just over 30" and weighed about 13#. The heaviest fish was a little shorter,. but really looked like a football and was estimated at about 17#. If you would like more information on either river, see Larry or me at a club meeting or send me an email.
