Fishing on weekdays is a good strategy to avoid crowds when heading to the Kenai River. (BILL ROTH / Anchorage Daily News)

Russian River calls for timing
Fishing success often depends on how many anglers you avoid

By ANTHONY J. ROUTE
Daily News correspondent

Sage fishing advice regarding the Kenai and Russian Rivers is often given by anglers who don’t possess any. Hang out at a streamside watering hole at the end of a summer day when the salmon are running and the trout are leaping and the certainties that spill forth from the mouth’s of the assembled anglers will astound you. They all have no-fail strategies for catching fish, and, amazingly enough, lots of their fish-catching plans differ completely from those of the person sitting on the stool next to them.

If these fisherman actually partook in all their plans, and they were successful, there would be no fish left in the water.

In reality, no-fail fishing strategies don’t exist. There are too many unpredictable variables, such as atypical weather and early or late returning salmon, which make up the equation that can’t be precisely predicted.

The only certainty about the Kenai and Russian Rivers is that they are very popular and how well you avoid other anglers will have a lot to do with how successful you are. Here are some ideas that will increase your odds of meeting more fish than fisherman.

Fish the odd hours. Human nature being what it is, most folks tend to fish like they work. They never get there as early as they think they should and they’re usually in a great hurry to leave on time.

Use this to your advantage. I believe that a lot more salmon, on a per fisherman basis, are caught before eight o’clock in the morning. Look for the guys that are having breakfast about that time and are ready to turn in for a three hour nap. They’ll usually have caught more fish than a similar guy who’ll be casting into the sun all day long.

If you can, fish during the middle of the week. Lots of people with Monday-through-Friday, nine-to-five jobs can’t do this and that’s exactly why it’s a good thing to do. Less crowded water means that you have more and better shots at the fish that are there.

Fish early in the run and late in the run instead of at its peak. Everyone wants to have a line in the water when salmon are bumping fins from bank to bank, but that doesn’t necessarily give you the best kind of odds.

Think of it this way. You can stand among 999 other anglers along a section of stream and vie for 5,000 salmon, or you can hunt, well before or after the celebrated peak of the run, for a pool that holds a mere five salmon. In each case the angler-to-fish ratio is the same, but the people who spend a lot of time with bent rods will always opt for the smaller numbers.

Combining any or all of the above ideas will give you an even greater edge.

Ultimately then, you should be just finishing up your morning’s fishing when everybody else is having their first coffee and you’ll want to make your second stream tour in the evening when lots of people are standing around the grill holding a cool beverage instead of a fishing rod. Do this on a Tuesday or Wednesday before or after the largest push of sockeye salmon in June or July or silver salmon in August and you may actually begin to feel a little lonely.

Also remember that these gaps in the action are often the best times for trout fishing too.

Anglers crowd the confluence of the Russian and Kenai Rivers during the peak of the red run. (ERIK HILL / Anchorage Daily News)