Spring Rainbows on the Kenai? Yes Please!

 Santa is now in the business of gifting experiences and not just toys his elves made (or he sourced off Amazon). This year, Santa hooked Ashton up with an early spring, trout fishing trip. Apparently, Mrs. Clause is friends with a fishing guide named Felix Sturm, owner of Landem Fishing Adventures. It sounds like she pulled some strings to get us on his books 😊.

We were scheduled to fish the Kenai River at the end of April, a few days before the season closed on May 1 for 45 days to allow the trout to spawn. This would both help us shake off the cabin fever as well as catch some aggressive fish staging before they make babies.

The 2026 spring season was absolutely terrible. It was colder than normal, more rain/snow had fallen than what typically does, ice on lakes stayed around for months longer, and snow on the ground took forever to melt. This had us worried about the weather for the trip. We almost had to cancel/postpone, but we got lucky with a window on the day we were going out.

Something else worth mentioning was Ashton’s ability to use his right hand (reeling hand). Two days prior to the charter, Ashton was playing football at school and busted up his hand pretty bad. Danielle had to take him to the ER, where they said it was only a dislocation of a couple knuckles in his middle finger. He swelled up huge and had bruising all around his middle finger, but they taped him up with a finger splint and told him to take it easy (that wasn’t happening with the need to bend the finger to reel in many fish).

Luckily, we got the truck back the night before we left for the charter. If the truck was still in the shop, we would not have been able to camp, which would have made for an extremely long day. Luckily, that wasn’t an issue. The night before our charter, we headed down and camped in a pull out close to the river.

We woke up at 6AM and Ashton was itching to get on the water. Felix and two of his buddies were already at the boat pullout (Bings Landing). They kept a truck there, picked us up, and we headed to Skilak Lake to launch the boat. Prior to this, Felix told us other people were fishing with us. I was a little disappointed having to share the boat, but when I found out the other guys fishing with us were pretty much two other guides/ deck hands (Matty, works as a guide for Felix, and Ben as a local hunting guide), my perspective completely changed!

Skilak Lake was still completely frozen. This meant that in order to fish from the drift boat, we had to push the boat about a mile to the mouth of the river where the ice ended… I was now even more thankful Felix brought these two other guys! The four of us pushed the boat across the ice as Ashton followed close behind. The ice was a few feet thick for most of the push, with the water depth only being two to three feet deep anyway. As we got closer to the river mouth, the ice started thinning and holes began appearing where warmer water pushed through. It sounded dangerous, but it felt safe with the shallow water and sturdy ice between the holes. We made it safely to the ice edge, jumped in the boat, and headed out on the river.

We were able to use our small kicker motor for a few miles, but we eventually came to a protected part of the river, a swan sanctuary, that prevented motor use. It was tough rowing at the start since there was little current and wind pushing us in the opposite direction. The guide and his two friends rotated as they took turns rowing to exhaustion. There definitely was plenty of swans in this stretch of the river. We also saw many swan carcasses, the left overs from the lynx in the area getting easy meals.

We eventually got to some good current and Felix took over. The arrival of the current also meant the beginning of back trolling. Our method of fishing for the day would be the use of small plugs, tossed out about 40 yards behind the boat, swimming in the current, and then us slowly drifting down river (controlled by Felix on the oars) putting the plugs in front of trout as we stealthily place the bait in holes and where the fish are. Each person on the boat was allowed a pole, but the two other guys’ poles were basically Ashton’s too.

This type of fishing was easy… it was basically picking up the pole when the fish hit the line. Occasionally a hit would occur and the fish wouldn’t hook themselves, so we would grab the line, pull, and let the bait drift back taught, which often resulted in the fishing hitting the “wounded” plug again. This is not the typical method of fishing the Kenai, but this is why I wanted to do this charter… it used spinning rods/ reels (not fly) and it is easy to learn and recreate.

The first couple holes we drifted didn’t produce a single hit.  This meant it would be a fairly slow day of fishing. Regardless, a slow day of trout bites still meant double digit action. We eventually started to catch fish, but the bite didn’t get hot until the infamous Super Hole. The Super Hole is well known to hold many fish, big fish, and consistently biting fish. People snowmachine and walk in to this area throughout the entire year. Many people even camp here too. There were a couple people fly fishing from the shore when we arrived, but we kept our distance, catching fish left and right while the fly fisherman got skunked.

The Super Hole produced a couple nice fish, but Ashton was able to land a really nice one just shy of 30”. We were hoping to catch a bigger fish that day, but it wasn’t in the cards. We landed about a dozen trout out of the super hole before we moved on.

A little down river, Felix asked Matty to take over the oars. Matty was putting us on fish when we heard Felix puking off the boat. We gave him a hard time for being “sea sick” but really, he was recovering from a stomach bug and something he just ate didn’t agree with him. He purged the bad stuff and was able to get behind the oars again shortly after.

The rest of the day was about the same… float the river a bit, catch a fish, eat some gummy worms, crack some jokes, and repeat. We eventually came to a spot in the river where a creek dumping into the Kenai was so dirty with silt and mud, it made the Kenai River dirty and impossible to fish. At that point, our fishing for the day was over. It would have been useless to fish in the murky water without the fish being able to see the dancing plug.

We fired up the motor at this point and puttered the rest of the way to the pull out at Bings Landing. We stayed behind to goof around and guard the boat as the guys took the truck that was left there to go grab the other truck and trailer. Once they returned, we helped load the boat up and over the large ice shelf blocking the ability to use the ramp.

We offered to buy everyone drinks at the local bar, but they all had plans so we thanked the guys for putting us on many fish, and then we went separate ways. Ashton and I decided to stay another night so we went to Buckets to stuff ourselves before bed. We were joking around and playing on his tablet the rest of the night, but we didn’t last long since we got up super early that morning.

The next day we checked out a couple houses that were going through foreclosure, and then we headed home to get some spring cleaning done.

The charter was a blast. It taught me a new way of fishing and I think we will try and implement it ourselves in the future. Thanks Santa!

A beautiful morning to launch a river boat on a frozen lake. 

Isn't the trailer suppoed to be under the water?

Here is the guide and his two helpers pushing the boat (I joined in after taking this picture). The ice ends where those trees start. 

The ice wasn't smooth, it was actually rough. This is a sign of rotten ice due to melting. The boat still slid across but would have been a much easier push if the ice was smooth. 

We found the end of the ice!

Looking back behind us after the push.

And we are off.

We pulled the boat to the shore for Ashton to land his big Rainbow and to get pictures. 

Looking good bud!

This was another fish Ashton caught, but it got away from Felix before we could get a descent pic. 

Ashton's middle finger doesn't look too bad in this picture, but it was way more purple and swollen than it appears here. 

A friendly beaver saying hi.

Ashton wanted to show off the shelf ice. The ice melts and turns into pillar crystals. It's really satisfying to break and kick as it breaks into many crystal liek pieces with ease. This is the side view. 

This is the top view. 

Ashton hooked a big one... this is his biggest fish of the day.

Ashton demonstrates what happens ice when it's smashed on the ground.

Frolicking in shelf ice :)

Lake Louise Magic

 

Ashton’s favorite fishing trip for the year is ice fishing on Lake Louise. Unfortunately, last year, we were not able to do our annual fishing trip in March. Due to my knee surgery, we had to cancel it. Ashton was super bummed about that, especially because he was going to be allowed to bring one of his friends. This made the 2026 Lake Louise trip even more anticipated because we didn’t do it last year and he knew he would get to take a friend. Even better, this year for his birthday, Ashton was gifted a guided fishing trip for big lake trout. The combination of all this made the trip to Lake Louise this year extremely hyped.

We went to Lake Louise in November and the fishing wasn’t the best. We got a couple fish, but we needed more burbot to fully supply our annual fish fry. This trip, we were hoping to target large lake trout (which we don’t keep or eat) and a couple more burbot to keep. This year’s trip was also going to be a guy’s only trip. That meant no Mom and no Josie. The girls were going to stay home and do their own thing while the boys went to Lake Louise to fish hardcore while leaving our filters at home.

Ashton decided to ask his friend Broderick to go with us on the trip. Broderick’s dad was unable to get the time off of work, so I invited Kevin to come along and slay some fish with us. About two weeks before the fishing trip, my truck started acting up. After taking it to the shop, I was told something major was wrong with the fuel system and I would not get it back for quite a while. That meant we could not take the truck and the camper with us to Lake Louise. We almost canceled, but then I remembered that my friend Wilbur had a cabin on the Lake. Luckily, he wasn’t using it and it was free for that weekend. Fishing trips saved!

We were scheduled to go over a three day weekend, however, due to excessive snow days, the school scheduled a makeup day on the Friday we were supposed to be fishing. Because fishing is more important than school, the boys skipped.

Day 1

Once school was out on Thursday, I picked up the boys and brought them back to the house. As they were goofing around and playing basketball, I packed up our gear and got everything ready for Kevin to pick us up. We had to take Kevin’s truck because mine was broken. Kevin got off work around 5 and came and got us as soon as he was done. We loaded up shortly after and hit the road towards Lake Louise. We stopped briefly to fill up on gas, grab some heating oil, and eat dinner. The boys played on their tablet the entire time and we were at the lake before we knew it.

We were surprised to see the parking lot still had snow on it; it was the middle of April and the parking lot is typically bare at this time. We feared having to ride our snow machines on cement, but this was a nice surprise. We unloaded our machines and sleds and got ready to ride in to Wilbur’s cabin. Before we left, I asked a guy in the parking lot about an attachment on his trailer. He then asked me if I knew Wilbur. I was shocked to find out that this guy was Scott Schneider, a pharmacist at my hospital. I didn’t know Scott very well, but he is really good friends with Wilbur. I have actually talked to him on the phone before after Wilbur had his accident and we were coordinating how to get Wilbur help. It was nice to run into him and chat for a little bit. We didn’t talk long because it was already late and we needed to get to the cabin so the kids could get to bed early-ish before our fishing charter the next morning.

We got to Wilbur’s cabin at about 10:00 PM, and it was still daylight out. The ride in wasn’t bad on the lake but the trail to his cabin was getting pretty bare and rough due to the warming temperature. We settled in quickly and got comfortable. Wilbur’s cabin is small but it is perfect for a group of four guys looking for a place to stay warm over the weekend. He has a generator and a battery store to power things, multiple different stoves to heat, propane appliances for cooking, and everything else you could need for a comfortable stay.

The boys were psyched to get fishing, and so were the adults, so it was tough to settle down. We had to be up at about 5:00 AM the next day, but we didn’t get to bed until midnight.

Day 2

We woke up super early and struggled getting out of bed. We ate breakfast, put on our warm clothes, and packed for a long day of riding and fishing. We left the cabin at 6:00 AM to meet the guide at 6:30 on the trail. Halfway to meeting the guide I realized we didn’t have the Gopro. I left Ashton with Kevin and Broderick and high tailed it back to the cabin as fast as I could. I found the Gopro on the ground underneath the chair where one of the boys decided to put it so they could sit at the table. I was able to get back to Kevin and the boys within a few minutes, and it didn’t make us late meeting the guide.

Our guide was Patrick Hankins, the owner of Chasing Tails Adventures. I’ve spoken to him often about fishing on Lake Louise and he is super nice. He’s a good friend of Wilbur’s as well and Wilbur says that he is even nicer than Wilbur is. Pat catches multiple monster lake trout and knows how to fish this area well. There are no promises of catching a monster on this day, but Pat would give us the best chance.

It took about 30 minutes to ride the trail between Lake Louise and Crosswinds Lake. The trail was a lot better than I thought it would be too. There were a few bare spots but nothing bad. The trail was well groomed and it made it very easy to go fast and not beat up on gear or bodies. At one point along the way, there was a big caribou on that trail. We spooked it off and it ran with us for a few hundred yards. We also saw a couple tundra swans on the lake looking for water. Those poor birds were way too early as there was still 4 to 5 feet of ice on the lake. We were concerned that if they didn’t get somewhere soon they would likely starve. This is why they say Alaska kills and the strong survive.

We got to our spot on the lake in a place that I would have never tried to fish. We have fished Crosswinds Lake many times in the past when Kevin and I used to go there and sleep in tents in early March to hammer burbot. The spot we went to would have likely been one of the last spots we tried if we were on our own. It was only 10 feet deep where we were fishing. Everything I thought I knew about lake trout was thrown out the window. I have always been told lake trout are in the deepest holes on the lake. This lake goes to 150 some feet deep and here we are drilling holes in 10 feet of water.

We drilled two holes in the middle of where we were going to fish. We set up the fish hut on top of them and the Live Scope sonar to watch the fish come in (we didn’t really need the hut on that day because the weather was perfect with little wind, temps in the 30s, and cloudy cover). We then proceeded to drill about 10 more holes in a pinwheel fashion all around the fish Hut. These holes ranged from 50 to 100 yards away from the Hut in every direction. We used fish traps to set our poles in holes.

As we were drilling our 3^rd hole, the first trap sprung. We screamed at the boys who were jigging in the ice hut to get the pole. The boys were then running through the snow trying to get to the fishing pole as fast as they could. The first boy to get to it was going to be able to land the fish, and Broderick was the winner. After Broderick landed the lake trout, we asked the boys what they did with the fishing poles. They let us know they set the poles down but they kept their bait in the water. We then told them that was a bad idea because these fish will grab the bait and rip it into the water. We got back to the fishing hut and luckily both fishing poles were still there.

We would then rotate people to land the fish on the fish traps as they sprung. Ashton would get the next fish, then Kevin, and then me. We would then rotate again if we got more fish. If a fish got off the line and it didn’t hook itself, that person would then get to land the next fish. This was a fun way to fish because we would hang out in the middle, and watch the poles all around us. As soon as the flag would spring, we would have to jump on the snow machines and get to it as fast as possible. The traps were too far away to run to, even though the boys tried multiple times.

After I caught my fish of the first rotation, Ashton slowly made his way over to us with his tail tucked between his legs. I asked him what happened, and he explained that a fish pulled a fishing pole down the hole. He further explained that he set the fishing pole down to get some food out of the hut and when he came back it was gone. Apparently, they didn’t listen when we told them not to do that. I felt terrible because Pat has expensive poles and he forgot to bring very many that day. Ashton was upset, but Pat did an amazing job of assuring him that it wasn’t a big deal. It was a big deal to me because his Lack of listening resulted in a big financial loss to Pat, the boy’s not getting to land a large fish, and potentially the death of that fish that now had a pole being dragged across the ground. Ashton’s bank account was a couple hundred dollars skinnier after that accident.

The first rotation of catching didn’t produce any giants, but resulted in a couple respectable fish. It wasn’t until Ashton’s second fish that we were blessed with our first giant. One of the furthest poles away sprung and we all jumped on our snow machines to get to it as fast as we could. Ashton jumped off Pat’s snow machine, grabbed the pole, and the fight was on. We could immediately tell it was a big fish because the line was screaming off the drag. These poles were meant to handle big fish, but you couldn’t tell by looking at the bend in the pole (which the guide said he has never seen it bend that much). It didn’t take as long as I thought it would to get the fish to the hole, but I think that may be a result of us fishing in only 10 feet of water. Regardless, Ashton played the fish perfectly. He kept the line tight when it needed to be, let the fish run when it was aggressive, lifted up and reeled down when the fish gave him some slack, and didn’t rush it when it got to the hole. When the fish finally had its head pointing up the ice hole, Pat was excited with how big it was. Pat was also shocked to see another fish was in the lake trout’s mouth. Actually, two fish were in the Laker’s mouth… two burbot tails were sticking out! Pat pulled the fish out of the hole and we all screamed in excitement. Ashton just landed the first 40 inch lake trout that Pat has ever seen come out of this lake. It wasn’t a fat fish, but he was trying to make himself fat by gorging on two fish and then hitting the jig

Absolute monsters of fish are named Walter. Prior to this fish, Pat talked about Walter and how Walter has broken his line many times on the Lake, but he has never landed him. Pat officially called this fish Walter as it was the elusive 40 inch monster that has been giving him the slip for years. The biggest Lake trout that Pat has ever caught in Alaska was 38.5 inches long. Everyone was so excited for Ashton, but Pat was probably the most excited because he was the only one that knew how big of a unicorn this fish truly was. Ashton knows he caught a monster fish, but I don’t think the size and rarity of it will ever be truly recognized.

During the chaos of landing, measuring, taking pictures of, and releasing the fish as quickly as we could, Pat dropped his cell phone down the fishing hole. This wasn’t good, because he had other clients that needed to reach him to coordinate fishing throughout the coming weekend. Luckily, I had an underwater camera and a heavy duty magnet to retrieve a phone in case we ever dropped one in the water. It took us about 20 minutes and a few more drilled holes, but we were able to get it back. Not only did we retrieve it, but it was still fully functional.

Shortly after Ashton landed his fish another trap went off on the other side of the Hut. It was now Kevin’s turn to land the fish. Kevin’s Fish was also a giant measuring 37 ½ inches long. It wasn’t as long as Ashton’s fish, but it was many pounds heavier. Kevin was thrilled to finally get a huge lake trout in his hands.

Broderick and I caught a couple of fish but nothing massive. That’s OK though, at least somebody caught some big giants. Overall, we landed a total of 10 fish and missed about 5  that day. The bite slowed as it got into late afternoon. You could tell Pat was anxious to get back to the lodge and share the accomplishment of landing such a big fish. We packed everything up around four and headed out.

We rode back to the cabin to refuel and take a little break. The boys goofed around, cracked inappropriate jokes, and reflected on how much fun the charter was. After an hour, we decided to head to the lodge for dinner. We were going to meet Pat there too after he got some other fishermen settled for the night.

The lodge was busier than normal and we had to wait a very long time for a table and our food. After a couple hours at the lodge we had to hurry back to our cabin in order to get the tip ups set out for the night. There was a rush, but we were able to drill many holes and try for burbot. The fishing wasn’t good that night and we got skunked. We were actually really tired too so we didn’t fish too late and went back for a good night’s sleep, crashing hard. We left the tip ups out overnight hoping to have something on in the morning.

Day 3

We slept in late since we were pooped from the day prior. I set up my drone and was able to check the tip ups from ½ mile away. Many flags were up and that got the boys excited to scarf down their breakfast and get on the lake to fish for the day.

The first tip up had a burbot on it, exactly what we wanted. The second had a lake trout on it, and unfortunately, it swallowed the hook. Broderick wanted to keep a lake trout so this was going to be his fish to take home. The third tip up was a false alarm. The 4^th tip up had a fish on it, but it stole the bait and got off the hook somehow. The 5^th and final tip up had something happened to it that has never happened to me before; the line was broken off. This must have been a huge fish because that is not a common thing to happen with a tip up.

Our plan for the day was to fish. We are going to fish all around the ice hut and out towards deeper water away. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had different plans. The weather got gorgeous! It was mid to upper 40s and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The high pressure system rolled in and completely shut off the fish from biting. It made for amazing snowball fights all day and staying warm, but it resulted in lousy fishing. We spent the whole day just goofing off and not landing a single fish. The most exciting part of that day was when an eagle landed next to the burbot we caught earlier and tried to steal it. We had to scare it off and then bury the fish to keep the eagle from grabbing it again.

Around 5:00 PM I made the kids go back to the cabin to take a nap and get out of the sun. We were all still sleep deprived from the past two nights and we knew we were going to stay up late to fish again. Kevin took a nap in the Hut while we rested at the cabin. After our rest, I restocked our food, drinks, and snacks for dinner and a movie in the fishing hut that night. At about 7:30 the boys and I went back to Kevin to fish for the rest of the night.

I started cooking the pizza rolls, pulled pork, and hotdogs over the buddy heater while everybody else was fishing. At the same time, we had Top Gun 2 projected on the side of the hut. If we weren’t going to catch fish, we were going to have a good time trying while watching a movie and stuffing our faces.

We ended up only getting one bite that night when we were jigging and Kevin missed the hook set. We would check the tip ups every 20 minutes or so and we did end up landing one burbot on a tip up. We ended up fishing until 1:00 AM until we decided to call it a knight. We ended up going to sleep at about 2:00 AM that night which isn’t bad, only six hours passed the boy’s bedtime.

Day 4

We were up at about 9:00 AM the next morning and repeated the drone check of all the tip ups. Three flags were up this morning which again got the boys excited and out of bed. We decided the fish weren’t going anywhere so we took our time getting out to the tip ups. Instead of heading all the way out there to fish for a little bit and then come back and pack, we agreed to clean up the cabin and pack everything up first, and then head to the hut to fish and pack that stuff up. While we were packing up, a herd of caribou were crossing the lake. I flew my drone over to them and counted about 20. Caribou hunting in this area is currently closed, but hopefully one day it will open again.

The boys were a huge help packing everything up in the cabin… not. The boys were busy goofing around and telling inappropriate stories. They left Wilbur a couple of notes and pictures of body parts.

When we got to the ice hut, the boys checked the tip ups immediately. Only one tip up had a lake trout on it and the other two were missed hookups. Kevin and I tore down the ice hut and started packing stuff away while the boys were in charge of pulling all tip ups and collapsing those. That was the first time Ashton took the lead on putting the tip ups away, and it was a huge help. It was a very windy day which made putting stuff away fairly difficult. The fishing would have likely been good with the lower pressure, but we had to get home.

The trail out and loading in the parking lot was fairly uneventful. I drove home since Kevin drove to the lake. We saw more caribou on the road and it was fairly gross spitting rain. The most exciting part of the drive home was when Broderick threw up everywhere inside Kevin’s truck. The boys were watching a movie on the tablet and this contributed to Broderick’s motion sickness. He didn’t tell anybody he wasn’t feeling well and he didn’t even tell people that he was puking. I pulled over quickly and he continued to puke inside the truck. We had to pull him out while he was throwing up to try and keep the back of Kevin’s truck from being completely destroyed. We then spent the next 20 minutes cleaning puke off of Broderick and the inside of the truck. This wasn’t a fun thing to do and I’m actually shocked at how well Kevin handled the situation. He doesn’t have kids and the inside of his truck is gorgeous, but he was more concerned about Broderick than his truck getting demolished… What a good guy.

Overall it was an amazing weekend. We caught some monster fish, and we kept some fish for the fish fry. There was so much inappropriate talk, no girls were allowed (including moms), no rules, no filters, and no shortage of fun. I didn’t know how much fun Kevin would have adding two young boys to our adventures, but he mentioned that it was a good time being a dad for a bit. This fishing trip will be hard to top.

Broderick started us off with a nice Lake Trout.

Then Ashton landed his own

And Kevin with his (all of the first three fish were very similar in size)

Broderick round 2, getting some girth

This is Patrick holding up Walter (Ashton's 40" laker)... the boys could not lift it and we didn't want the fish being harmed if it flopped out of their hands. 

Getting the boys in there. Patrick decided to let the boys try to hold it, but that lasted less than a second.

Cool angle of Walter, Ashton admiring his catch, and the fish hanging out of the mouth.

Walter appeared in our weekly Selfie Sunday.

Cheezers

Kevin landed his personal best laker!

We caught a bonus burbot too... headed to the fish fry!

A picture of the chaos when a Fish Trap snaps up.

Squaring off before they wrestle again.

This is the front of Wilbur's cabin... I love how perfect it is.

The view from Wilbur's cabin, overlooking Blueberry Cove.

That tiny dot on the ice is our ice shack.

The morning haul

These two were stinkers to each other the entire time, but this was the funniest picture of their antics. 

Bros on the Sno Gos

SO... MANY... SNOWBALL... FIGHTS

Taking a break inside, launching anything they could find.

Ash and B hanging out around an ice hole.

There was a good group of caribbou that moved across the lake and we were able to get fairly close when we went to tear down our ice fishing gear. 

Ashton posing under three caribou.

Ash and B got good at checking and using the tip ups. They made a great team. 

The race was on to get the first pole... and Broderick won.

This is Ashton landing Walter.

Kevin got his time to shine too. 

Here is what it looks like to fish with a tip up.