Only a few times over the last quarter century here in Cooper Landing have I seen the Upper Kenai River freeze across in that first mile and a half. This winter its been a weekly occurrence and just this morning it was frozen all the way across by my home on Bean Creek. That is a first for me I believe. Ice dominates the Kenai drainage currently. Beautiful green and white rapids full of ice and froth are glowing in the bright sunny afternoons. Here and there Ive just noticed this week the willows in the brightest openings are sprouting some buds and the real early nest builders, like the gray jay, are collecting dried grasses. Cranberries dot the riverbank and feed the mountain birds that come down from the high country in winter like the willow ptarmigan. Grouse holding their ground until you’re right on top of them give a little jumpstart to a cold body and woodpeckers sounding like Carlos Tree Service forage and communicate in the recent beetlkill spruce trees. Frigid air in the nostrils, icy eyelashes and occasionally a warm minute of sun on the face help round out the human experience of time better spent right now on the Kenai than fishing in it. Sure there’s some fish in spots and I definitely understand cabin fever but after so many winters fishing the emerald Kenai, I can sit out this last month, or two, or three. I love it all still but get so damn cold anymore and 2026 has been a doozy. How cold? So cold I saw lawyers with their hands in their own pockets! I’m not keeping records here but Fairbanks, Alaska saw at least thirty days in a row without a day over zero degrees springtime is indeed still forty below in Delat Junction. I am optimistic that we are very near a turning point and I am happy to have gotten through mostly intact. Leaving the rod at home and wandering the banks of the Kenai will get the blood pumping and clear the mind. Go take some pics of your favorite fishing holes without any water in them or take some snips and clean up a log jam or two, you never know what you’ll find. Once while doing the latter activity Wolfgang and I found a half submerged floating bottle and after thawing it discovered it was holding 13 small gold flakes! Time very well spent! Take a break from the casting but get those bugs ready because we’re close, very close, but still too cold for me.
