Planning Your Fishing Trip

Plan your fishing trip early

Whether you are interested in choosing one of our full service Fishing & Lodging Packages, or just want to book a single fishing trip or two, there are several basic things you should know in advance to assist your vacation planning.

Getting Here: Our guests arrive either by renting a vehicle in Anchorage and driving down to our lodge, or flying into Kenai and renting a vehicle locally then driving a few minutes to Jimmie Jack's Lodge. Remember, let US Travel arrange your air fare, and your rental car. They're the experts! Call (907) 561-2434 in Anchorage. Tell them Jimmie Jack sent you.

Transportation specials include a 5-10 percent discount on Alaska Airlines. Enter this discount code: EC16408 at Alaska Airlines. Travel between April 1 and May 31 and save 10 percent. Fly between June 1 and Sept. 30 and save five percent.

If you have a few extra hours on each end of your trip, consider driving from and back to Anchorage through the Kenai Mountains. The scenery is splendid with many chances to view wildlife, beautiful streams, rivers, lakes, and mountainous settings during this three hour drive on a newly refinished highway.

Decide & Reserve Early: Surveys indicate that nearly 40% of all fishing done in Alaska occurs on the Kenai Peninsula and in our local saltwater, so you should make plans and reservations as early as possible. There are a limited number of guides and charter skippers in the region, and more importantly, there are very limited numbers of days for each particular species or run. As an example, the Kenai River king fishing regulations allow guided fishing only on Tuesday thru Saturday, so the July king salmon run accounts for a mere 23 days of guided fishing for that run. We advise you to contact us as soon as you have picked a date in order to insure that we have available rooms and open seats on our boats.

Remember, every other traveler planning to visit the Kenai is hoping to reserve "prime time" dates at the peak of the runs so those periods are frequently booked and confirmed as early as February or March.

Planning Halibut Trips & Clamming: When planning Halibut and clam digging trips here on the Kenai Peninsula it is necessary to take into consideration when the minus tides occur. A minus tide set occurs twice each month which affords plenty of opportunity to dig a bucket of razor clams to take back in your fish box as an additional bonus. The tide tables list the lowest part of the tide series during each week long set but clamming can be done during a few days on each side of this period.

For halibut fishing the lowest days of the minus tides mean larger volumes of water are exchanging in and out of Cook Inet during each tide change. This usually means fishing with heavier weights to hold the bait on the bottom, but then again, many of the largest halibut have been caught during these periods because the scent line extends much farther from the bait and so draws fish from farther distances. It can mean a little more work for reeling in to check your bait with the extra weight so if you prefer to have a little easier time cranking in those fish you can plan to do your halibut fishing on the days which aren't the lowest tides of the set.

Other Things To Do: Having a rental car will allow you the freedom of exploring our area when you aren't out fishing. The Kenai Peninsula is southcentral Alaska's recreational playground so there are many things to do. There are visitor centers, museums, beluga whale watching, clam digging on the right days, wildlife viewing, shopping and plenty of sightseeing within a short drive of our lodge.