We are excited to talk to another one of our great visitors today. Tom Asarch visited us with his grandson and they had a great time. There were many highlights to the trip, but we’ll let Tom tell you about those. Here’s what he had to say:

"This was my oldest grandson's 16th birthday present. We both decided we would like to go fishing in Alaska. The one on one time with him for those five days was terrific. His favorite thing about the lodge was the food. He loved the breakfast and dinners at the lodge. The fishing was exciting and fun, but he looked forward to that and had a great time.

The trip was fantastic. That was probably due to the fact we caught tons of fish. We caught yellow eye, salmon, sea bass, and lingcod. Even though there were six people on the boat, everyone caught a bunch of fish. I think I have pictures of eight or 10 whales that were there too. The scenery was beautiful, and it was a very memorable trip. All the trips were great. My favorite one happened to be Seward."

The trip was fantastic… we caught tons of fish.

Thanks so much to Tom for joining us at the Alaska Seascape Lodge. It was a pleasure to host you, and we hope you’ll come back to see us soon. If you have any questions for us or would like to book your own fishing trip, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

There are a few things you should know if you want to catch a sockeye salmon in the Kenai River. I’ll give you some key tips today. Click here for "Original" Alaska Lodge packagesClick here for Alaska SeaScape Lodge packages How do you catch sockeye salmon in the Kenai River? When there are 10,000 or 20,000 salmon coming through the river, people think they can catch a lot of sockeye salmon. However, there actually aren’t that many sockeye in the Kenai River because they don’t feed in the river. Since sockeye salmon feed on plankton, they typically don’t bite much, either. One thing people ask is, “What kind of test do you use for the sockeye salmon? It’s only a six or eight pound fish.” I always say to use at least a 20 lb test line, and people always look at me funny. The truth is that you will be fighting a very strong current that runs at about seven to eight knots. With the salmon running downstream, you need at least a 20 lb test. If you have less than that, then you will snap off your terminal tackle every single time. So, what do I use? I have a very simple, ultimate setup. Take a double, chartreuse bead setup with a 4-0 Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp hook. We use 25 to 30 lb test monofilament. Depending on the current, we may need to use more weight. I recommend using a four-foot leader because the fish are only five to 10 feet out. You don’t want to get stuck on the bottom; just slowly tick along the bottom as your bait goes through the zone. What do I mean by the zone? You can check out the video above to see Rosie casting out in front of her; she’s wading and waiting, and as the fish comes to the zone, she’ll feel the salmon and jerk the line back. I recommend jerking the line up so that you hit the fish more in the mouth than in the back. When you hook a sockeye, you’re in for the fight of your life.When a sockeye gets hooked, you’re in for the fight of your life. After all, there are eight knots of current against you. I recommend letting the fish run a bit so that it gets tired. When you start to reel it back in, don’t put a lot of force on the line. That salmon wants to swim upstream, so don’t put too much pressure on it and let the salmon come to you. Now, I want to share one fun fact about Alaska. The word 'Cheechako' means a new person, someone who just moved up to Alaska. That’s because back in the day, a lot of people from Chicago were moving to Alaska, and the natives started calling those newcomers Cheechako. If you have any other questions about sockeye salmon or if you are interested in visiting this great state, give me a call or send me an email. Now, get out there, catch some fish, and rip some lips. I’ll talk to you soon!

On the Kenai River, we have a large run of sockeye salmon that come through toward the end of June and the end of July, and everybody’s always asking me, “How do I catch them?”

It’s actually quite simple.

Sockeye salmon usually run very close to the riverbank—as close as three to four feet if the water is fast. If I’m standing on that bank, I keep an extra supply of hooks in my pocket instead of carrying them around in a tackle box or a fanny pack, because the trick to catching sockeye salmon is changing hooks often.

After casting out your line, your hook will be hitting rocks and ripping through the water quite a bit, which means it can get dull within 10 to 15 minutes. Changing hooks is a tactic I always tell my guides to help their guests with so when they do hook a sockeye salmon, there’s no chance of escape. In case you’re wondering, I use a 4/0 Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp Octopus hook.

Fishing is like anything else—you want to play like everyone else is playing.

One of the questions I always hear is, "What size weight should I use?" That ultimately depends on the current. I like to use the lightest weight possible. Typically, a good weight is a large split shot weight. This allows the hook to gently tick across the bottom of the current and prevents it from sticking. You only want to feel the hook stick on a fish. When you use too heavy of a weight, you'll feel it stick more often to the bottom and mistake it for a fish.

Another question I get asked pretty often is, “What size line should I use?” The sockeye salmon here in the Kenai River are usually only six to eight lbs, but they can really pull when they’re channeling inside an eight-knot current. This is why I usually advise a 20 to 25 lb test.

Many times, you’ll hook these fish in the back while they’re running downstream through the current, so a higher-pound test can prevent them from stringing your line out. You don’t want to fight a fish with 100 yards of line out while jumping over rocks and dodging trees every time you hook one. There are other fishermen out there, and it’s common courtesy to not interfere with their area.

If you have any more questions about how to fish on the Kenai River, feel free to give us a call or visit us online. We’d be happy to help!

Interviewer: What was the emotional highlight of your trip to the Alaska Seascape Lodge, or Jimmie Jack’s Alaska Lodge?

John Collis: It was just a beautiful experience. I was blessed from the word ‘go.’ That was my bucket list, and my wife helped me do it. We got there at the fisherman’s lodge, and they thought it was two men, and they put us in a room with nice accommodations and everything. Then Jimmie Jack found out we were a couple, and he moved us up to the Seascape Lodge, which was gorgeous.

When they say five stars, you could probably say six. You could look out our window and see the three volcanoes, the bay, I mean, it was unbelievable. The accommodations were really good; the people there—the guides, the cooks, the people that came in to clean up—they were top notch. Everybody makes you feel like you’re at home. We just had a blessed time.

We went up there, and, just like when we were on the boat with Captain Charlie and Cooper, first mate. I looked up at him, and I say, ‘Have you ever had to open that back gate before to get a fish in?’ He looked at me like I’d lost my mind and he said, ‘Nope, just throw them over the side.’ I said ‘OK’ and it wasn’t more than two or three minutes later when the rod started bouncing. I grabbed it and went to reeling. I was losing more than I was gaining. Charlie and Cooper, they were just going crazy. I couldn’t fathom why, and all of a sudden there he is after a long fight. And I look down over the side and there was a queen-size mattress coming out of the water. They had to open the back gate, and they brought it in the boat. It was just a blessing. You know, when you’re blessed, you have to bless others. My wife said to me, ‘We’ve got 140 pounds of fillets. What are we going to do with it?’ I thought about that that night, and the next morning I said, ‘You know, we’re going to give it to a Christian food bank and go from there.’ I think that was the most blessed I ever was.

The rivers were beautiful; the Halibut fishing was great. The fly-in over to that remote river, you can see the bears. You can catch all those fish over there. You can see the glaciers. Gosh, I’d say all of it. If you’re going to go, do all of it. I would highly recommend anybody that has the opportunity to go up there, or who has a bucket list to accomplish something in their life, to go do it. The fishing was absolutely first-class. We had so much fun with the guides, the scenery was beautiful, and the fish were plentiful. As a matter of fact, when I asked my wife ‘Where do you want to go this year?’, she said, ‘Let’s go back to Alaska.’ I hope to see everybody that was there last year and maybe meet new people, too.

We are here on the banks of the world famous Kenai river at the end of the summer fishing season of 2016. We had a great summer and did a lot of exciting things that we’d like to share with you today.

We had the privilege to be featured again on Channel 2 KTUU, one of our local channels out here. They came out on the boat with us and caught some massive silver salmon, among other fish. NFL legend Larry Csonka and his former teammate Norm Evans joined us for a trip. They had a great time out there on the water.

Looking back, we had an incredible summer and now look forward to an exciting new future here at Jimmie Jack's!

We caught a lot of Lingcod and Yelloweye Rockfish this summer, as well as the largest halibut caught out of Ninilchik. It was 345 pounds and caught by our Seascape guest John. The fight was impressive, but with the help of Captain Charlie Barberini and his deckhand, Cooper, they were able to wrangle it into the boat. Watch the exciting capture in the video above.

Outside of fishing, the biggest highlight of the season is that we acquired the Alaska Seascape Lodge, which allows our guests to experience the ruggedness of Alaska with the amenities of a 5-Star property.

The water level has been dropping, it’s getting cooler, and we are just getting in some last-minute fishing before the colder months come. If you have any questions for us or if you’re already looking ahead to plan your trip for next year, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

If you’re in need of a vacation and love to fish, I’d like to introduce you to the Alaska SeaScape Lodge, located on the Bluff of Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska.

What’s it like to be on a trip at the Alaska SeaScape Lodge? I’d like to give you a quick glimpse.

The Alaska SeaScape Fishing Lodge combines the top-quality fishing trips we’ve been known for the past 20 years with the amenities of a five-star property and all-inclusive meals. 

The lodge is centrally located on the Kenai Peninsula among the great fisheries of the area, and our Seward combo trips, as well as our halibut trips, are held in Cook Inlet. Cook Inlet, as you may already know, is known for great halibut fishing and for having one of the largest tides in the world. In fact, we caught the famous 345-pound halibut right here in Cook Inlet with Captain Charlie not long ago. This is the largest fish caught in the last 12 years around the Ninilchik area. 

We hold Kenai river trips just to the north of the lodge and the Kasilof river trips to the south. In addition, we also hold fly-in trips in creeks over the other side of the Inlet. 

The Alaska SeaScape Lodge is one of the few, upscale, all-inclusive lodges on the Kenai Peninsula.

The Alaska SeaScape Lodge is unique because it’s one of the few all-inclusive lodges here on the Bluff of Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska. We offer all-inclusive packages that include all of your meals in addition to evening appetizers and complimentary wine and drinks after your fishing trip. Our menu includes salmon, halibut, king crab, prime rib, and more. 

We have eight rooms in the lodge, three of which are suites. That brings our capacity to between 16 and 20 people at any given time. Summertime is the best season to visit because we’ll be catching fish throughout the months of June, July, and August. This is a great place to sit back and relax after a full day of fishing. To top it all off, we have a beautiful view of the Mount Redoubt Volcano on the bluff of the ocean where the lodge is located. 

Let us take you fishing and treat you right at the Alaska SeaScape Lodge! If you have any questions about the Alaska SeaScape Lodge or the "Original Alaska Lodge", please feel free to reach out to us by phone or email. 

What should you know about a fishing lodge package at Jimmie Jack’s Alaska Fishing Lodge? This lodge gives families the opportunity to have their own lodge room, or their cabin, so that they can enjoy our fishing charters and their own private leisure time. If you come during the summer season, you’ll be able to fish and enjoy a nightly campfire at the lodge during our famed salmon runs. If you’d like to know more about vacationing here, watch this short video.

Click here for Alaska Fishing Lodge Packages 

What makes the Alaska Fishing Lodge unique?

It gives families and other groups of people the opportunity to have their own cabin and their own kitchen so that they can spend their evenings planning their own dinner feasts. We provide a breakfast and fisherman’s lunch, but after that our guests can prepare their own barbecues and make use of the campfire pits in the evening..

Our guests can have their own cabin and their own kitchen.

The capacity for this lodge is 14 to 16 people. The best season to visit would be the summer months of June, July, and August. This is when we have our peak salmon runs and the myriad of other natural wonders that make Alaska great. During your trip you can plan on catching Kenai River king salmon, silver salmon, sockeye salmon, halibut, lingcod, rockfish and trophy rainbow trout. Our lodge is centrally located on the Kenai Peninsula to all of our great fishing destinations, and boasts spectacular views of Cook Inlet and the Alaska Range. The two biggest fish ever caught at the lodge were a 270-pound halibut and a 76-pound king salmon. Think you can do better?

This lodge is special because it gives people the opportunity to do what they came to do at their own leisure. After a hard day’s fishing session, they can return to their own cabin, throw what they caught on their own grill, and sit around the campfire telling stories.

If you have any further questions about either our Alaska Lodge or our SeaScape Lodge, please feel free to call us or send an email.