I was in Alaska in the summer doing volunteer work and had a chance to do some salmon fishing on the Kenai River here at Rotary Park. The Kenai River is one of the few places in the world where you can park on the side of the road, grab a rod and hook a fresh fish. The park is near the Soldotna Airport where I was working. It was a quick drive for us to Rotary Park. There is a small parking lot on the lower end that charges $8 to park at. It is a three-quarter mile walk from the parking lot to the stairway. You have to wear waders to cross over to the legal fishing area. The upper end has a 625 foot elevated boardwalk that you can walk across.
We fished every night during our stay in Soldotna. The fish count was higher than normal during the summer and was a 5-per-day catch limit for salmon. It was a little crowded at times, but we found a couple of spots to fish and enjoyed our evenings here. There is a fun but serious fishing community here in Soldotna. The only bummer was there was only one small table for cleaning. So I found myself having to cut my fish on the side of the river on the ground.
The 2025 summer salmon season saw a record sockeye run on the Kenai River at 4.25 million by mid-August. I was here in July of '25 and we were catching salmon every 10-15 minutes every evening. I filled up a couple of 50 lbs shipping boxes to take back home. read more