Rainbow Alley from Skilak lake?

Has anyone ever targeted Rainbow Alley in the Middle Kenai by launching from and returning to the Lower Skilak boat ramp?  The generous turning radius of my Revo 16 has kept me from attempting to float the river in it, but the gears have been turning about a 2-way trip to the alley and back.  The first two river miles out of Skilak are wide and slow, shouldn't be a problem for the Revo to get in and back out.  The only thing that really gives me pause about it is committing to going back across the lake, which I've never seen at its worst.  If I'm wearing immersion gear and bring food and shelter sufficient to wait out the weather if necessary, do I really have anything to be concerned about? 

I have floated Skilak Lake to Bings three or four times.  All the times the lake was flat calm so it wasn't an issue.  But Skilak and Tustemena lakes are known people killers.  So your caution is warranted.   Round trip would only be a challenge if you ended up lower than you thought.  I agree the revo 16 is better suited for going upstream than my outback.  I did on one trip forget my life jacket and pedaled about a quarter mile upstream using slack water and a slough about half way through the float.  Next time, I am just buying another life jacket.  lol. 

You pretty much hug the shoreline so you could probably just walk out the mile from the mouth to the lower Skilak Campground.  Of course in case of real emergency, there are tons of homes as you know.

I am not sure what the river would like with these lower water levels.  Very curious to hear your report if you try it.   

Thanks for the input, Rudy. Not sure when I'm gonna give this a try, but probably sometime before Christmas. I'm not too worried about the low water. For a short distance, anything too shallow for turbo fins I can get out and just pull upstream. If I can't find deep enough channels to get downstream with the turbofins down I'll just abort and fish above the dunes. I'll have my chart plotter running, so I'll be able to watch depths and follow my track back up river if needed.


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Low_Sky
I've waterfowl hunted that entire stretch many times, but no later than November 6th as the water just gets impossibly too low for power boat navigation even in my 14' duck boat.  My take is you will spend a lot of time dodging low water bottom and that won't be where the 'bows are hanging out. And with your very low profile view its going to be tough staying in the channels once you leave the Chute and enter the dunes. Which are a veritable nightmare in low water.  You mentioned a wide turning radius on your Revo; might be a challenge steering for sure. As you get into the dunes the velocity will increase since its a much more restricted cross section of the river bottom for water flow which may not be in your favor either.  The straight chute above the dunes will give you plenty of water to fish, a wide area for getting turned around for making another pass, and there will be some coho still spawning in that area to keep the rainbows happy...and you!

Right now the outlet level is 6 inches to 1 foot from winter lows. Last year it dropped to 7.0 feet, in 2013, a "normal" winter of cold, it dropped to 6.5 feet. That would be what you see in the satellite image here. Add a foot of water over that photo for current conditions today.

(A Note for these images that are very wide. If you don't want to scroll back and forth you can right click on the photo for a popup window and select View Image to see it as a stand alone graphic. Hit back button to return.)



The only way we could navigate in the dark to our duck blinds was to plot a route on our handheld Garmin to follow before daylight. Water levels right now have a LOT of sleepers (equivalent of an overturned wheel barrow) that are just sub-surface with many not showing anything to read on the surface due to the very slow velocity of the water now. When you spot them you will see they are "dressed" in aluminum and various boat paint colors from other encounters. They will take out a lower unit or prop or perhaps a mast shaft on your Mirage Drive. Best to bring your backup mast shafts.

I have a 15 waypoint route that goes from the Boulder Patch at the outlet of the lake all the way down through the Dunes to Olson Creek. That was all the further I needed it to cover. Its a Garmin route and I have the individual waypoints too. If you want the files PM me. If you have a Garmin handheld that would be the best thing to load these points into for following. That allows your chart plotter to create a clean track you can save as your own route if you encounter conditions that require adjusting your course. If you don't have a Garmin I can copy/paste the individual waypoints you can then enter in your own device.

The image is from my Garmin Base Camp crude program with a very INACCURATE map overlay....obviously.  You can see I've marked a lot of hidden boulders that are not part of the route. But on my GPS I can see those waypoints on my map as I follow the route which gives me a heads up for a nearby obstacle. As you can tell, I DON'T like being stranded. LOL



About getting stuck due to bad lake conditions. I've had to lay over and hang tight on two outings when we found Skilak a white froth. You can duck into the cove near the outlet and hunker down out of the weather in the treeline. Or on the downstream side of the cove build a fire if you need to. The lake on both trips went completely flat at sundown as if the hurricane never even occurred. But should it continue, you can always stash your boat well out of sight in the treeline and walk the shoreline back to your vehicle as its all gravel and snow now.

There is an alternate outing to consider, perhaps not as lucrative as the potential Skilak offers, but for you its many miles closer and a piece of cake to participate in.  The outlet of Kenai Lake remains open all winter, drifters and shore anglers fish for 'bows all winter. That area too has spawning coho to attract the rainbows and dollies and slow enough velocity to work the slackwater down quite a ways and back. The bonus is if you like eating lake trout Kenai Lake is loaded with them. There are ADFG markers on each side of the lake shore designating the 1/4 mile radius of the lake where its no bait, artificial only. But once past the markers bait is allowed. We fish the ice later in the winter and on most days do very well with <20" lakers (10 per day limit) and even hit some nice rainbows and dollies....everything on roe. The lakers I suspect are also feeding on salmon spawn so that becomes their preference. I'm considering taking the kayak up there this December for the lake trout while waiting on the ice to grow.

Good luck on your expedition. Take a butane lighter for a fire!!

Great info, KK.  Thanks for sharing.  I'll send you a PM for the locations of those rocks.  That will be really handy to have on the chart plotter.  I can draw out a path for the route through deepest water on Google Earth and load it onto my chart plotter.  In fact, I'll probably be drawing out a lot of features and importing them to my plotter since I don't have a freshwater map card, so won't have much detail on the lake or river.