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The strike came as no surprise. The Kenai is a fertile river and every cast comes with high expectations. Indeed, fishing had been good all morning and the eddy out front, a deep, easy break from the main current, formed a perfect lair for lounging trout and char. So when the tug came, I was ready; I snapped my rod tip up sharply to set the hook -- and then things got crazy.

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Stephen Nowers / Anchorage Daily News
A stringer of red salmon at Cottonwood Hole during the Russian River opening.

Stung hard, the fish turned and charged downriver. I held onto the rod with one hand, fumbling to brake my fly reel with the other. The fish was heavy and strong, far beyond an average three- or four-pound trout.

The time was October, when river traffic quiets for the season, even as trout and Dolly Varden feed and late-run silver salmon continue to arrive in waves. I wasn't certain what I'd hooked, though my suspicions were beginning to build. The fish sped to the middle of the river, playing the deep channel and powerful current to its advantage. I managed to slow its run, even stopped it momentarily, before it turned again and raced upstream. My fly line made a tearing sound as it cut the water, and I turned and shouted to a friend who had stopped casting to watch, "It's a salmon! A fresh silver."

At that moment, the fish leaped. The size was right, better than 10 pounds and dime-bright. But my friend, a lifelong Kenai River angler, shook his head no. "It's a rainbow," he hollered back.

The two of us argued as I kept pressure on the fish; a beer was wagered along the way. I gained lined gradually, and lost some in the heat of two or three more desperate runs. But I realized I would be buying the beer when I eventually led into the shallows a 12-pound, silver-bright fish that turned out to be a deep-bodied rainbow trout. I've never been happier to have been proven wrong.

That's how fishing goes on the Kenai, a river of surprises where strikes may come by the casual dozen, but the quality of fish hooked can be shocking. Like on the cool May morning back in 1985 when Soldotna angler Les Anderson battled his king salmon of the century. The 97-pound, 4-ounce fish might have topped 100 pounds at the scale had Anderson taken it in immediately to be weighed. Inured to big salmon by years of fishing over 60-, 70-, and 80-pound Kenai River kings, Anderson and a fishing buddy took their sweet time around Pillars Drift that morning, likely allowing blood loss and dehydration to reduce the weight of the great fish by several pounds.

Kenai River anglers each season also catch rainbow trout to 20 pounds, and the official state record sockeye, or red salmon, is a Kenai River 16-pounder. But big fish alone aren't what make this river especially alluring. The variety of species and the sheer numbers of fish in the river at any given time -- including runs of king, red, silver and pink salmon that storm in from Cook Inlet each summer -- make the Kenai a world-class anglers' destination.

The river itself is a complex system of lakes, mountain stream, and big-water river. Anglers are treated not only to a menu of salmon, trout and char, but to all kinds and classes of water in which to fish for them.

It all begins in the Kenai Mountains, within a two-hour drive south of Anchorage, the region's metropolitan hub. Cradled by sweeping peaks and verdant hillsides, the river spills from long, glacial-green Kenai Lake at the fishing resort community of Cooper Landing. Here the river flows quickly, twisting through a narrow valley, joined by the clear, salmon- and trout-rich Russian River before gaining steam and lunging through a shallow canyon below Jim's Landing. After about two miles, the canyon white water eases as the river flows out of the mountains and into Skilak Lake.

The upper river, as this stretch is called, is 17 miles long and largely favored by fly-fishers. Drift boats and rafts are the rule here, and motorized boats and bait-fishing are not allowed. Beginning in mid-June, anglers target Russian River-bound red salmon and resident rainbow trout and Dolly Varden char.

Most anglers seeking red salmon are drawn to the popular Kenai River-Russian River confluence. Two runs of red salmon appear here each summer, with an early run occurring in mid-June, and a second run arriving around mid-July. The size of these runs varies annually, but in better years, more than 150,000 red salmon may escape throngs of anglers to spawn around the upper Russian River's headwaters lakes.

The salmon draw thousands of anglers to the Russian each summer. Clear-running and smaller than the glacial-tinted upper Kenai, the Russian River is easily waded. Most anglers access the fishery via the Russian River Campground, where numerous trails lead to the river, or from Sportsman's Landing, located just off the Sterling Highway, where a current-powered ferry takes them across the swift, deep Kenai to the Russian.

The Russian River is a fly-fishing-only fishery and generally remains productive until red salmon fishing closes in August. After that, anglers target later-running silver salmon, along with rainbow trout and Dolly Varden. All three species are caught in the upper Kenai and Russian rivers, with fishing for salmon egg-scavenging trout and Dollys peaking in September.

Below Skilak Lake, the Kenai is a different river. Here the channel grows broader and deep. Motor boats are allowed in the middle and lower river ( the "lower river" begins at the Sterling Highway bridge in Soldotna and empties into Cook Inlet) as are baits at certain times of the season. Like the upper river, the big water below Skilak Lake serves up excellent catches of red salmon, silvers, rainbow trout and Dolly Varden. It's also where anglers hunt for the Kenai's legendary monster kings.

Much of the land along the Kenai River below Skilak Lake is privately owned. Visiting anglers seeking the best fishing opportunities would be wise to hire a guide. For information on area guides, check out the Kenai Peninsula Tourism Marketing Council's list of links to area chambers of commerce and visitors centers at www.kenaipeninsula.org, e-mail info@kenaipeninsula.org, or phone 262-5229.

Several state and federal campgrounds are located along the Kenai River. To learn more about the state facilities, managed by the Alaska Division of Parks and Recreation, visit the Web site at www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks, or phone 262-5581.

Federal campgrounds along the Kenai are managed by either the U.S. Forest Service or the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. For more information, visit www.reserveusa.com

To learn more about fishing regulations or to purchase fishing licenses or king salmon stamps online, visit the Alaska Division of Sport Fish Web site at www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us; for information on fishing the Kenai River, including river maps and public access points, go to www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/region2/pdfpubs/kenairiver.pdf

Freelance writer Ken Marsh lives in Anchorage. He is the information officer for the Division of Sport Fish for Region II, which includes Southcentral, Kodiak and Bristol Bay.