Wow, Queets must have woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

With well in excess of 1500 guided trips under my belt up north Queets, some observations on your comments:

1) Save for college student transplants, your OOS guides as a whole are far better fisherman than the locals. Keep in mind that most fish year-round, giving them more than twice as much much time in a given year. Nearly all techniques in use in the AK fisheries were brought up by OOS guides fishing the lower 48 in the winter months.

I'd rather spend my $$$ who fishes for a living, not one that becomes a guide in the peak months of the summer because he has a boat and then stocks shelves at the grocery store the remainder of the year

2) You might get skunked on the Kenai. That's part of the game when looking for fish of size you won't see anywhere else in the state on a regular basis. Be realistic about it and choose what you prefer, action or size.

You probably won't get skunked on the Ditch to the south of the Kenai, and I'd much rather catch my salmon with over 90% carrying lice vs. those hundreds of miles upstream.

If you / your guide know the in's and out's ... you'll pay less for lodging (a giant cabin on the water) than you will for a motel room in Glenallen or the like and you don't have to fish around others if you don't want to