Fish and Game closures for king salmon on the Kenai Peninsula

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game closed king salmon sport fishing on the Kenai, Ninilchik and Kasilof Rivers through the end of July, as well as closing the Cook Inlet saltwater fishery for now.

“This year is off to a really slow start with most of our chinook salmon escapement monitoring here on the Kenai Peninsula depending on the stock or system,” said Alaska Department of Fish and Game area biologist Mike Booz.

So far the early run king salmon count on the Kenai River is 1,030. The Department of Fish and Game considers an optimal early-season return to be in the 3,900 - 6,900 range.

the King has decreed there will be no fishing on "his" land..... phkn scumbags allow the trawlers to rape Alaska's waters then penalize the public

need to drag all the Kings men out of their uniforms and make them sing Castrato

We about to open up for gillnetters tomorrow at noon out in front of the hatchery here. Going to be a shootout, there are some good sized schools of kings cruising around. I hope they do well.

Where are these Trawlers fishing that are so detrimental to the SE Chinook return?

They also shut down the retention of Kings on the Copper due to commercial fishing.

They closed gill-net Kasilof PU for red salmon off almost completely, for all practical purpose. First went from 6a.m. to 11pm, to 11-11, then 11 to 5. Which is low tide..... I was going to ask F&G what the king take by PU was last year, but they would have no idea. They went to all on-line reporting this year, eliminating the card send-in, because wet, damaged cards were not making it through the mail. So their data has 0 percent chance of being accurate. Not that any significant amount of natural-run kings are caught by the PU in my opinion, based on 30+ years of participant observation. The put and take hatchery program is probably impacting the natural run, but they can't have the fishing guides mad at them.... and those boys own all the advisory committee positions.

I'd guess the PU natural-run take in the range of about a dozen fish annually. Since I spend 1-5 days on the beach during the opening each year, my guess is probably better than theirs. Admittedly, in their position, I'd be conservative "managing" on a mere guess as well.

I guess the fish will have to walk if they are going to get themselves gilled until a bit later in the week, which does me no good (What else counts??? ). It will work for the beach sites, and boat sets, for a couple days and a couple hours later in the week, as they can set and pull anytime. But those beach sites all get "claimed" a week or more in advance of the opening, usually. I do have the gear, but production stinks, with a net every 100 yards. I have a boat(s) too....but not going to do that, for a couple reasons.

I now (well, not this year!) set out in the mud-flat, low tide, offshore from the beach sets (way more productive, if a bit sporty!), but I sure as hell am not going to set from my canoe, which is what I use to net tend and pull the net if I need to before the next low. Wind, and seas, as well as where we are in the run determine my fishing days. The fishing is always better the last 4 days of the opening. The timing/tides are not going to work for me this year, for the first time, ever, but I have a dip net, anyway - just way more bother and effort. I've 6 fillets left from last year, so I can wait for the Kenai dipchitter opening. More work, but more fun, too, and a higher product quality if done right.

Fun to blame the trawlers but I would look elsewhere. Ocean conditions being the main cause.

This x1000

It's a complex problem with many factors, but there's no denying the fact that trawlers are a big issue in the puzzle. You can't think that a fleet of boats killing EVERYTHING that swims and then picking thru it for their chosen species and dumping dead loss overboard isn't making an impact.

I appreciate the input.

It just seems different when so many fish are showing up here net scared to heck and back.

The cumulative effect it’s had on halibut is devastating. Kings, I doubt it.

Trawling is banned in se ak. All king rivers have simultaneously gone in the [bleep]. Ocean conditions can do that.

We just had the mother of all pollock hatches. Never seen anything like it. Be curious how that plays out.

Wild kings are having trouble, but hatchery kings are doing great, so why do hatchery kings survive in the BIG ocean? or is it just a numbers game (more hatchery smolts than wild smolts make it to the BIG ocean)?

I recall a year when the cohos would go nuts for the yellow, white, and black hootchy which mimicks a young "walleye".

Did you find your new charter cap'n yet Calvin?