It was a sunny afternoon — the first in a week —in Kenai. Dogs, their owners, and some picnickers staked out spots on the beach, and a smattering of wader-clad anglers stood in the water, arms outstretched to support their large nets.
At the water’s edge, two first-timers, Miguel Rojo-Lemke and his son Jonathan Rojo, of Kenai untangled a salmon from their net. They’d been out for an hour, and caught two sockeye.
“Oh, man, it’s exciting,” Rojo-Lemke said. “We’ve been fishing a couple times, I didn’t have much luck at the Russian River or the Kenai River. For kids, it’s really hard to get them attached until you’ve given them a good experience like catching a fish. He saw me catch one, said ‘“I wanna get one dad’” so we went out and got another.”
The personal-use dipnet fishery at the mouth of the Kenai River opened Monday morning to a modest showing and gloomy weather. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game said in a report this week that fishing at the dip net site is slow, but will pick up later this month as late-run sockeye enter the river.
On Thursday, a growing group of dipnetters dotted the shoreline. Rojo-Lemke said it’s his first time dipnetting, because he’s only been an Alaska resident for two years. Dipnet permits are only available to Alaska residents.
Rojo-Lemke’s son, Jonathan, helped unravel the sockeye from the net.
“It feels really fun because last year I only caught one, in Seward. But then I caught this one today, so then I might catch another one today,” he said.
At the south beach, on the opposite side of the river’s mouth, there were about 15 dip nets in the water. Bryan Zacharof stood waist-high in the river with his net.
“It’s been pretty good for the past few days. Set-netters went out last night, it’s been pretty slow all morning,” he said.
Zacharof said he’s been dipnetting at this spot for 12 years, and he’d caught 23 salmon since Monday.
“It’s kind of hit and miss,” he said. “Right now the tide’s pretty much slack so it’s on and off.”
In spite of that, Zacharof snagged a sockeye as he spoke — his 24th of the week.
Dipnetting on the Kenai is open through July 31, and is open every day from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. A growing dipnet fishery has also been open since late June on the Kasilof, where many anglers have had success at the less-hectic site.
