Starting Friday, anglers on the Kasilof, Russian and Upper Kenai rivers can catch and keep more sockeye salmon. That’s after the Alaska Department of Fish and Game doubled bag limits from three to six in response to strong salmon runs.
The new rules are in effect until July 14. On the Kenai River, the bag limit has only increased on the section between Skilak Lake and about Sportsman’s Landing, including the Russian River Sanctuary area that opened earlier this month.
The department says sockeye fishing on all three rivers is ramping up. Fish are in and the department expects to exceed their escapement goals.
On the Kasilof River, the department has counted well over 10,000 salmon each day this week. The mouth of the river opened to dipnetting Thursday. The state opened more of the area up to dipnetting Friday because of the strong run. As of Friday, the department reports more than 150,000 sockeye have been counted on the Kasilof, already meeting the escapement goal for the river. This year’s count outpaces the counts in each of the last four years.
As of Friday, the state had counted almost 27,000 sockeye salmon in the Russian River. That’s over 8,000 more fish than the state had counted in the same river last year at this time.
This year, the department is projecting “excellent” sockeye runs in Upper Cook Inlet. The state expects over 4 million sockeye on the Kenai River and about 1.5 million on the Kasilof River.
The Kasilof River is a rare remaining opportunity for fishermen to catch king salmon. Anglers are allowed to catch and keep hatchery kings, which are distinguished by a missing adipose fin between their back and tail fins. The department says king fishing has been “slow to fair.”
The Kenai River king salmon sport fishing is closed entirely for the fourth year in a row. The department does not expect the run will meet its escapement goal. It’s been two years since Alaska’s Board of Fisheries subjected Kenai River kings to major fishing restrictions by dubbing the fishery a stock of concern. Only around 1,000 king salmon have been counted on the Kenai River this year, which is roughly half as many as were counted at this time last year.
The state is reporting good trout fishing on the Russian River, in Soldotna’s Sport Lake and in Kasilof’s Johnson Lake.
Daily fish counts and more information about fishing opportunities and regulations can be found at adfg.alaska.gov.
