This is Don Johnson saying, Hello from the Kenai River in Soldotna, Alaska !

This is our annual news letter where we try to sum up the last fishing season and let folks know 

about any changes which may occur for the coming season.

2006 KENAI  &  KASILOF  RIVER  SEASON  REVIEW  

    Our 2006 fishing season brought with it some unexpected positive and negative issues which

effected sport fish anglers on the Kenai Peninsula. King salmon fishing on the Kenai River

had mixed results in that the Kenai's first run of king salmon was a light to moderate run but we did

not see any real angler restrictions or closures. Snow levels in our mountains were pretty low so we

did not really see a lot of muddy water in our first run, as it melted away in the spring. Muddy water

can reduce fishing visibilities and thus reduce success rates. The low snow amounts in the mountains

seemed to produce very low water levels in both the Kenai & Kasilof Rivers but those low

levels did not appear to slow down anglers success rates, in either river.

 

    We saw a healthy increase in the total number of wild salmon returning to the Kasilof River 

as Kasilof  hatchery stocks appeared to go somewhere other than the Kasilof River. There was 

however a fairly healthy numbers of wild kings in the Kasilof from the end of May and on into late June.

This increase of wild Kasilof kings prompted our Alaska Dept. of  Fish & Game to allow additional

fishing opportunities by adding on an extra day per week for folks to retain wild Kasilof kings.

Current regulations allow you to keep hatchery Kasilof kings all week long but the retention

of wild kings was previously restricted to, two days per week; this restriction was lifted from the 

two days per week, Tuesdays & Saturdays, to a third day per week, which included Thursdays.

It was good to see a rebounding of Kasilof kings as we had been hard pressed to see many of them

in the last few years. It appears that all those wild kings we had to release years ago, are now starting

to have some effect on the ratio between hatchery and wild stocks.   

 

    The Kenai River also saw excellent visibility conditions early in the 2006 king season.

These conditions were the direct results of low water levels in May and June. We saw the ADF&G 

open the Kenai to bait fishing on June 10th in 2006,  which is a really healthy sign. I believe this

change was made in response to a large up-river push of early run, Kenai kings in mid June.

The Kenai has experienced a "no bait restriction" right up to the entrance of our July kings on

many years, so the use of bait was a plus to our early run fishing.

There was a small reduction in water visibility around mid June on the Kenai but it more or less

cleared up in late June as we neared the late run of July kings entering the river. 

 

    The Kenai River's July run of king salmon was unusual to say the least. The late run started with 

daily surges of fresh schools of kings coming in from the ocean. These giant kings provided lots of

angler success for those who were out there trying to hook them. I did notice a change in the run

timing in 2006. We normally see a slow but steady increase of large kings from July 1 to July 31.

The 2006 season brought with it tremendous commercial gill netting pressure early in the season

as the ADF&G had forecasted a very large run of 3 - 5 million Kenai sockeye salmon to materialize.

By July 15th this sockeye run had not materialized thus the ADF&G was forced to reasess the run.

    It looked like these sockeyes had finally figured out the annual gauntlet of gill nets which is thrown

down in front of them, as they entered Cook Inlet. The entire sockeye run decided to delay its entrance

to Cook Inlet. The delayed entrance forced the ADF&G to second guess and downgrade their total

sockeye run estimate. The reassessment then forced a total commercial gillnet shut-down which 

allowed us to see consistent surges of big kings below Eagle Rock hole every day. 

Our king run kept building steadily as July came in but our sockeye salmon, which normally enter

the Kenai around mid July, were no where to be found.

    We saw the Kenai's king run peaking mid to late July while its sockeye run was totally collapsing.

These two runs normally peak together but not in 2006 as the ADF&G closed everyone's fishing for

Kenai sockeyes July 25-30, and left our in-river king season open.  

    Then out of the blue a huge wave of Kenai sockeye's came crashing in from the ocean and totally

surprised everyone with day after day of 50,000 sockeye's per day crossing the sonar counters.

By August 1, the ADF&G was convinced that it would reach its sockeyes escapement goals, so it

again reopened the sockeye fishery for sport fish, personal use and commercial fisheries.

They reopened the season but everyone had gone home by then, thus leaving fantastic fishing for

only the locals and diehards.

    Basically a lot of Kings, Silvers and Sockeye salmon reached the Kenai River late in July because the

commercial gill netters were shut-down. This bumper crop of really great fishing was basically missed

by most of the folks who timed there fishing trips to match historic run timings. The king and sockeye

fishing was phenomenal in late July, right along with the silver salmon fishing as silvers began to arrive

at the Kenai early because of the lack of commercial gillnet interceptions.

Both stocks continued to run right on into August along with the silver & hump back salmon.

Hump Back salmon return to the Kenai River every other year. We will be seeing them again in 2008,

only on even years.

 

    The Kenai's silver run was excellent in 2006 as we did see very good returns of both first & second run silvers. Kenai silvers in August averaged around 6 -12 pounds with second run fish averaging around

12-17 pounds in September. We did see some really nice fat silvers tearing up in the Kenai river, every

day of the season until the November 1st closure. Historic Kenai silver runs have been slightly

depressed for unknown reasons, so seeing large numbers of big silvers was encouraging.

There were many days we would catch our limits and just set anchored up in two feet of water, and

watch them migrate on by the boat as they charged up river.