Huge WALL of Sockeye Gonna Slam the Kenai River

Most Alaskans in Southcentral are aware of the OTF (Offshore Test Fish Index) the commercial division of ADFG uses to determine the numbers of fish heading up Cook Inlet to the various home waters. This test boat samples the waters down at Anchor Point to provide a heads up as to what is coming. Dipnetters and sport anglers use this daily index as a planning aid to decide what is going to be their best fishing opportunities.

With the Emergency Order shutting down all King Salmon fishing in Cook Inlet north of Bluff Point and in all the rivers due to super dismal returns so far this season, the commercial beach site fishermen have been shut down too. There are no beach nets fishing from Deep Creek to Nikiski for the rest of the summer. Only the Drift Boat Fleet will be allowed to fish to the end of the season in early August.

The OTF index beginning the 25th to present have been showing a huge movement of sockeye through Anchor Point test fishery. HUGE meaning five days (so far) of continuous schools of reds....and not a single net on the beaches to stop them. Only the drifters.

It takes 5 to 7 days for those AP fish to reach the Kenai. And with daily river counts already at the 52,000 to 62,000 level the dipping and bank fishing has been very good. The first "slug" should be hitting the Kenai (and Kasilof) right about now and it looks like its going to be day after day of some very big sonar counts in the Kenai. With dipnetting closing Saturday, that harvesting source disappears and for the sport anglers the river is literally going to be jumping with fish.

I suspect that IF ADFG can't get the drift fleet on these fish in the Inlet to thin the numbers down, ADFG will have no other option than to raise the sport limit to SIX Reds per day to reduce escapement numbers. If you haven't filled your freezers yet, this will be one of the best opportunities of the year as we go into this new week.

Edit ADDENDUM: OMG!  I just checked the commercial announcements.  ADFG commfish won't be fishing the DRIFT FLEET until at the earliest Sunday! Sharpen those fillet knives!

That sounds pretty exciting! We can use some good salmon news.

Too bad it is a 50 hour drive for me:-(

Whats the update? How many fish in the cooler?

Whats the update? How many fish in the cooler?

Well I took a "short cut" Saturday and went dipnetting on the last day of that season and put 21 in the freezer. I hate processing fish til 230am! But it's a necessary evil I guess.  Running out of room in the freezers partially from stocking up extra supplies during the ongoing pandemic.  I did hook a king on my fly rod this morning from the bank flipping for reds but the hook pulled loose after 5 minutes of thrills and a jump.

The sonar has counted 322,000 reds past my back door in the previous 5 days with Saturday's count hitting 78,000 fish (avg. 3,250/hr).  I was running my 6x6 on the beach this evening enjoying a rare 78°F afternoon and a glassy Cook Inlet and there were sockeye jumping every minute or so heading along the beach for the river mouth. The drift fleet fished today but were scattered all over the Inlet and that indicates they were having trouble corralling those schools. Perhaps a good portion has move inside the 1 mile beach corridor where the drifters can't fish. ADFG said the run is only 54% complete and they estimate the run is 5 to 10 days late in timing this year.  Run projection at the moment is 1.4 million but it should easily end up a few hundred thousand more than that.

KK,
Many halibut over the weekend at WG.  Weather from now on looks bad for the rest of the week.
Badger 68

The Wall of fish breaks records.

Sunday August 1st 87,653 Sockeye passed thru the River Mile 19 sonar counter.
Monday August 2nd 151,525 Sockeye passed thru the River Mile 19 sonar counter.  A one day record!
Tuesday August 3rd 136,611 Sockeye passed thru the River Mile 19 sonar counter.

Two Day all time record of 288,136 reds up the river. Three day all time record of 375,789 reds.  ADFG Sockeye Run Projection is now for 1.7 million escapement into the river. And I'm sure after today's count that will be bumped up a bit more.

I went out Tuesday afternoon trolling a hootchie in the tidewater at the mouth. Fished for 2 1/2 hours against an outgoing tide with clean water but no joy. Yet everywhere you looked for as far as the eye could see it was sockeye jumping bank to bank the entire time. Those afternoon fish won't show on the sonar counts until Wednesday's numbers since they have to travel 19 miles upriver. And the irony of this scenario is 95% of the commercial Drift Fleet remained in the 'harbor' at anchor due to severe rough seas preventing them from fishing.

All I ended up with was a flounder and a very good workout against a 2.25 mph outgoing tide and 15 knot wind.

As an aside, the number of harbor seals this year on the banks of the river at the mouth number about 50 now with at least 8 young of the year in the rookery. They take a decimating toll on the fall coho runs in the Kenai River. I wish the local Alaskan natives would start harvesting them to thin the numbers since they are the only ones allowed.

Can't stop the wall.

In an effort to thin down the total escapement number of Sockeye in the Kenai River, ADFG has just issued an Emergency Order to raise the sport angler bag and possession limits to SIX reds per day and 12 in possession effective at 12:01am today, Thursday August 5th.

The escapement goal this year was 1 million to 1.2 million. Because of the shutdown of the commercial beach site nets due to a record low return of July Kenai king salmon, that goal is already achieved (1.4 mill) and there is 28% of the run yet to enter the river. Final Run Projections are now at 1.9 million which justifies the increase in bag limits.

The irony is nearly every Alaskan and tourist that has fished or dipnetted the Kenai sockeye fishery this summer has filled their freezers and smokers with all they need and have quit fishing. So the bag limit change really isn't going to put much of a 'dent' in what ends up in the system for spawning.  And the commercial Drift Fleet boats only number about 100 going out fishing - just half of the mid July fleet size. And they only landed 27,000 reds yesterday.