10 Jun Alaska Fishing Report: June 10, 2013
Good News and Bad News
First lets talk about the good news as it has really been a very good week for our guests. King fishing on the Kasilof River remains steady with multiple opportunities for king salmon on every trip. The ratio of wild (naturally produced) vs. hatchery fish has been 3:1 in favor of wild fish but we have been able to keep several nice hatchery king salmon in the last week to ten days. Seeing more naturally or wild kings first is pretty typical for this run and we should expect more hatchery fish to show up very soon. The Kasilof is also seeing a huge push of sockeye salmon right now so that is also a very good option for those wanting to float from Tustamena Lake down and pursue a limit of red salmon.
Now for bad news. On the Kenai River, kings counts continue to be at record low levels and unless we see a dramatic improvement in the numbers of king salmon entering the Kenai, it looks like a river-wide closure for king salmon will be hard to avoid. This will also have a ripple effect on other fisheries to protect them from increased effort as a result of the Kenai closing and will include a no-bait restriction for the Kasilof and a closure in the marine fishery to retention of king salmon. I would expect to have a more accurate idea on what will happen by the end of this week. Thankfully the sockeye run on the Kasilof and the number of Russian River sockeye moving through the Kenai is looking strong so this will make a for a very viable alternative to king fishing if we see these closures occur. Trout fishing will also be opening this week on the Kenai and we are looking forward to some great action on big rainbows and dolly varden.
For an up to date report on sonar counts and management action for the Kenai River Early Run King Salmon Fishery please visit the ADF&G site here.
Halibut fishing in Cook Inlet has remained excellent with very healthy fish and some very interesting stories of big sleeper sharks being caught as well as one boat that had an Orca whale come up and take a halibut off their line. Check out the video here.
Fly Out fishing has begun with a bang at Big River Lake with good numbers of fresh sockeye schooling just below the Lake at the outlet of Big River. Recent groups have all caught their limits and the fish have been big, bright are super hard fighters. This should only get better and better as the month progresses.