Fishing

Annual limits loosened as king salmon surge into Deshka River

Encouraged by one of the best king salmon runs in recent years, biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Friday boosted the annual limit on the Deshka River from two to five fish.

The Deshka's annual limit was first cut to two fish in 2012. During last year's strong run, it was restored to five fish on June 26.

As of Thursday, some 11,400 kings had passed the fish-counting weir at river mile 7 of the Deshka, one of the most popular king fishing destinations in Southcentral.

Biologists say that on average only 10 percent of the spawning fish should have passed the weir by this date, so if that ratio holds, this could be a monster run.

In the last week, an average of more than 1,100 fish a day have passed the weir.

To ensure the health of future runs, biologists aim to put 13,000 to 28,000 kings on spawning beds. Even if the king run is early this year, as biologists suggest it may be, the spawning goal is easily attainable.

"We are on track for achieving the Deshka king salmon goal with a run that could top recent years' counts," Fish and Game area management biologist Sam Ivey said in press release.

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The Deshka's biggest king return in the years since a weir was installed came in 2004, when 57,934 fish made it upstream, a number far exceeding other years. By contrast, 7,533 made it upstream in 2008 as king returns crashed across the state.

"This season started early with some large counts similar to 2004," Ivey said in an email.  "However, we anticipate this year's run to be much earlier than back then, which will mean the run will fall off sooner with a lower resulting escapement.  Instead of being 10 percent through the run like a normal year, we could be 35 percent."

But 2016 has been a bounce-back year for king salmon in many state waterways. At the Kenai River, the other big Southcentral king producer, the return past in-river sonar as of June 6 was running 77 percent ahead of last year and 138 percent ahead of two years ago.

As a result, biologists opened the Kenai to catch-and-release fishing a week ago.

Ivey said it may add up to a good weekend for anglers.

"Folks in general are excited and are doing well catching fish," he said. "River conditions are good right now both for fish migration and fishing success.  This should also be a good weekend for fishing Little Susitna and Lake Creek.  A good number of fish are also now at the Eklutna Tailrace."

Mike Campbell

Mike Campbell was a longtime editor for Alaska Dispatch News, and before that, the Anchorage Daily News.

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