Alaska Fishing

Six chilly hours had passed trolling Kachemak Bay off Seldovia without a single thrill, and Homer angler Kenneth Morris, 26, was considering heading home. He well knew that fishing for winter or early spring king salmon can be spotty at best.

Then it happened.

"He hit like a ton of bricks," Morris said. "My rod was bent over hard."

Morris regularly trolls for winter kings in the bay and has frequently fished the Homer Winter King Salmon Derby, which attracted 793 anglers on 236 boats this year. Four years ago, he caught a hefty 25-pound king in the derby, but this one felt different. Bigger. Much bigger.

"He kept diving back down to the bottom," Morris said. "When he wanted to run to the bottom, he did. No problem."

Morris, who was fishing aboard his dad's 28-foot Bayliner "Dock Holiday," started to worry when the king ripped off three-quarters of his line. Would the fish strip it all or perhaps even snap his rod?

"The first two times he saw the boat, he spooked pretty good and went for a long run. But by the third time he was beat and swam right into the net."

Morris weighed the fish on a scale at the Coal Point Seafood Company in Homer, and Fish and Game biologist Carol Kerkvliet confirmed the 54-pound weight.

That's not big for a summer king -- the world record is Les Anderson's 97-pounder caught in the Kenai River 23 years ago this month, and 75-pounders are an annual event.

But a 30-pound winter king is a big fish. After all, a 34-pounder was big enough to win angler John Forster $16,653 at Homer's Winter King Salmon Tournament in March.

"He hit considerably harder than any other winter king I've caught," Morris said, "and was much bigger too."

The big king is being mounted and Morris was back on the water within days, hoping to land a fish for the freezer. "I caught one just a couple of days ago," he said.

Unfortunately, Morris doesn't have much company. Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports Southcentral fishing ranges from slow to pitiful, dampened by the late snowfall and cool spring temperatures.

Still there's no denying the fishing itch once mid-May rolls around. If you've got to scratch, these may be your best prospects.

• King salmon fishing begins in the Anchor River on Saturday, and because Fish and Game recently discovered it has long undercounted the return there, Wednesdays were added to the days anglers can fish. The Anchor will be open for five weekends and the following Wednesday through June 18.

• Salt water king salmon trollers working the south side of Kachemak Bay and Bluff Point should see action gradually build as water temperatures warm. Herring, hootchies, tube flies and spoons all work. Dodgers or flashers add a little mustard to the setup.

• Seward halibut anglers are starting to bring in flatfish in the 15-to-30-pound range as well as rockfish. The new rockfish bag limit in Resurrection Bay is four per day, and only one can be a nonpelagic rockfish.

• In Mat-Su, early kings will soon be available in the Deshka and Little Susitna rivers. Remember that only the first 17 miles of the Deshka are open and that fishing is closed 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

• Once the ice is off Stormy Lake on the Kenai Peninsula, anglers should be able to target hungry early-season northern pike that are easy to access. And if you like eating pike, you're in luck -- there's no bag limit or closed season.

• Got a yen for small, oily hooligan? Grab a net. Hooligan should be rolling into Twenty Mile River south of town this week and the netting is typically feast or famine.

But perhaps the most solid prospect is clamming. There will be some slight minus tides on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Fish and Game says "diggers are reporting an abundance of small razor clams and a few large clams from the Clam Gulch access area. For larger clams, head south to the Ninilchik or Whiskey Gulch access locations."

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