Alaska Fishing

Pulses of red salmon surging into the Kenai and Kasilof rivers may be turning a bummer salmon season into a bounty.

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"The Kenai has just blown up," said Jason Pawluk, assistant area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

On Wednesday, 68,000 reds swam past the Fish and Game sonar more than 19 miles upstream of the river mouth. Until Tuesday, the early return had been ticking along at fewer than 4,500 fish a day.

"All indications are that the passage rate is staying the same," Pawluk said on Thursday, "so we expect to see another good day today."

Farther south, a similarly strong red run up the Kasilof River prompted Fish and Game on Thursday to double the bag and possession limits to six reds per day, 12 in possession.

Nearly 20,000 fish passed the sonar 8 miles upstream of the mouth of the Kasilof on Tuesday. All together, more than 140,000 reds have been counted there, even though "we've fished commercially pretty hard the last few days," said Pat Shields, an area management biologist who works in Fish and Game's Soldotna office.

"While we were fishing (commercially) and experiencing a good harvest, pretty good numbers were getting by and into the river," Shields said.

Fish and Game's preseason projection was for a return of 1.3 million reds to the Kasilof. Biologists want between 150,000-300,000 of them to survive and spawn, and Shields noted that in nine of the past 10 years, the Kasilof escapement has exceeded the optimal range.

"That's a fairly strong forecast for the Kasilof, 1.3 million," Shields added.

Anglers have noticed the surge of fish.

"We don't need that many, we called it quits at 21," said John Narsavich of Palmer, who dipnetted on the north side of the Kenai River with his family Monday morning. "It's tough to quit when they're running strong, but I still had to clean and process them. I'm not going to be a glutton about it."

The dipnetting limit for the Kenai and Kasilof combined is 25 salmon for the head of household, with an additional 10 fish for each additional household member. Only Alaska residents qualify, and a permit as well as a fishing license is required.

Lori Garreau, who runs the Crooked Creek RV Park and Guide Service and has been coming to the Kasilof for 12 years, said many visitors were still out fishing Thursday afternoon.

"One group came back with a whole bunch of fish," she said.

Garreau herself dipnetted from a boat at the mouth of the Kenai on Wednesday and collected 15 fish in a couple of hours.

Apparently, the word is out. Her campground with 50 full hookups is packed for the weekend.

"We're turning away people right and left."

While the weekend should bring big crowds, they hadn't materialized on Thursday.

"That's the thing," Pawluk said, "it's not very crowded. I guess because the middle of the week."

"Dipnetters have done really well since Tuesday night, especially the boat dipnetters," he said. "Some folks are limiting out within three or four hours with multiple family members fishing. And the fish are quite large."

Strong salmon returns have been the exception in Southcentral so far this season. Weak returns on the Deshka River forced its closure to king fishing, and most salmon runs on Kodiak Island have ranged between weak and awful. The big Copper River red run has lagged too.

But the early king salmon run on the Kenai River was normal and the early red salmon run to the Russian River was strong enough that biologists opened the sanctuary area to anglers.

Reporter Mike Campbell can be reached at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.

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