Well ADF&G and the commercials pretty much took top honors this year. On top of heavy early netting in the traditional areas that affect Kasilof fish ... the newly implemented (new last year in use, long hidden in the old reg books) "Kasilof River Special Harvest Area" AKA the "Terminal Fishery" had a heavy hand on Kasilof anglers this year.

We'll never know how many kings were really caught, no will we know percentages ... but needless to say ... it left few for us during most of the derby. We had one off day of netting on the 14th which provided some decent fishing on the 15th and 16th. For over the next ten days ... the Terminal Fishery was used daily, much of it 24/7. Exploitation rates of sockeye were in the 90% range ... so it's likely kings weren't too far off of that

But some made it through and when the state finally pulled the fishery for a few days at the end of the month becuase they feared they would wipe out the late spawning component of the sockeye ... we had a few good days mixed in there. Funny ... the 1st and 2nd place fish were caught within 10 minutes of one another the first tide after the wall of death at the mouth was pulled.

First place winner was Mike Ault with a 53 pounder fishing with Matt Gersch (Early Fishing). He claimed about $1350.

Second place winner was Bill Kazsra with a 51.5 fishing with yours truly. He'll get a check for about $660 that will halp with his taxidermist's bill

Third Place winner was Jerri Berry with a magnificent 48.75 pound hen. She claimed $218.

Mike won second week's big fish, Joe Anderson (Bill Kazsra's bother-in-law) claimed big fish for week one with a 46.5 fishing again with yours truly. He recieved two days of silver fishing and two nights lodging from Kasilof River Lodge.

Lots of daily prizes for both small and big fish given away ... in most cases the prizes were a couple of guided fishing seats from river guides and one night of lodging at the Tustumena Lodge for smallest fish. Plenty of door prizes for free meals around the area as well.

Clients (or buddies / family on no-guide day) took big fish of the day honors on my boat 10 of the 15 days. Fishing was soo slow on a few days, some of these fish also took smallest honors as they were the only fish caught by derby entrants. In addition to paid 2nd & 3rd, we also had the 4th, 5th, and 6th largest fish weighed in.

Thanks to Cohoe Cove, especially James, for all his hard work, the Kasilof Eagles for sponsoring the derby and to all those participants and donors.

We're looking forward to next year!!

I'll post some pix from my boat in a couple of follow-up posts below

Floyd (board member Delberts' father-in-law) takes big fish of day one honors:



Fishgal came out on day two looking for a biggun ... but just found some nice medium sized ones that she kicked back:



Nate takes day two with this 45.5 that held up for a number of days as the good day of fishing we had on this Sunday was just a memory a few days later



Delbert (Dee) took top honors on the 17th with this nice girl:



A couple of the world-famous Chin's hopped aboard for a day on the 19th ... hardly any jumbos, but they whooped up pretty good for action on the rest of the fleet. John with one of three for him and a message for Pat back home:



David thought there was no justice in the world as he watched everyone else on the boat bang some fisheys ... finally his turn came, but boy is that one heckuva arm reach to make this even reach "football" status:



Joe Anderson comes in the 22nd to claim week one's big fish with this 46.5# buck:

Congrats on the first ever Kasilof salmon derby!

Maybe the local folks should think about hosting a silver salmon derby too. Seems like every river and town in Alaska has a silver salmon derby, why not Kasilof too? Maybe next year....

While impossible to show without going into a huge panoramic ... the next two pix show part of what was going on at the mouth. You can see a few of the hundreds of set gillnets in the foreground to hit fish on the incoming tide and the driftfleet working one of the two river channels' outlets further out on the beach.

Late in July, the Coat Guard closed down the set nets in these channels since they had no way in or out of the river ... that in itself seemed to let a few more fish through as a couple could sneak in outside of the highs:





Ann takes day honors with this nice buck ... then she had to go home and help clean the 360 razors they dug before our fishing for the day:



Jerri with her third place fish, a 48.75# hen that just wouldn't stop!



The nets finally came out on the night of the 27th, and wow, look what was in the river the next morning ... Bill with his 2nd place fish at 51.5 pounds, and the 1st place fish (53#) caught just moments earlier aboard Matt's boat. We saw more fish caught in a half-hour that morning that the previous 4-5 days combined!



After we took the fish in to the taxidermist and attended a setnetter's meeting with the ADF&G Commish, Corey hopped on the boat with Bill & Joe for the eve tide. We boated six more kings (all released) and lost a few others and even managed to rustle up a couple of silvers for the barbeque



The last day of the derby saw Amenda in search of a winner ... wasn't meant to be for her, but still a struggle to get this one up:



No heartbreak though as she managed a 70+# off the big river the day before!

We thought Dick might have a money fish here with just an hour or two to go to weigh in ... but alas, it fell a few ounces short ... but still one heckuva fish and fight! Not to mention the muddy romp through the tideflats to get him to Corey's truck and back to the weigh-in!



The day after the derby found us out on play day again ... me, Fishgal and her Mom & Dad out for one more day on the "Barney Boat". Getting close to term and Corey's still chasin the bigguns!



Since I can't fish with clients, it's my rare chance to have a rod in my hand. With the rain a pourin', it feels like I'm steelie fishing rather than king fishing:



With double digit fish already to the boat ... this one looked like a perfect eater to end the day on:



July 31, last day of king season. All of 3-4 boats on the river for the evening tide. One of our July guides, Steve had a load of buddies down and found this magnificent buck right at high:




Jerri finished up our season with this nice buck a few minutes later as the sun sets on another Alaska king season:



And one last full rack shot of the year ... now it's time for silvers!!

Can't wait to get up there next year and try my luck in the derby!

So I don't get slammed for "hijacking every single thread on this board and turning it into some porn comment or smart ass remark to watch it deteriorate into some form of conversation that I'm comfortable with," I'll just say nice fishys and cool post.

Sol, you Gawddamm dirty rotten scoundrel sunuvabiotch, why don't you go smoke a doobie, drink a twelve pack, and go watch Deep Throat for the tenth time this week?

(I figgered that if you weren't going to do it, I might as well live up to my "Accomplice to Lyre on the Duc" moniker!)

Nice fishies, Bob...and some very happy looking clients. That terminal commercial fishery looks downright invasion-like...that's a lot of boats and a lot of nets...I hope they let a few in to make it to the spawning grounds for you guys in a few years.

Fish on...

Todd

Bob, it's a bit irresponsible to negatively describe ADF&G's management of the Kasilof sockeye fishery and post pictures that have the ability to mislead your readers without further saying that ADF&G biologists were doing the best they could to adhere to management plans and options laid down by Alaska's Board of Fisheries.

Please don't blame our area managers for problems created by BoF in response to lobbying efforts by special interest groups. Our area biologists are not the bad guys.

Thanks. . .

I disagree Carver ... ADF&G should be ashamed that they have turned their back on these fish as long as they have. We have asked for years for a goal / plan to be put in place on them.

What they did with absolutely zero regard for the king run over the last 6 weeks is downright criminal and I will make it my personal mission to let the rest of the world know how good of a job they have done totally ignoring the run.

Plenty of options at hand ... they EO outside of the "plan" all the time. Just once they might do it for the Kasilof's "other run"

Bob,

ADF&G does the biology, but it's the Board of Fisheries that defines the plans and sets the goals. ADF&G can advise the board and make recommendations — after that it's the BoF that makes the final call, and, as we both know, politics can trump prudence.

Second, it would be nice if ADF&G knew more about the second run of kings, but there's only so much money to go around and too many studies that need doing.

In the end, you are mistakenly abusing our area biologists who must manage the runs according to the dictates of the BoF. Nor can the managers deviate from BoF prescriptions and parameters without action by the Commissioner.

Your problem is with 1) the Governor who appoints BoF members; 2) the Board of Fisheries who define plans and set goals; 3) Sport Fish Division upper management who are preoccupied with "opportunity"; 4) special interest groups who lobby the Board in favor of one fishery at the expense of another.

Again, Bob, please lay off our local managers — they are not the bad guys. Alaska's regulatory process — from the Governor to the BoF to local Advisory Committees to public input — isn't perfect, but it's better than anyone else's.

Right. Which is why Bob is saying shame on the ADF&G.

The Commissioner *is* ADF&G. So are the boards.

http://www.boards.adfg.state.ak.us/bbs/what/prps.php

Oh well, at least when the fisheries collapse up North, Alaskanians won't have the tribes to blame it on like we do down here.

The tribes are a great scape goat. It's *always* the tribes fault.....

I'm guessing the WDFW or the ODFW would disagree with that last comment.

Sorry to mention it, but the fisheries up there are just as messed up. Just a lot more fish - that are rapidly being mismanaged and will eventually go away.

You are saying it yourself... they don't know what they are doing in regards to the second run fish. Net the crap out of em and just hope they keep showing up year to year... some management

nice fish

nice fish

It's beautiful up there with all the great fishing , too! I'll be at my wifes uncle's house at Clam Gulch next year to fill up my freezer with halibut and razor clams and of course Salmon!! His neighbor has a six-pack boat at Ninilchick. He does a great job on the big barn doors