My summer would not be complete without my annual plea for folks to at least consider making the personal sacrifice to help further protect the river's depleted population of big ER kings.

These slot fish were protected thru all of May and June, but when the calendar kicks over a day into July, suddenly the very same fish are magically transformed into LR kings, and by the letter of the law, they are fair game... WHACK!

When you bring that mega-hawg to the boat, pause for a moment to reflect on the genetically unique creature in your landing net. Heaving it over the gunnel will deprive that trophy fish of its one and only chance to pass on its obvious genetic fitness. Four decades of selectively harvesting the biggest and most fecund broodstock in the run has clearly taken its toll.

Do your part to help reverse this trend!

Now I'm sure some of you skeptics would argue, "What's the harm? It's just one fish. Escapement has been met, right? Besides, who's to say that MY fish isn't a LR king?"

Fair enough. But have an appreciation for the collective effect of your actions when multiplied by thousands of Kenai anglers each and every year.

At the very least, consider the maturity of the fish in question before wielding the wood shampoo. If the fish is blushed or red or missing sea lice, it didn't come in today.... it's been in the river a few days at the very least, perhaps a week or two. That's a big ER king... the very fish the slot limit was intended to protect! Had it been caught yesterday or a few days earlier, you would have been legally required to release it.

Anyone fishing the river that has taken the time to educate him/herself on this issue knows deep down what the right thing to do really is. Let your conscience be your guide... and just let 'em go!

If you have a guided trip in the next few days, and you believe in this cause, let your guide know at the outset that you have NO intention of keeping a slot-sized fish, especially one that is showing color. Emphasize that your selfless actions protect not only the depleted population of large fish, but your guides livelihood as well. Do NOT get bullied into tagging a fish you do not wish to retain! In the heat of the excitement that goes along with landing every big fish on the river, things happen fast and before you can blink, that hog is flopping on the deck. Remember, the second that trophy king leaves the water you must legally tag it.

If your goal is to put a giant king on the wall, just remember that the fish need not be purposely killed for you to get your wish. A quality fiberglass replica looks better than and will outlast a skin mount FOREVER! Remember that Kenai River Spoprtfishing Assn (KRSA) sponsors Release-A-Hog, a unique program that rewards conscientious anglers for releasing those Kenai giants. With the reward money, that trophy mount of yours can be had for next to nothing!

click here

It's not rocket science, folks! Those fish belong on the gravel... not in the fish box!

JUST LET 'EM GO!

Good remeinder Doc.

When are you heading up there this year?

What a magnificent fish. It would be/is a shame to kill one just to have a mount you get tired of dusting. Take goos quick pictures and send it on its' way. Thanks for the reminder and the ever present conservation mind / thought process. You da man!

Doc, my friends and I go to Alaska every year - every other to the Kenai in late, late July. There is no need to keep these wonders of nature but we would have originally thought nothing of it if guys like yourself had not offered the friendly reminders in the first place. Never quit spreading the word! In the heat of the moment mistakes can be made especially by those of who are not locals.

Bonk a small one if you must.

Fortunately, I don't think you'll see the traditonal July 1 bloodbath this year ... unfortunately, it pretty much already took place, just spread out over the latter half of June with the big push in the middle and the way early bait opener.

If I hook and land the new world record king, do I still have to let it go?

I'm only going to fish swung flies with the spey rod, so I give my odds at 85% of it happening.

"I'm only going to fish swung flies with the spey rod,". Flosser

That is what the snoopy rods are for - flossing 100 pound Kenai Kings!

If you're lucky a$$ is fortunate enough to land that minimum 58" x 36" world record on your first trip to the Kenai, rest assured it will be THOROUGHLY digitally documented....

BUT.....

rest assured that bad boy is also going back.

Unless mortally wounded, my boat ain't taggin' no big fish... even if it's the world record.

You sure you wouldn't just keep the fish and let me go back in the river? I'm pretty sure CanyonMan would make sure I was mortally wounded first!

ttt

Pardon the bump. folks, but I will try to keep the conservation message on the front page for at least the next week.

I'll help keep it on top. How many days until you go up? 22 days and counting for me. Hope I get a chance to see you up there.

Doc is up for a at least 2 weeks, but the rest of his crew is coming up from the 25th-30th. Stop by and find us if you're up there!

You can come and help me floss kings from the bank with the spey rod - it's big enough that we can just break it in half - 7' for you and 7' for me. Honestly, that's all it's good for any ways!

Parker I'll be "flossing reds" with the one hander. I've got Canyon man's number so we'll make contact up there. Are you flying into Soldatna?

Just kidding about the spey rod. I'm bringing up a 1086 and a Curado spooled up with 20lb mono.

Last time I brought up an 8wt GL3 one-hander I snapped the damn thing in half on those reds. Ok, technically KidSauk snapped it in half, but the end result was the same. Not enough backbone to handle a Kenai Red.

Flying in to Anchorage, waiting around for Doc, Canyon, and Art and we're driving an RV down to Soldotna.

Feast your eyes on this chromer, boys....



That's the way they do it...

Money for nothin'.... and the kings go free!

(OK LoweDown... maybe I'm gettin' old and sometimes forget the lyrics, but you gotta admit that one's better than Jesse's Girl)

BTW why is it they almost NEVER play any music on MTV these days?

I'm a Dire Straits fan, so it's all good. That's a beaut doc, thanks for sharing.

Let there be KINGS!

July 27th arrival for our crew. Bo's camp and Seward are tough to beat!

To late, I spent the Summer on the River in 1974 when I was 14, The limit was 2 Kings a day and the Days were long, so I had plenty of time to fish after work.

Sounds like Parker wants to be the Sultan of Swing!

July 25 for my crew.

On-line license is purchased...

One cooler packed with miscellaneous supplies...

Waddington Spey flies are rigged with 4/0 trailers...

A healthy supply of amputee rigs have been formed from heavy-guage spinner wire...

CR shad and leftover W'port herring trimmed into bait wraps are marinating in Fire Cure as I type....

The Kenai "to do" list is slowly getting whittled down.

Got an early morning appointment booked with a biggun' on the first pass thru Fallin In Hole in three weeks. Wonder who's rod is going down first?

Go get em, Doc!

Looks like my group is leaving just in time to make room for the rest of you.
16 of us arrive the week before and leave on the 25th, hope we leave some fish for you.

I'm in sales, so every year we take a group of customers to AK for a week of fishing. We do a combo halibut/coho trip out of Homer and hit the Kenai for a day or so, the rest of time we go where ever the fish are. Did I say this was all expenses paid too, OK, I do need to pay for my license. Actually most of my time is spent helping customers get the most out of AK fishing and I need to bring enough of my own gear to keep 6 or 7 people fishing at all times.


I've only kept one King from the Kenai in all the years of fishing it and thanks to FP's updates on the situation, I don't plan on keeping any in the future.

Appreciate the support guys!

But please don't get me wrong here, folks.... there's a time and a place for harvest, even on the Kenai. There's no sin in bonking a Kenai king... as long as it's NOT the red ones nor the big ones.

LET THERE BE KINGS!

I just don't keep that many fish and you can only eat or give away so many. I also won't pay extra to ship them back home when I can catch fresh fish here most of the year. I bring back one cooler, that until recently was a N/C item, I purchased these tickets last year so supposedly it's covered by the old rules of two checked items at N/C. I bring back mostly halibut and sockeye, fish I can't easily get locally.

What is a fair keep for a chromer? 45 inches? 47 inches?

This is a serious question as we ALWAYS want to do the right thing. We have a fishery to protect also and take this stuff seriously.

Personally, I allow the wood shampoo on anything in the 30's down.

40's or better gets a free pass.

An honest 44" fish will typically weigh 38-40 pounds... that's a LOT of meat!

So from an inches point of view, I feel anything over 44" should hit the gravel. That takes about 60% of the physically largest ER5-o hens out of the harvestable pool of kings.

What's left in the harvestable pool under 44 inches? Let's see what the database shows.

87% of the ER hens.
61% of the ER bucks.

60% of the LR hens.
50% of the LR bucks.

I'd say that still leaves a whole lot of bonkable fish!

Hope that info helps you to arrive at your own personal standard as you seek a happy medium between a C&R conservation ethic and responsible harvest.

It does indeed. Thanks! I think our guys will happily agree to the 43/44 inch standard. Seems like a good guideline. Know fish vary in lbs. per inch but the first thing we do w/a marginal fish is get a quick view of the length via our slot lines on the sides of the boat.

In 2006, we let a lunker go without even a picture except those we got when he was close to the boat prior to release. It was August 2 or 3 so even a possed picture was not kosher. But, we had him at 54 inches! Never seen anything like that before. May not see the likes of him again either. First view of him was his tailfin and we knew immediately we had something very special.

What made it even more special is we had the silver gear on so it took a bit more touch than normal.

This is NOT a fish story per se though the measurement was quick and not to the gnats eye.

If done expeditiously and carefully, it's possible to get a KOSHER pic of a big C&R king... even if it's out of season. Nothing in the law against a pic... it only requires that the fish not leave the water and that it is released unharmed.

We just didn't feel right about it, especially after a long, long fight. The only reason we got him to the side was total exhaustion, maybe dangerously so. That and being out of season made us goosey. Plus, we had not seen the likes of this guy before. One picture does him some justice but hey, he's in our mind's eye anyway!