Kasilof sockeye on fire

Hey TRBO

Looks like you guys are getting quite the early push of reds in the Ditch:

Kasilof sockeye count

Way too many for this early ... guess they should stock a few million more so they can net everything else

We got two and lost a third today on our kwikies ... never had a mulitple kwikie red day before.

They have already EO'd a full bore commercial opener because of the numbers.

Let's see ... a selective sport fishery for adipose clipped kings right now and we have not only a PU gillnet fishery ongoing, but a commercial opener and ADF&G tag netting as well. Makes things pretty tough for those looking a clipped kinger at the end of the first run here!!

Stopped by ADF&G to pay them a friendly visit a few minutes ago ... conveniently all the ones to ***** out were "hiding in the field". I know many a people planned on calling today regarding the commerical opener while we're still trying to get CC stock in the stream.

Keep hiding, as Arnie says: I'll be back

YES!!!! Im gona be there friday!!!!!!

'Fraid you might be a little late OP ... with another EO issued tonight for fishing tomorrow, and likely more through the week, you'll see those red passage numbers drop like a rock

Bob is right.

Twelve hour "emergency" opener today.

Another 12 hours for sure tomorrow.

Who knows what on Wed?

Another 12 hour opener for sure on Thursday.


That's a whole lot of netting fully one week before the season normally starts.

The tail end of the Kasilof early run kings will be extra tough for the sports.

These EO's in the Inlet are totally bogus. Sorry to say this Bob, but what really needs to happen is to harvest the surplus Kasilof reds in the Kasilof!

No I'm not turning on you, brother. Just trying to come up with the most efficient and biologically sound method of culling out all of these excess sockeye without damaging other stocks.

There is no way Kenai fish should be paying the price for a bumper crop of Kasilof reds. That's just assinine.

There is no way Kasilof kings should be paying that price either.

They need to give the commercials an ultimatum.... find a way to selectively fish in the river without disrupting other user groups/ fish stocks..... OR..... too frickin' bad, we're gonna let those fish swim by, "overescapement" be damned.

They're a resourceful bunch, they'd find a way to make it happen if they knew they could take every last sockeye not needed for board-mandated escapement goals.... just find a way to turn all the kings loose. Traps? Beach seines? Anything but a frickin' gillnet!

Blood pressure is about to blow right now!@#$%^&*

Im floating it on friday and then I got Sat. to kill either there or the russian and then the rest of the week will be floating around wasilla

What a ******* joke. This is bullsh!t, they need to raise the escapement on the ditch and end the hatchery plants of socks on it. It is detremential to the ER kenai fish and wild ditch kings. When will ADFG realize where the money in the state comes from... Its not from seattle based commercial fishermen taking money out of the state, its from tourists leaving money in the state.

Ryan

The plants were suspended last year after releasing the final crop of fry that had already been hatched prior to the court order terminating the Tustemena stocking program. Only two more seasons of having to deal with hatchery sockeye returns.

Bob

Are beach seines doable in the lowest tidal reaches of the river? Or is it just too much of a mud trap to haul the seine nets ashore? Could nontarget kings be safely released by a beach seine crew in this setting?

We fished the Kasilof from 6/10 through 6/18 and noticed a good drop in numbers from previous years. We still played a lot of fish but probably half the action of previous years. Fished the small Kenai Peninsula Rivers and they were quite good. Russian had big numbers of sockeye with easy limits. Homer Halibut was very good plus we ended the day with Kermit hitting a big halibut in the 210 to 220 range that was released. The skipper said it was the first big halibut that a client had let go in over 20 years of fishing. I though more folks were releasing the big mama halibut???

It's a RARE cow halibut that gets released in the 49th state. Glad to hear about your outstanding release. Maybe it's a sign of things to come.... maybe?

R Ridgeway,

I was on the Kasilof from 6/10 to 6/18 also. We might have bumped into each other at some point. We stay at the Crooked Creek RV Park.

I agree with your assessment. First-run king numbers not quite what they usually are, but some nice bigger fish in the mix. We did the Anchor on Monday 6/13 and did VERY well with eggs on the incoming tide. Did the Russian (Kenai) below the ferry Thursday and it was actually boring after about the 40th fish.

I've never seen so many reds that early in the ditch in about 17 years of fishing it. We were hitting double-digit numbers by Wednesday while fishing the kings. It sure was great weather that week.

Congratulations r.ridgeway.. You are setting a great example for others.
Francis,
Thanks for letting me know that I can't wait until their gone.

EO #4 extends netting from the Tuesday night closure time until the planned Thursday opener. The EO also extends the Thursday time 1 hour to better fish the high tide.

Just spent a few minutes in the ADF&G office chewin' on the ear of George Pappas. The deputy director of ADF&G was calling at 11:00 AM to discuss the situation so my meeting was brief.

Basically, the sockeye numbers take precedent over king numbers, regardless if first or second run kings. The numbers are off the charts for being 17% of the way through the sockeye run (by historic date).

I asked why sport and / or PU limits have not been increased. Apparently, they can EO the crap out of it based on projections ... but until escapement is exceeded, nothing can be done on the other fisheries to increase take :rolleyes:

We are making some calls and gathering info right now ... it sounds like the ^&%( is hitting the fan from a number of sources, including the PU fisherman that have not been hit before. I'll post some more as I get more

This is sad, ADFG has their noses so far buried up the commercial fishermens asses its pathetic. one day they will hopefully realize that there is more than one species of salmon running.

As predicted, the red numbers fell through the floor ... by roughly 90%.

The run was certainly sub-par, but I wouldn't call it a bad run. One thing that many don't realize by only fishing for a few days is that the bulk of the run shifted early this year.

We were hooking 30-40 fish per trip on the 1st and 2nd (we honestly just lost count) of June. This is about a week early for the peak. The peak also only lasted a few days rather than a week to ten days as is the norm. extreme warm weather in April that sped up most of Ma Nature's spingtime plans may have been responsible partly for this shift.

Things definitely headed downhill after that early June peak save for a few spikes last week.

Escpement not yet reached in CC, but it is roughly four miles or so from the Crooked Creek confluence to the weir, so it will take some time for those fish to make it up the creek for a good idea of season numbers. It appears they move rather slowly once they hit the creek talking with bios.

We visited the weir a couple of days back and got a nice tour of the facility from Jeff Brakefield who showed us how they're doing things this year to minimize handling.

'Doc ... I don't know if beach seines would work given the tidal influences. perhaps boat-based seines are the answer, but it will be a tough transition given the long standing sites that are currently in place.

I think we got fed a little grease though after all the squeeking in recent days. Sport bag limit has been doubled for the first time in memory. PU netters got an extra day, and dipnetters already have the okay to net to the bridge once that fishery starts. So at least the remainder of the user groups will get to shar in the fatter pie vs. last year when the dipnetters only got a few crumbs near the end.

Should be a bonus for local biz and limited impact on sports king fishery. Go catch them reds before they get across that counter !!!

Got back in this morning from fishing Crooked and the Russian for the last week. Crooked produced about 12 fish for two days of fishing between 3 guys- 2 clipped. Russian was smokin beginning of last week but fell of like there was no tomorrow the last two days. The fish are still there you just actually have to work a little to get them. Was suprised at how many of the reds actually took down my setup (true, really!) Still don't like the whole flossing thing though. Think I saw Bob floating on tues or wed past crooked. Not sure though. Good luck up there!

Continued choking of the runs continues ... if you'd like to download an Excel sheet I'm keeping track with, follow this link:

http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/boardpix/junenetting.htm

Today's king catch won't be in the books for a bit, but I'll get it up.

Rates are 4 x at the start of netting for king interception ... so that's something to start looking at.

Nets have been actively fishing almost 60% of all available time since it began ... that's just a wee bit more than the starting point of 24 hours per week

On a good note, CC escapement is turning out very good. Over 600 fish went past the weir last night so goals are met for 1st run kings and there will likley be more as it appears more and more so that the kings really putt along once they get into the creek.

Hope that 2nd run is a good one for you. I floated it with tom last friday-nothing. I did see you boat parked at a resteraunt on the way back to the cabin

Bob, I was called a 'fish nerd' for using excel to help estimate run size, timing, fish load, and how many gallons of water would end up in my waders. Nice to know someone else uses it too.
Dammm sweet. They called me a nerd, but they called when the smoker was cooking too.