Kenai fishing bag limit increases, and a personal loss

The ability to put some salmon in the freezer has improved somewhat, but not in our immediate area. If you’re willing to drive some distance and fight the crowds, there’s a chance you can harvest some sockeye salmon.

Effective July 3, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has doubled the bag and possession limits for the Russian River and a section of the Upper Kenai River. The daily bag limit is now six sockeye salmon per day with 12 in possession.

The section of the mainstem Upper Kenai River includes the area extending from Skilak Lake upstream to ADF&G regulatory markers located approximately 300 yards upstream of the public boat launch at Sportsman’s Landing and the Russian River from its mouth upstream to an ADF&G marker located about 600 yards downstream from the Russian River falls.

This increase in bag and possession limits is a result of a strong return past the Russian River weir. Fish and Game estimates that the Russian River escapement will exceed the early-run sockeye salmon biological escapement goal of 22,000 to 42,000 fish.

Over on the Copper River, Fish and Game is reopening the Glennallen Subdistrict subsistence fishery at noon today for 48 hours and then immediately reopen to awcwn-day/week subsistence fishing on Sunday. The fishery will remain open for the rest of the season unless another emergency order overrides this reopening order.

During the last week in June, salmon passage at the Miles Lake sonar has been more than double the expected passage. This boost in salmon numbers has pushed the projected escapement goal for the Copper River to be more than the minimum of 360,000 fish. This is good news for those folks who rely on the Glennallen Subdistrict subsistence fishery to stock their freezers with fish for the winter.

Another interesting bit of information I have recently seen is that the current chair of the Alaska Board of Fisheries, John Jensen, has been appointed to the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council. The NPFMC is the federal agency which regulates all the federal fisheries in federal waters, that is, anything from 3 to 200 miles off shore. The state has regulatory authority out to 3 miles.

Jensen has strong ties to the commercial fishing industry in Alaska and that has often been evident in his voting on proposals during BOF meetings. Since the NPFMC is comprised of almost exclusively members with commercial fishing ties, Jensen should fit in and function quite well. I wish him well in his new undertaking.

While many in-river users might be breathing a sigh of relief that one of the strongest commercially oriented BOF members is moving on, I’ll break your bubble by reminding you that the NPFMC is revising their Fisheries Management Plan for Cook Inlet. Depending on how that works out, we’re not out of the jungle yet! So far, only commercial fishers and non-Northern District folks have been appointed to the stakeholders advisory group formed to advise the NPFMC on the plan revision.

On a sad and personal note, I’ll tell you my wife and I lost the last two of our four amigos in June. I mentioned in a column over a year ago that we had lost the oldest, Tawny, and six months to the day later, Heidi joined her crossing the Rainbow Bridge. We still had Precious and Suzie and, while they were getting older, they were doing well.

Suzie, over 14 years old, had previously been diagnosed with Cushing’s disease and developed diabetes, but the vets had her medications and dosage levels under control. Precious seemed to be doing just fine with no need for anything other than some arthritis pills.

Literally on her 13th birthday, Precious started acting like something was seriously wrong. She spent one night in a pet emergency hospital and the vets advised that things would not improve. We made the only decision possible and had her euthanized.

Within a few days, Suzie started to show signs of some distress. She also spent some time in the hospital, but, with some adjustments in her insulin dosage, had improved enough to come home. Less than 48 hours later, Suzie was again having significant problems. We knew what was coming, but before my wife could keep the final vet appointment for Suzie, she passed away at home.

I was gone to the International Hunter Education Conference in Anchorage, so my wife was handling the situation. While we both knew the dogs were older, we weren’t expecting things to happen just yet!