Kenai River coho salmon fishery

My friend Chuck Ashmun sent me an email fishing report about a guided fishing trip he made to the Kenai River below Kenai Lake last weekend. He joined one angler fishing that day, but they got a late start waiting near the launch area for a third scheduled guest — who failed to show up for the trip. Several boats of other anglers launched and started fishing the river ahead of Chuck’s trip before they finally shoved off at about 8:30 a.m. Chuck mentioned that he caught less than a dozen smallish rainbow trout and zero Dolly Varden during the trip, and also unintentionally snagged one sockeye salmon that provided quite a task attempting to battle it back to the boat on light trout tackle before release. The other guest, from Milwaukee, also caught some smallish trout, but was quite excited about how well they fought. Chuck was thinking there might be low fishing pressure late in the season, but at this time of year the Kenai River trout fishery and coho salmon fishery are often in high gear — so there were plenty of other people fishing that Saturday.

Chuck said there were lots of red-colored sockeye in the section of river they floated, but they did not see or hook any coho salmon. He had originally attempted to schedule a trout / coho salmon combo trip below Skilak Lake, however, the guide service did not have a boat available for Saturday on that section of the river. His guide mentioned that he had guided the river below Skilak Lake the day earlier, and only saw two coho salmon during the trip.

New Kenai River Coho Salmon Restrictions

On Tuesday September 17, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) announced that the Kenai River would close to bait fishing on September 19, 2024 and the daily coho salmon bag limit would be reduced to one per person through October 31. Since I had been referring people interested in salmon fishing to the Kenai River fishery starting on August 2 — when ADF&G first announced restrictions on sport coho salmon fisheries in the Mat-Su Valley, I called Murray Fenton of Fenton Brothers Guide Service (907) 398-6250 to get his latest information on the Kenai River coho salmon fishery.

Murray told me small bunches of coho have been moving through, but that fishing had recently consisted of often only catching a single coho in a spot before having to move on in search of additional coho. Normally his guest might catch four or five coho from a spot when they found fish. In addition, Murray mentioned there were large numbers of seals swimming the river searching for salmon, and while his guests had been catching some very nice late-run coho, many of those fish had seal-bite scars or were even missing fins.

With the announced regulation changes, Fenton Brothers will be contacting guests who had booked trips and letting them know about the new regulations. While Murray expected they would lose some of their bookings, he also knew that some guests would want to continue with their trips even though the coho limit would be reduced to one fish. In addition to coho salmon, there can still be a few chrome late-arriving sockeye salmon, and while not quality table fare there are also pink salmon that also provide some fish fighting action. Fenton Brothers are primarily guiding full-day trips at this time, and guest can also continue to fish for rainbow trout in the section of the Kenai they are fishing, after they have harvested their coho for the day. Bald eagle and seal sightings along the river occur on a daily basis.

In the Mat-Su Valley Dan Praslowicz with Drill Team 6 Fishing Excusions (702) 465-4747 has been finding success for his guest catching beautiful fall-colored arctic char, northern pike, and rainbow trout from Big Lake.

About Mat-Su Trout

I talked with another friend on Tuesday that told me he has been getting better dialed in on fishing Mat-Su Valley lakes for rainbow trout, and tover time he had learned quite a bit through numerous self-guided excursions using his float tube and fly rod. We do not talk specific spots, but he told me through learning which flies to use and how to fish them he frequently catches 20-40 trout on trips to specific Mat-Su Valley lakes —with good numbers of fish in the 20 inch or larger range. To him the fun is in finding and learning what works at these hidden or lesser know gems of Mat-Su fisheries.

Opportunities to Improve Management of Mat-Su Salmon Fisheries

With most Mat-Su angler activity now on hiatus, following what is becoming a pattern of emergency inriver salmon harvest opportunity restrictions, closures, and missed spawning escapements in the Mat-Su Valley, it is my intention to report updates on ways the public can actively participate in upcoming salmon management decisions.

In previous columns I mentioned a couple Agenda Change Requests (ACRs) #2 and #3 that have been submitted to the Board of Fisheries (BOF) for consideration at their October 29 -30 Work Session at the Egan Convention Center in Anchorage. ACRs have now been posted and can be viewed and commented on using links on the BOF Work Session page. For ACR 2 comments, Mat-Su anglers may want to specifically stress why Susitna River drainage Chinook salmon stock(s) need immediate action to address a long trend of low inriver returns, producing lost yield, which is now developing into a pattern of missed escapement goals drainage-wide. Request that the BOF support scheduling ACR 2 to be heard at a 2024-2025 Board of Fisheries Meeting.

For anglers concerned about lost yield from the Little Susitna River coho salmon fishery (and other Northern Cook Inlet coho salmon fisheries), comments should likely follow a similar pattern in supporting the BOF scheduling ACR 3 for consideration at a 2024 - 2025 BOF Meeting.

Commenting on ACRs or other fishery issue may be something new for most Mat-Su anglers or people concerned about the health of Northern Cook Inlet salmon stocks. While it does take a bit of effort, the results can be worthwhile! I therefore encourage all concerned to please share your concerns / comments with the Board of Fisheries — they are the ones who make the changes. Feel welcome to share this column / message.

Good Luck and Comment On!