An Anchor River king salmon lies on the bank Saturday, May 19, 2018 in Anchor Point, Alaska. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion, file)

An Anchor River king salmon lies on the bank Saturday, May 19, 2018 in Anchor Point, Alaska. (Photo by Elizabeth Earl/Peninsula Clarion, file)

King restrictions increase tensions among users

With king salmon runs weak so far and fishing season in full swing, barbs are again flying as user groups are restricted.

Though sportfishermen are now able to fish for kings on the Kenai and Kasilof rivers, they’re restricted to no bait on the Kenai River and can only fish between the confluence of Slikok Creek with the Kenai and the mouth. Everything upstream is closed. The Anchor and Ninilchik rivers and Deep Creek as well as a section of the marine waters out to a mile offshore are still closed to king fishing, too, because of poor returns to those rivers this season.

Upper Cook Inlet commercial fishermen have had a handful of openings so far. As of Monday, commercial fishermen had harvested 130,993 salmon, 914 of which were kings and 118,868 of which were sockeye, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s commercial fisheries harvest summary.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

However, some are unhappy with Fish and Game’s decision to open the commercial drift gillnet fleet and the set gillnet fishermen in the Kasilof section for fishing on June 30 while sportfishermen were restricted from fishing for kings on the Kenai and restricted to no bait on the Kasilof River. The Kenai River Professional Guide Association, a trade association representing sportfishing guides on the Kenai River, sent a letter Saturday to Gov. Bill Walker and local commercial fishery managers to express frustration with the decision.

“There are no numbers of significant sockeye salmon in any of the systems,” wrote Ray DeBardelaben, the president of the association, in the letter. “How the Department can fathom fishing regular openings is unacceptable, let alone an emergency opening? To issue an emergency opening is beyond belief!”

He added that the guide association “continues to lose faith in the integrity of ADFG” to make decisions on Cook Inlet salmon management and that the association is “looking forward to a new direction in November.”

Under normal management, commercial fishermen in Cook Inlet have two regularly scheduled openings on Monday and Thursday each week. Based on salmon escapement, managers can choose to issue additional openings. Commercial fishery managers opened the fishery from 7 a.m–9 p.m. Saturday to harvest sockeye returning to the Kasilof River, according to the emergency order.

Sockeye salmon runs have been weak so far across the Gulf of Alaska, with poor returns in the Copper River, Yakutat and Kodiak. Since Fish and Game began counting sockeye on the Kasilof River June 15, 60, 876 sockeye have passed the sonar.

The setnetters in the Upper Subdistrict section have not opened yet. When the sportfishery on the Kenai River is restricted to no bait, the setnetters do not get their regular Monday and Thursday periods starting July 1 — their openings are issued by emergency order only, with no more than 48 hours of fishing per week. The East Forelands are excluded from these restrictions, according to an emergency order issued by Fish and Game on June 22. These restrictions don’t affect the Kasilof section setnetters or drift fleet.

So far, 598 late-run king salmon have passed the sonar on the Kenai River, compared to 820 on the same date in 2017. Before the late run began July 1, Fish and Game restricted fishing for kings upstream of Slikok Creek, but for some in the sportfishery, that’s not far enough. The Kenai River Sportfishing Association’s board of directors passed a resolution June 29 asking for Fish and Game to restrict late-run kings to catch and release only in the sportfishery, which would in turn restrict setnetters to no more than 24 hours of fishing per week.

Fish and Game is also restricting the retention of any king salmon in the personal-use dipnet fishery on the Kenai River, which opens July 10. When bait is prohibited on the Kenai River sportfishery, dipnetters aren’t allowed to keep kings. According to a news release issued Thursday.

“The 2018 king salmon runs throughout Cook Inlet have consistently and significantly underperformed ADF&G preseason forecasts resulting in restrictions and closures of inriver and marine sport fisheries,” the release states. “(Fish and Game) will continue to monitor the Kenai River run as it develops and additional actions may be taken depending on the run strength.”

Reach Elizabeth Earl at eearl@peninsulaclarion.com.

More in News

tease
‘All the kids are grand champions’

Kenai Peninsula 4-H shows off at Agriculture Expo

Soldotna City Council member Jordan Chilson and Soldotna Mayor Paul Whitney grill hot dogs at the Progress Days Block Party at Parker Park in Soldotna, Alaska, on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Progress Days block party keeps celebration going

Vendors, food trucks, carnival games and contests entertained hundreds

Children take candy from a resident of Heritage Place during the 68th Annual Soldotna Progress Days Parade in Soldotna, Alaska, on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
‘It feels so hometown’

68th Annual Soldotna Progress Days parade brings festivity to city streets

Kachemak Bay is seen from the Homer Spit in March 2019. (Homer News file photo)
Toxin associated with amnesic shellfish poisoning not detected in Kachemak Bay mussels

The test result does not indicate whether the toxin is present in other species in the food web.

Superintendent Clayton Holland speaks during a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education in Soldotna, Alaska, on Monday, July 7, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Federal education funding to be released after monthlong delay

The missing funds could have led to further cuts to programming and staff on top of deep cuts made by the KPBSD Board of Education this year.

An angler holds up a dolly varden for a photograph on Wednesday, July 16. (Photo courtesy of Koby Etzwiler)
Anchor River opens up to Dollies, non-King salmon fishing

Steelhead and rainbow trout are still off limits and should not be removed from the water.

A photo provided by NTSB shows a single-engine Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub, that crashed shortly after takeoff in a mountainous area of southwestern Alaska, Sept. 12, 2023. The plane was weighed down by too much moose meat and faced drag from a set of antlers mounted on its right wing strut, federal investigators said on Tuesday.
Crash that killed husband of former congresswoman was overloaded with moose meat and antlers, NTSB says

The plane, a single-engine Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub, crashed shortly after takeoff in a mountainous area of southwestern Alaska on Sept. 12, 2023.

Armor rock from Sand Point is offloaded from a barge in the Kenai River in Kenai, Alaska, part of ongoing construction efforts for the Kenai River Bluff Stabilization Project on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Work continues on Kenai Bluff stabilization project

The wall has already taken shape over a broad swath of the affected area.

An aerial photo over Grewingk Glacier and Glacier Spit from May 2021 shows a mesodinium rubrum bloom to the left as contrasted with the normal ocean water of Kachemak Bay near Homer. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Greer/Beryl Air)
KBNERR warns of potential harmful algal bloom in Kachemak Bay

Pseudo-nitzchia has been detected at bloom levels in Kachemak Bay since July 4.

Most Read

You're browsing in private mode.
Please sign in or subscribe to continue reading articles in this mode.

Peninsula Clarion relies on subscription revenue to provide local content for our readers.

Subscribe

Already a subscriber? Please sign in