Three local anglers were issued citations for removing out-of-season silver salmon from the Upper Kenai River last month after they posted video of the activity to YouTube.
According to a dispatch from Alaska Wildlife Troopers, the three, 22-year-old Jacob Keels, of Kenai; Ryan Cornelio, a 27-year-old from Sterling; and 28-year-old Josh Liedes, of Kenai, were seen in YouTube videos posted to the channel “Kenai Boys Outdoors” committing the violations.
All three were cited for removing silver salmon from the water. Keels and Liedes were also cited for improper licensing.
Silver salmon can be seen in the titles and thumbnails of several recent videos posted to the account.
Keels opened one video saying, “We’re back in Cooper Landing, trying to catch some rainbows and — you know — there’s some silvers in here too. We’ll see.”
In that video, the group can be seen reeling in several silver salmon, though each fish caught was released.
A video posted to the channel on Sunday responds to the citations.
“It’s been brought to my attention that we’ve been mishandling the coho we’ve been catching,” Keels said.
He said that the silver salmon being caught are not being targeted, likening them to bycatch.
Text on screen said that Oct. 31 is the closure for all salmon fisheries, and that it is illegal to remove coho from the water out of season. That removal, where in previous videos the group had lifted and shown off the salmon before releasing them, was the offense.
“You gotta keep them in the water at all times,” Keels said.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
