how was the king run this year?? are the numbers coming back up

The last 2 weeks I've been getting pictures from a friend that guides on the Kenai, they have been hammering them and they are continuing to see bigger and bigger fish as the run hasn't peaked yet.
AR member Graybird is fishing the Kenai starting today with the same guide I mentioned so hopefully will see a familiar face holding up big fish this week!
Hopefully some local guys can chime in with their news but I've received dozens of pictures from this guide with really nice fish.

The King run is very strong this year, especially on the Kenai. Some are saying it's the best run in about 10 years. I believe the second run is now in.
My wife and I actually just just got back from a 5 night/4 day Alaska fishing a couple of weeks ago, and we were able to spend one of those days on the Kenai fishing for Kings. Our boat went 3 for 4!
Guide was great and I've been seeing pictures of some real dandies (Kings) they are catching. Wonder if Snellstom and I know the same guide.....
Hopefully I'll find some time here in the next week or so to post a report.

I don't know how the king run is at the moment on the Copper River and its tributaries. But the rivers have been Very high this summer so the fish wheels I know about haven't been doing very well. On all species of salmon. And in general it hasn't been spectacular. I'll ask around and report back.

The reports in general are good. The dark spot is the Nushagak where the escapement goal is something like 70,000. When they shut down the sonar at Portage there were 56,600 counted. Some of the smaller rivers down the Peninsula(not Kenai) are a little on the weak side with restrictions in place.

It's a big depends. There are rivers that are still crap compared to historic numbers, others are better than they have been, but not as good as they were. And others are doing ok.

Brett

quote:

Originally posted by crane:
The dark spot is the Nushagak where the escapement goal is something like 70,000. When they shut down the sonar at Portage there were 56,600 counted.

Huh? I heard the opposite, or maybe I am thinking reds...

We fished the Kenai last week.It was pretty hit and miss. We had a couple of good guides and kept a 45lb male,32lb and 25lb females.Our Boat also pulled in a 51lb female last Saturday.I caught a 37.5lb King in the Salt Water at Seward.

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:

quote:

Originally posted by crane:
The dark spot is the Nushagak where the escapement goal is something like 70,000. When they shut down the sonar at Portage there were 56,600 counted.

Huh? I heard the opposite, or maybe I am thinking reds...

Well, the kings on the Nushagak were good, but definitely mixed.
First, there seemed to be big problems with the counting sonar. ADF&G sportfish suspects the king count by sonar was short by about half. Some fishing camps did quite well, others seemed to struggle. I wasn't able to put much effort in to the kings this year but there did seem to be a good run.

Bearclaw Lodge has a very nice king fishing camp on the Nushagak and they think the king run was very good.

Yes, the reds have been very strong thru out Bristol Bay. Huge numbers have returned to spawn in both the Nushagak and Wood River systems.

any news up byi aniak??

Scott- Any idea as to what happened with the sonar? Seems like it has been working well(Who really knows?) for years.

quote:

Originally posted by crane:
Scott- Any idea as to what happened with the sonar? Seems like it has been working well(Who really knows?) for years.

The sonar is a new and improved one!

I dunno, two or three years ago they switched to this new sonar and the results have drawn scepticism.

Seems like lately its been questions about where are the kings running. Down low in the channel? Near river shore? The other shore?

Like I said above, some outfitters did really well, on the other hand, I was genuinely surprised to see plywood back up on some windows around July 1st.

There were a ton of fish this year. More reds than anyone understands. Lots of Chum. This isn't a pink year, but I've had to put some effort into avoiding them while casting egg patterns for trout. The silvers seem to be showing up in good numbers as always.

ADF&G sportfish mentioned the possibility of doing some surveys up in the king spawning ground and I hope they do.

Even if there wasn't a single king returning to the Nushagak, there still was a heck of a lot going on and plenty for an angler to do.

https://www.outdoorhub.com/new...king-salmon-harvest/ Received this today about shutting down all King Salmon fishing in SE AK. Both commercial and recreational.