Kenai River Early Run King numbers are up significantly compared to the first week of June in 2014 and 2013.
According to Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s fish counts, 2015 has seen at least 960 kings so far in the Kenai River versus only 204 counted by the same day last year and 220 at the same time the year before.
Local guide Felix Sturm spoke with us about what that could mean for guides if the king numbers continue to steadily rise.
Sturm: “There’s a good possibility that they will decide if numbers are high enough to open the Kenai for the month of July for possibly catch and release or catch and keep. And what that would mean for the Kasilof is that we might have the possibility of being reopened for bait, which we’ve been closed to for all of last year and for the beginning of this year, for May and June.”
Not only have guides seen many more kings recently but sockeye salmon are already making their presence known.
Sturm: “Normally this time of year we start to see a few sockeye in the river but the last few days so many are coming in on the tides that some of us are catching them while we’re king fishing, with our king gear.”
Sturm said he thinks that could mean the schools are just arriving earlier than usual or it could be a fantastic year for fishing.