Alaska Fishing with Mark Glassmaker • 1-800-622-1177 • Alaska Fishing Lodge

Alaska Fishing, 2005 Year in Review

Once Again another wonderful fishing season has come to an end. A lot of water has passed by in the last five months and 2005 was a unique and rewarding season in many regards. What follows is my recount of this past season:

Amidst falling leaves, harvest moons and northern lights, Alaska welcomes the fall with same awe and splendor it greets all seasons. With reckless regard it instinctively sheds the lush green foliage for a wash of yellow and orange, soon replaced by empty branches covered with crystals of ice and snow.

This season began much like many in the past, in hot pursuit of May Kings on the Kasilof River. Starting May 16 with the opening day of bait, we drifted the chalky green river daily. Fishing success was good and improved consistently throughout the remainder of the month. In the last few days of May and the first few days of June, a noticeable spike in the number of fish was obvious. Instead of working 2-3 holes to find the biters, aggressive fish seemed to be everywhere. Certain strategic traveling lanes were literal jackpots just after high tide with hoards of wild and hatchery fish returning in force.

The ability of anglers to continue fishing after retaining a salmon was well received this season on the Kasilof as it allowed the fortunate ones to keep their lines in the water. Another new Kasilof rule allowed retention of "wild" fish on Tuesdays and Saturdays and the ability to keep both hatchery and wild fish on these days was nice. Although the ratio of hatchery fish to wild or natural fish seemed to change as the season progressed, before the first week of June, the majority of the fish seemed to be wild (unclipped) kings. There were a number of days where we caught and released several fish without finding a single hatchery fish. After the first of June this ratio changed considerably and the majority of our catch had clipped fins.

New hatchery fish arrived daily and proceeded to flood the river over the next week to ten days of June. Even during this period of abundant hatchery fish, there were still a significant number of wild fish present , a good sign for the wild component of this early Kasilof king return. In 2008, Board of Fisheries will reconsider harvest opportunities for these wild fish and if this run remains strong, perhaps the ability to retain one wild king will be increased beyond two days a week.

This run remained consistent into the second week of June before the swell of hatchery fish subsided. Fishing was decent for residual early run kings and an occasional late run fish but stayed relatively slow into the first two weeks of July.

On the mighty Kenai, May had been a very consistent pursuit with good fishing starting in the third week of May and extending into mid-June. The best fishing was by far the lower portion of the river where fish seemed more numerous and aggressive.

Fishing stayed steady until mid month and then slowed some as the number of fish entering the river dipped in the third week of June. Despite the deflated fish counts, strong numbers the week prior prompted managers to project enough fish to meet escapement goals and ADF&G issued an emergency order on June 18 allowing bait on the Kenai River (below the Moose River). This gave fishing on the lower Kenai a considerable spike for several days but unfortunately, the higher number of fish entering the week prior to the emergency order did not sustain itself. Daily counts in the third week of June were back down to around 200 fish per day and even with the unusual addition of bait in June, fishing was only average. Then in the final days of June, a swarm of late-run king salmon arrived in the lower river and like someone flipped a switch, the lower Kenai lit up like a Christmas tree.

Ironically, the last day of June was as good as it would be all season, and that is not to say there wasn't some excellent fishing still to come throughout the month. The infamous section of river just above Beaver Creek literally exploded with fish for a couple of days and catch rates were dramatic. With an unseasonable sunny and dry spring, the Kenai was several degrees warmer than normal and this seemed to hold the fish in the lower, tidal sections of the river. Whereas we normally see July fishing success transfer upriver to waters just above the Soldotna Bridge, this year the bulk of the late-run or at least the best fishing action, remained in the lower river.

The late-run provided plenty of action throughout the month and into the last days of the season, although fishing success was definitely dependent on the intensity of commercial fishing activity in nearby Cook Inlet. Late run returns of sockeye salmon were excessive this season prompting managers to allow commercial netting to the maximum extent allowable under current management plans. When gill nets inundate the beaches and the offshore waters of Cook Inlet, the in river result is much slower fishing.

By the last few days of the season, the late-run of Kenai kings is normally past its seasonal peak but this year the fishing was outstanding right up to the last hour of the season. Looking back, the fish gods allowed us many memorable moments this past July and the lower Kenai River was as good as it gets on a number of days. The extreme numbers of king salmon still pouring into the lower river during the last few days of July seemed to indicated a significant portion of the return would make its way into the legendary salmon river after the close of the season on Aug 1 and allow a considerable number of fish to pass onto the spawning beds unimpeded.

As king season faded into the early days of August, it was becoming more and more apparent that the late run of sockeye was far from over. Typically the Kenai sees sporadic bursts of reds into the first week of August but this year the river was getting peak numbers of sockeye well into mid August. This unexpected flood of late returning red salmon was a welcome opportunity to stock up on this coveted game fish and it provided welcome action at a time we would normally be targeting cohos.

This season's early run of Kenai silvers was sporadic at best for the first two weeks of August so the red hot sockeye fishing was welcome filler for the mediocre coho. Supplemented with nonstop trout action, the late flurry of reds filled many August fishing days. An estimated 1.4 million sockeye made it into the Kenai this season, an average of 26,000 coming into the river each day in July. Over 500,000 sockeye entered the river in the first three weeks of August alone.

By the third week of August, steady numbers of silver salmon had finally replaced the late waves of red salmon and it was business as usual for the remainder of the month. Limits of fresh coho were routine as anglers enjoyed new rules allowing them to continue fishing above the Moose River after retaining their two fish limit of silvers. This allowed us to trout fish the entire stretch of river from Bings to Skilak Lake after retaining a limit of silver salmon. This helped distribute the pressure and it also gave the guides a number of options as to where they could fish and when. The end result for the angler was light pressure with lots of action and some very well-rounded days of fall fishing on the middle Kenai River.

As we reached September, a distinct pause in the fishery caused us to shift our focus to trout as the late-run of silvers seems to be taking its time to arrive in any sheer numbers. Much like the early-run, the late-run seemed belated with sporadic groups providing well deserved action for persistent anglers. Finally by late September, strong numbers of silvers were again present throughout the river. We enjoyed excellent silver fishing for the remainder of September and into October but as temperatures dipped below freezing, the temptation to make one more cast began to wane. The wash of colored leaves that once painted the river banks was now withered and fallen and soon the season had officially come to a close.

Each season is unique in a number of ways and this season is certainly no exception. The summer of 05 will be best remembered for its amazing warm weather and abundant returns of fish. We sincerely hope that everyone that visited us this past season enjoyed their own personal experience in Alaska and will decide to return and join us again. We were blessed to see many old friends as well as a number of new guests. We have also been very fortunate to retain the same staff of assistant guides that have been with us for several seasons. Both Brent and Sean will be back next year and we all look forward to fishing with you again very soon.

Great Fishing!
Mark, Cindy,
Faith, Caleigh,
Brent and Sean

Alaska Fishing with Mark Glassmaker, Alaska Fishing Lodge
33361 Keystone Drive, Soldotna, Alaska 99669
1-800-622-1177

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