Area Sport Fishing Reports
Southern Kenai/LCI

Archived Sport Fishing Report

August 05, 2015

Homer Area

Week of August 03 to August 10

Emergency Orders and Regulation Reminders

• All Eastside Cook Inlet beaches from the Kenai River to the tip of the Homer Spit are closed to all clams and mussels through December 31, 2015.
• The Cook Inlet and North Gulf Coast sport, personal use & subsistence Tanner crab fisheries will not open for the 2015-2016 season.

Salt water Regulation Reminders

• The Kachemak Bay Coho Salmon Gillnet Fishery opens August 17, the fishery closes when 1,000-2,000 coho salmon are harvested. . Permits are available at the Homer ADF&G office.
• The Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon Area is closed to snagging, from the Homer City Dock near the entrance of the Homer Boat Harbor (including the Homer Boat Harbor) to the ADF&G markers about 200 yds. northwest of the lagoon entrance to a distance of 300 ft from shore. The bag and possession for salmon within these waters (except king salmon) is 6 per day of which 6 may be coho salmon.

Fresh water Regulation Reminders

• The Anchor and Ninilchik Rivers and Deep and Stariski Creeks opened on August 1 to fishing for Dolly Varden and steelhead/rainbow trout upstream from the ADF&G regulatory markers, but remains closed for salmon upstream of these markers.
• China Poot personal use dipnet fishery closes August 7. Only sockeye salmon may be retained in this personal use and both tips of the tail fin must be removed. Complete regulations are found on page 16 of the Southcentral Alaska Sport Fishing Regulation Summary booklet.

Salt Water Fisheries

Halibut

• Halibut fishing has improved and some larger fish are being caught. Sampled fish harvested out of the Homer port averaged 11.5 lbs. (range 2.2 – 68.3 lbs.). Many anglers had success using herring on circle hooks.
• The department has received several reports of “mushy” halibut this season. The flesh of these fish is very soft or flabby, sometimes with pockets of jelly-like tissue, and the flesh is mushy after being cooked. Experience during years of high prevalence of this condition (1998, 2005, 2011-12) shows that the incidence of these fish can be high for anglers fishing certain locales, so if you catch a fish that feels flabby or does not look as robust and rounded as a healthy halibut should, release it immediately unharmed and consider moving to a different area to avoid these fish. Department research is ongoing.

Salmon

• Anglers are reporting fair catches of coho salmon near Point Pogibshi and Silver Ridge.
• Trolling success for king salmon has slowed in Kachemak Bay.
• North of Bluff Point anglers are reporting king salmon fishing as slow with improved catches of coho and pink salmon.
• Popular trolling set-ups for salmon include herring, tube flies, and spoons. Try using dodgers or flashers for extra attraction.
• Early-run coho salmon are still arriving at the Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon on the Homer Spit and fishing is good. Try salmon eggs, herring and blue Vibrax spinners; also try fishing around the incoming tide as new fish arrive.
• As a part of the Chinook Salmon Research Initiative, the Department is looking at the genetic stock composition of the marine king salmon fishery. There are port samplers stationed at the Homer Harbor, and Deep Creek and Anchor Point tractor launches conducting quick interviews and collecting biological information, scales, and genetic clips from sport caught king salmon. If you fished for king salmon in Cook Inlet, regardless of success, we’d like to talk to you! More information on the Chinook Salmon Research Initiative can be found at: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=chinookinitiative.main .

Other Saltwater Fishing

• The Homer Spit offers a variety of fishing opportunities. Anglers are catching walleye pollock, Pacific cod, and a variety of flatfish species off the end of the spit, and coho salmon along the eastern shore.
• Anglers fishing near the Barren, Chugach, and Elizabeth Islands are catching lingcod and rockfish as well as other target species. Rockfish caught in deep water suffer injuries from decompression. Recent research by Department staff indicates that survival of released rockfish can be substantially improved by releasing fish at the depth of capture. For more information on the use of deep water release mechanisms, see the department’s Web page at http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fishingSportFishingInfo.rockfishconservation .

Fresh water Fisheries

Streams

• Expect good fishing for Dolly Varden in roadside streams. Try fishing for Dolly Varden with small bright spinners, fresh salmon eggs, or fly patterns that resemble fish such as muddler minnows or egg patterns.
• Coho salmon are arriving in area streams; try fishing early in the morning or at the mouth of the stream during the incoming tide.
• Pink salmon fishing is reported as good on the south side of Kachemak Bay. Humpy Creek and the Seldovia River are popular streams to for targeting pink salmon.

Personal Use Fishing

• Dipnetting success for sockeye salmon in China Poot is slow.

Lake Fishing

• The Kenai Peninsula stocked lakes fishing conditions are good. Most of these lakes are stocked with rainbow trout which, this time of year, are taken on dry or wet flies, small spoons, spinners, or bait. A brochure listing the locations of the stocked lakes is available on the Sport Fish web site and at ADF&G offices.

Shellfish

• The next good clamming tides run from August 28 through September 3.
• All shrimp and crab fisheries in Kachemak Bay remain closed for 2015.