Area Sport Fishing Reports
Southern Kenai/LCI

Archived Sport Fishing Report

August 18, 2015

Homer Area

Week of August 17 to August 24

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.

Regulation Reminders

• Areas upstream of the two-mile regulatory markers on the Anchor and Ninilchik Rivers and Deep and Stariski Creeks opened on August 1 to fishing for Dolly Varden and steelhead/rainbow trout. Salmon may not be targeted or harvested upstream of the two-mile regulatory markers.
• 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 limit for spiny dogfish sharks is 5 per day and in possession with no recording requirement. Anglers are reminded that all dogfish that are not kept must be carefully released. The bag and possession limit for all other sharks is 1 per day and in possession and these must be recorded immediately on the back of your fishing license.

Salt Water Fisheries

Halibut

• Halibut fishing success has been fair with many anglers catching their limits. Sampled fish harvested out of the Homer port averaged 11.75 lbs. (range 2.4 - 95 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. 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

• Trolling is reported as good for feeder kings and coho salmon near Point Pogibshi, Silver Ridge and near Bluff Point.
• Popular trolling set-ups for salmon include herring, tube flies, and spoons. Try using dodgers or flashers for extra attraction.
• Fishing at the Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon on the Homer Spit has been reported as fair for coho salmon. Try fishing around the incoming tide as new fish arrive for the best success.
• 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

• Anglers are reporting large bycatch of spiny dogfish. Dogfish travel in large schools and concentrate in Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay in August, so be prepared to release a few or pick up and move to avoid them.
• Lingcod fishing has been slow as the fall storms begin to move in. Success can be found in waters surrounding the Chugach and Elizabeth Islands if anglers have access to vessels able to safely navigate in sometimes unpredictable fall weather conditions.
• 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

• Coho salmon are arriving in area streams and fishing is improving as the run builds; try fishing early in the morning or at the mouth of the stream during the incoming tide. Salmon roe clusters and plug-cut herring work the best, but spinners and streamer flies also catch fish.
• Fishing for Dolly Varden is reported as good to excellent. Try using small, bright spinners; fresh salmon eggs; or fly patterns that resemble fish, such as Muddler Minnows or salmon-egg patterns.
• Pink salmon fishing is reported as good on the south side of Kachemak Bay. Humpy Creek and the Seldovia River are popular streams for targeting pink salmon.

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 August 28 through September 3.
• All shrimp and crab fisheries in Kachemak Bay remain closed for 2015.