I started a thread on another forum proposing a 44-55" nonretention slot for Kenai River kings river-wide and all season long.

LINK: all-season slot

Without belaboring this board with a lot of data for the rationale behind such a proposal, I just wanted to get a general feel for how well this would be received by Outside anglers who have either fished or are planning to fish for Kenai kings. How would such a rule change your travel plans?

My thoughts would be, in the short term atleast, why would we need that in July with large numbers that are returning each year still. This past year was exceptional, and as you know, if a slot lilmit was instituted and the numbers grew even more, they would simply let the commercials have at it more up there. Those emergency openers can wipe out years worth of conservation and they are under huge pressure to open as much as possible. I don't see the need currently, unless the late run starts to go the way of the early run. I would want some more proof that that is happening because it isn't obvious to me.

Having fished the Kenai 18 trips over the past 29 years I have a reasonable perspective on the fishery. Today it is no where near the fishery it was when I first started there. There is too much pressure being put on the resource by all user groups. Face it the fishery is a cash cow to the entire penisula. There will be great resistance to change due to $$$$. What we have to avoid is getting to the position of having to save the last fish. Those of us who have seen the reduction in size and available numbers of Puget Sound Chinook know first hand what can happen to any fishery. Sport fishers alone cannot be made to bear the brunt of reductions in opportunity. Commercial interests also need to feel the restrictions. Emergency commercial fishing openers do nothing but create mistrust in the rod and reel community. The fishery managers need to understand that there is no harm in letting extra native fish spawn. We ALLl need to shift our focus from the short term to the long term. Fish first!!!

I would also like to know well in advance if they plan on these slot limits. It seems to me alot of the changes they have made the last couple years are directed at the very people bringing revenue to the area. Not that I need to keep every fish I hook up there to fill my freezer but, when the commercials get an inappropriate proportion due to unfounded science and I just spent a couple thousand dollars to add to local revenues it would be nice to know in advance of making reservations. I just want the option of catching or releasing. Like predator dawg eluded to, last year was exceptional late run. First drift with two of us, two take downs. I landed my fish at 36# which I kept , knowing this is not a big fish by Kenai standards but, still a nice fish, I was not going to throw it back. My friend hooked his fish which immediately took off upstream and after lenghthy battle lost it. We picked up the other two members of our party and continued to hook fish almost every drift all day long(over twenty hookups). Eventhough nobody else landed a fish it's nice to have the option of keeping your catch.

Predator Dawg

I suspected I might get a double take
on why this should even happen.

Please click on the link in my last post to find out the latest perspective on why I am floating a July slot. Hint: Late run kings are not the conservation issue being addressed. Nonetheless, if a July slot passes, it would also serve as a beneficial pro-active step to ensure we will never have to restore a depleted late run.

The intent of my original post is to see how such a measure would change the behavior of non-resident anglers. Maybe I should have posted it as a poll.... would you choose not to come to Alaska, would you pick another river to fish, would you come at a different time, would you come just the same satisfied in knowing you would still have the privilege of doing battle with the planet's largest race of chinook?

Bottom line, is killing a big fish on the Kenai the final commom denominator that makes fishing this river "worth it"?

Hooray! I've finally graduated from in-river juvenile to SMOLT on this board.

Physician: I like your Moniker and certainly like your topics. I'm a long-time Kenai angler and I take its issues seriously and am very provincial when it comes to the river. I'm not a resident, not because I don't want to brave a winter there, it's just that my family no longer lives there, and I like it so much here in Seattle. I go to the river, not to kill a 60 pounder, but to enjoy all of the other fishing opportunities that get ignored by jackass Texan tourists. It's almost like the tourism disgusts me so much, even though I'm a tourist, that I can't bare to be a part of it. How this relates to your question is this. I support anything the fishery dept. does to protect fish, especially there. If it hurts tourism, then so-be-it and hallelluya (sp?) If it ends up benefiting the comercial fisherman, then so be it too. Those hardworking fishermen deserve it much more than Harry Gaines and Coca Cola. Picture 8 50-60 lb. fish before 10:00 a.m. That's the way it used to be

Alright Phd, you got me. I didn't bother to read your data to fully understand your point. Not sure how I feel about it still, simply because a late slot would still create greater escapement which would create more openers for the commercials. It may also create more big fish escapement which may gradually increase the average size swimming in the river, although the AK bio's state that a 30 lb adult Kenai King has the same chance of throwing an 80 lb offspring as does an 80 lb adult, so who truely knows...

To answer your poll question ideas, it is fairly easy for me. I fished it for a week this year, caught numerous large fish and left without ever bonking one. My cooler was full of sockeye. I really didn't feel the need to take one of those big beauties out of there this year. I really never go there to bonk a king although I have done it, I go there for the chance at a big fish to fight and take pictures of, and if it is reallllllly big, I will have an artificial mount made of it. Haven't landed that fish yet. So, even with a limit, I would probably be more apt to go there since there would most likely be less pressure on the river and better fishing because of it.