newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — The Copper River is dropping and dip netting at Chitina is picking up, at least that was the latest report on charter operator Mark Hem’s hotline Wednesday morning.

“Fishing did pick up (Tuesday) afternoon and should be fair to good through Friday at least,” Hem reported.

Dip netting last weekend and on Monday was reported to be very slow.

The number of fish counted past the sonar at Miles Lake is has dropped to about 4,000 - 5,000 a day and the total count for the season through Tuesday is 363,000, which is about 31,000 below preseason projections.

There will be no commercial fishing in Cordova until the sonar passage number matches the preseason projections, Mark Somerville at the Department of Fish and Game in Glennallen said.

Dip netting at Chitina should remain open continuously through July 6 but after that the openings will depend on sonar numbers. There’s a good chance dip-netters will see some closures in the weeks from July 7 through July 27.

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King salmon fishing in the Gulkana River was “hot” earlier this week but the river came up and fishing cooled down when the lower river muddied up, Somerville reported.

The Gulkana king run seems to be holding its own. About 800 kings have been counted at a counting tower 7 miles above the Sourdough boat launch.

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Guides are hooking kings in the Klutina River and anglers are catching reds on the river bank in Copper Center, reports Dianne Nickel at Klutina Salmon Charters.

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Lake trout fishing at the mouth of Gunn Creek on Summit Lake is reported to be excellent, as there is a phenomenal crop of salmon smolt pouring out of the lake, Somerville said.

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No 200-pound halibut hit the scales in Valdez during the past week. The biggest halibut entered during the past week was a 177.7-pound flatfish caught by Robert Pfeil, a 15-year-old from Florida who was fishing with Dave Wiley aboard the Dan Orion.

Most halibut charters were grounded by weather when a storm blew into Valdez on Wednesday but things should clear up by the weekend.

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Pink salmon should be showing up in Valdez in the next week.

There is a “huge plug” of pink salmon in Jack’s Bay, about 10 miles out of Valdez, reported a source at Fish Central, a charter booking agent in Valdez.

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The Deshka River has been closed to all king salmon fishing in the Matanuska-Susitina Valley and fish managers are contemplating restrictions on other Valley king fisheries due to weak returns of fish, according to Dave Rutz at the Department of Fish and Game in Palmer.

The department has been fielding lots of complaints about poor fishing in other tributaries of the Susitna River, such as Lake Creek and the Talachulitna.

King fishing in the Little Susitna River “is plugging along,” Rutz said. Fishing for kings in the Parks Highway streams has also been OK at hot spots like Montana Creek and Willow Creek.

“This upcoming weekend is supposed to be the real big weekend,” Rutz said. “We’ll see what happens.”

If fishing in the Parks Highway streams falls flat, there could be a chance those weekend fisheries will be closed next weekend, warned Rutz.

The best king fishing in the Valley may be at the Eklutna Tailrace south of Palmer, he said.

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The Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby finally saw its first 200-pound halibut of the summer.

Pat Clark of Tacoma, Wash., caught a 251.0-pound halibut on June 19 fishing with Capt. Rick Zielinski of Halibut King Adventures to move atop the Homer leader board. It’s the first 200-pound fish weighed in this year, though there was a report of a 295-pounder caught earlier by someone without a derby ticket.

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There are enough red salmon in the Russian River that the Department of Fish and Game opened the sanctuary area to fishing as this morning. Fishing for reds in the Russian has slowed but it’s still decent, reported Robert Begich with the Department of Fish and Game in Soldotna. The latest creel census revealed that it was taking anglers about eight hours to catch their three-fish limits. About 10,200 fish have passed through a weir and Begich said the run will meet the minimum escapement objective of 13,000 fish so the sanctuary area is now open. There are also reds being caught in the upper Kenai, he said.

King salmon fishing in the Kenai River, meanwhile, is holding up and should remain good through the close of the season on June 30, Begich said. There aren’t a lot of fish entering the river — a couple hundred a day — but catch rates have been good.

Anglers are still catching kings in the Kasilof River, too.