Ninilchik River Provides Good Early Season King Salmon Action!

Alaska Outdoor Journal's Photo of the Day!

Memories from Memorial Day Weekend

One of the earliest king salmon fisheries in Southcentral Alaska occurs on the Kenai Peninsula where mature migrating kings can be taken just north of Homer in early April in the saltwater. From that time on, more and more chinook move into Cook Inlet with a large number congregating along the Kenai Peninsula beaches where they stage and eventually move into their natal streams.

The Kenai and Kasilof rivers have the first open season on kings where fish may be taken in early May. Then the lower Kenai Peninsula streams of Anchor River, Deep Creek, and Ninilchik River will open beginning on Memorial Weekend for a series of 3 day weekend openings for their king salmon runs. This is really the first genuine opportunity for families to get out for camping and over-nighters with pleasant temperatures.

Many groups of friends and families gather at these 3 lower Peninsula streams on Memorial Weekend as a tradition to kick off Alaska's summer and fishing season. Here Jon and Andy pose with their grand opening twins, a couple of Ninilchik River king salmon taken early in the morning of the first day. For these streams the weekend opening begins at midnight on Friday night and extends to midnight Monday. Despite the seemingly dark fishing conditions, the streams are usually packed with anglers in every location, poised for that first cast at the stroke of midnight.

The gals in the inset are the wives of this group of anglers who are in the process of toasting (with fresh strawberries and ???) the kickoff to the season just 30 minutes from when this photo was taken while the guys frantically assemble enough gear to hold them over until at least sun up. Sundown (in the background) occurred at 11:10pm on Memorial Weekend, so you can see this is around 11:30pm and just minutes from the starting gun. So fishing actually begins in fairly decent twillight with sunrise arriving at 4:56am. If the skies are clear like that weekend, it really doesn't get completely dark and some twillight is visible.

The first two weekends in June are the remaining open days of the season for Deep Creek and Ninilchik River while the Anchor River has a larger and longer run which allows the season on that stream to remain open for each 3 day weekend during the entire month of June.

Photo Courtesy of Jon Arend Š2000

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