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The 2009 fishing season on the Kenai Peninsula began a lot like our 2008 season did with
cooler temperatures delaying the enter pattern for both salmon and halibut. Most of the
Peninsula's king runs appears to be about a week behind their normal patterns. As of May 30th,
runs are starting to slowly return somewhat to their normal patterns. The Kenai River has
experienced lower than normal king returns up to May 28th, then it began to see about
200 - 300 fish per day. Both the Anchor and Kasilof Rivers also had a slow king start but appear
to be now headed towards following their normal run patterns.
Cook Inlet saltwater fishing was pretty slow in early May but is starting to spool up as trolling
for kings in near-shore fisheries has improve greatly. There were some really good bites near
Bluff Point and north to Anchor Point. We have seen many 30 - 40 pound kings being taken close to
Homer with smaller feed kings being taken in waters north of Homer. Many saltwater king anglers
are seeing lots of action between 20 - 30 feet of water, using herring with flashers and lead.
Halibut fishing got a slow start like everything else but is now accelerating quickly as many
40 - 100 pounders have been landed near the tail of May. It seemed to take the larger halibut a
long time to finally arrive this year and they also appear to be hanging near the shore rather than
forcing anglers to run all over Cook Inlet.
In short, fishing within both fresh and salt water fisheries has rapidly improved. ADF&G freshwater
sonar counts have jumped from just a few dozen per day, to hundreds per day on the Kenai River
as the river approaches its mid-June peak on its first run of kings.
Saltwater catches have also jumped greatly as less extreme tides have greatly improved catches
in late May.
As of May 30th, 2009 we are showing an entry of about 2-300 kings per day totaling
in about 1,275 kings so far entering the Kenai River.

Date	Count	Cumulative	Notes
May-29	353	1,275
May-28	272	922
May-27	140	650
May-26	72	510
May-25	45	438
May-24	36	393
May-23	45	357
May-22	21	312
May-21	57	291
May-20	72	234
May-19	39	162
May-18	39	123
May-17	15	84
May-16	69	69	First day of counts