Friday, June 09, 2006
Kenai becomes a combat zone
Open season starts Sunday at Peninsula fishing mecca
By KEVIN KLOTTAnchorage Daily NewsPublished: June 8, 2006 Last Modified: June 8, 2006 at 03:27 AM
RUSSIAN RIVER FERRY -- On the Sterling Highway beside the granite-green Kenai River, parades of giant recreational vehicles rolled on Tuesday.
Very few pulled into Sportsman's Landing. The huge parking lot sat practically vacant and eerily quiet. Instead of a rumble of humanity, there was the gurgling of the river and an occasional squeak from the new staircases running up from the gravel bank on the far side of the fast-flowing Kenai.
The empty peacefulness won't last long.
Two of Alaska's most popular rivers -- the Kenai and the Russian -- open here Sunday at 12:01 a.m. for reds, rainbow trout and Dolly Varden.
The Russian River fly-fishing only area, which comprises the Russian River and the waters of the Kenai for about a mile downstream from the confluence, has long defined combat fishing on the Last Frontier.
This is the most intense red salmon sport fishery in the state, accounting for a harvest of 50,000 to 200,000 reds each season. Last year's total count for early reds was 52,903.In recent years, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has recorded an average of 275,000 angler-days of participation. An angler-day is one angler fishing for one day.
Squeeze all of these anglers into a three-month season, and it's clear why people are often packed shoulder to shoulder along the river.
On Tuesday afternoon, employees at the Russian River Ferry were readying for the invasion."This is definitely the calm before the storm," said 29-year-old Dewayne Holt.
A resident of Tampa, Fla., he has spent five Alaska summers taxiing anglers across the Kenai from the highway to the side of the river where the clear flow of the Russian enters.
He spent part of his day walking along the clear waters of the Russian upstream from where the ferry lands, searching for reds and rainbows with fellow employees.
"There's nothing thick yet," Holt said. "Saw a couple pods of reds swimming past the ferry."Holt didn't expect next week's red fishing to be hot, but he thought competent anglers should be able to bring home a fish or two. The limit is three per day and three in possession.
Anglers heading across the river to pursue those fish will find a big surprise this year -- what looks like an industrial fishing park.
Across the river from the ferry landing parking lot, the Kenai River Sportfishing Association has constructed 10 metal staircases -- bounded by mesh, flourescent-orange fencing -- to control river access.
The staircases scatter along the southern bank for about 300 yards from the ferry to the Russian River mouth.
Between the staircases, volunteers have planted hundreds of willows and alders to keep the rocky and sandy banks from eroding and are spending two hours a day pumping water from the river to water them.
Considering the plants are in their sapling stage, they need protection."It's ugly," said George Pappas, a management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on the Upper Kenai Peninsula. "But the change should help restore the Kenai and Russian environments."
The project cost nearly $500,000, according to Kenai Sportfishing executive director Ricky Gease.
Another $500,000 is planned for restoring and building fishing-access and fish-cleaning stations along Kenai River shorelines that get hit hard by anglers each year.
The funding came from the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, a federal grant that was established in 2000 to assist five Pacific Coast states and two Native American tribes with salmon conservation and recovery efforts.
This year, Congress distributed $23.7 million to Alaska. The only state which received more was Washington, which got $24.6 million.
The grant to protect Alaska's waterways increased by $3.1 million this year, while Washington, California, Oregon and Idaho, and Pacific Coastal and Columbia River tribes funding dropped by an average of about $500,000, according to the recovery fund Web site.
"We're hoping to continue the projects for years to come," Gease said.The first step, he said, is to "encourage people to use the staircases."
Before the metal staircases were installed, anglers were free to roam anywhere on the riverbank, and they did. As they scrambled up steep banks to get around each other, rocks and sand were pushed downhill into the river.
An angler's footprint may not seem like it could do much harm, but when the river has many anglers, even the erosion caused by feet can get out of hand.
"In the long run, the staircases will benefit the river as long as people don't abuse it," Holt said. "It's a busy place."
He's not just talking about people, either.
Wildlife -- moose and bears -- frequent the area. So the Kenai River Sportfishing Association made sure to put gaps in the staircase railings and fencing to allow wildlife river access.
The 5- to 15-foot clearance between the water and new fencing doesn't leave much room for anglers seeking fish to move up and down the bank.
They're probably going to have to go up the stairs and use the boardwalk to get around until the water level drops to expose more river bottom.
"There's not a lot of room, so people should be on their best fishing-etiquette behavior," Holt said.
Open season starts Sunday at Peninsula fishing mecca
By KEVIN KLOTTAnchorage Daily NewsPublished: June 8, 2006 Last Modified: June 8, 2006 at 03:27 AM
RUSSIAN RIVER FERRY -- On the Sterling Highway beside the granite-green Kenai River, parades of giant recreational vehicles rolled on Tuesday.
Very few pulled into Sportsman's Landing. The huge parking lot sat practically vacant and eerily quiet. Instead of a rumble of humanity, there was the gurgling of the river and an occasional squeak from the new staircases running up from the gravel bank on the far side of the fast-flowing Kenai.
The empty peacefulness won't last long.
Two of Alaska's most popular rivers -- the Kenai and the Russian -- open here Sunday at 12:01 a.m. for reds, rainbow trout and Dolly Varden.
The Russian River fly-fishing only area, which comprises the Russian River and the waters of the Kenai for about a mile downstream from the confluence, has long defined combat fishing on the Last Frontier.
This is the most intense red salmon sport fishery in the state, accounting for a harvest of 50,000 to 200,000 reds each season. Last year's total count for early reds was 52,903.In recent years, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has recorded an average of 275,000 angler-days of participation. An angler-day is one angler fishing for one day.
Squeeze all of these anglers into a three-month season, and it's clear why people are often packed shoulder to shoulder along the river.
On Tuesday afternoon, employees at the Russian River Ferry were readying for the invasion."This is definitely the calm before the storm," said 29-year-old Dewayne Holt.
A resident of Tampa, Fla., he has spent five Alaska summers taxiing anglers across the Kenai from the highway to the side of the river where the clear flow of the Russian enters.
He spent part of his day walking along the clear waters of the Russian upstream from where the ferry lands, searching for reds and rainbows with fellow employees.
"There's nothing thick yet," Holt said. "Saw a couple pods of reds swimming past the ferry."Holt didn't expect next week's red fishing to be hot, but he thought competent anglers should be able to bring home a fish or two. The limit is three per day and three in possession.
Anglers heading across the river to pursue those fish will find a big surprise this year -- what looks like an industrial fishing park.
Across the river from the ferry landing parking lot, the Kenai River Sportfishing Association has constructed 10 metal staircases -- bounded by mesh, flourescent-orange fencing -- to control river access.
The staircases scatter along the southern bank for about 300 yards from the ferry to the Russian River mouth.
Between the staircases, volunteers have planted hundreds of willows and alders to keep the rocky and sandy banks from eroding and are spending two hours a day pumping water from the river to water them.
Considering the plants are in their sapling stage, they need protection."It's ugly," said George Pappas, a management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on the Upper Kenai Peninsula. "But the change should help restore the Kenai and Russian environments."
The project cost nearly $500,000, according to Kenai Sportfishing executive director Ricky Gease.
Another $500,000 is planned for restoring and building fishing-access and fish-cleaning stations along Kenai River shorelines that get hit hard by anglers each year.
The funding came from the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, a federal grant that was established in 2000 to assist five Pacific Coast states and two Native American tribes with salmon conservation and recovery efforts.
This year, Congress distributed $23.7 million to Alaska. The only state which received more was Washington, which got $24.6 million.
The grant to protect Alaska's waterways increased by $3.1 million this year, while Washington, California, Oregon and Idaho, and Pacific Coastal and Columbia River tribes funding dropped by an average of about $500,000, according to the recovery fund Web site.
"We're hoping to continue the projects for years to come," Gease said.The first step, he said, is to "encourage people to use the staircases."
Before the metal staircases were installed, anglers were free to roam anywhere on the riverbank, and they did. As they scrambled up steep banks to get around each other, rocks and sand were pushed downhill into the river.
An angler's footprint may not seem like it could do much harm, but when the river has many anglers, even the erosion caused by feet can get out of hand.
"In the long run, the staircases will benefit the river as long as people don't abuse it," Holt said. "It's a busy place."
He's not just talking about people, either.
Wildlife -- moose and bears -- frequent the area. So the Kenai River Sportfishing Association made sure to put gaps in the staircase railings and fencing to allow wildlife river access.
The 5- to 15-foot clearance between the water and new fencing doesn't leave much room for anglers seeking fish to move up and down the bank.
They're probably going to have to go up the stairs and use the boardwalk to get around until the water level drops to expose more river bottom.
"There's not a lot of room, so people should be on their best fishing-etiquette behavior," Holt said.
# posted by Pat : 9:29 AM
