Millions of anglers have heard of the world famous Kenai River and the fishing opportunities it provides. It has been featured in outdoors magazines and seen on many outdoors fishing shows over the years.
And as the current home of the all-tackle world record king salmon, its reputation for producing fish in the giant category has been extolled over and over. Tens of thousands of visiting anglers from all over the world journey to this stream each summer to try for that trophy of trophies. But few if any are aware of the odds against them landing one of these prized brutes.
Due to the river's extreme popularity and overcrowding, tight management plans have been implemented by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game to insure the survival of this largest of king salmon strains.
The Kenai River has two runs of king salmon each summer. The second run begins officially on July 1st and fish continue to migrate into the river through the middle of August. To protect the earliest arrivals during their spawning rituals Fish & Game normally closes the second run season on the 31st of July but will occasionally extend the season in the lower section of the river a few days into August by Emergency Order.
Guided anglers may only fish on Tuesday through Saturday. Unguided anglers can fish Tuesday through Sunday. New in 1999 was a regulation which allowed non-guided anglers to fish from non-motorized drift boats on Mondays in July -- a day which until now had been closed to all boat fishing on the river.
Here is the information on how well anglers in the past have done in pursuit of this noble monarch of the river.
