Chinook Salmon Creel Survey And Inriver Gillnetting Study Lower Kenai River Alaska 2016 PDF Download

Sport-angler effort, catch, and harvest of late-run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) were estimated from a creel survey conducted on the lower Kenai River in 2016. The Chinook salmon sport fishery was closed to fishing 1 May–3 June, and harvest 4–17 June. During the early run, anglers caught 384 (SE = 106) and harvested 112 (SE = 43) Chinook salmon with 8,599 (SE = 917) angler-hours of effort. Approximately 88% of early-run Chinook salmon were harvested upstream of the river mile (RM) 13.7 sonar site. Only 5 early-run Chinook salmon were sampled by the creel survey, and the sample size goal (49) was not met for estimating the age composition of the early-run sport harvest. During the late run, anglers caught 7,813 (SE = 720) and harvested 6,181 (SE = 650) Chinook salmon with 113,981 (SE = 3,916) angler-hours of effort. Approximately 60% of the late-run harvest occurred downstream of the RM 13.7 sonar. The age composition of harvested late-run Chinook salmon was 0.5% age-0.2, 1.6% age-1.1, 19.0% age-1.2, 50.8% age-1.3, 25.9% age-1.4, and 2.1% age-1.5 fish. A standardized gillnetting program at RM 8.6 was conducted 16 May–20 August. During the early run, 177 Chinook salmon, 805 sockeye salmon, and 2 Dolly Varden were captured in gillnets (midriver and nearshore combined). The estimated age composition of early-run Chinook salmon captured in gillnets was 4.9% age-1.1, 26.6% age-1.2, 48.3% age-1.3, 19.6% age-1.4, and 0.7% age-1.5 fish. During the late run, 304 Chinook salmon, 2,761 sockeye salmon, 208 coho salmon, and 930 pink salmon, 7 Dolly Varden, and 2 rainbow trout were captured in gillnets. The estimated age composition of late-run Chinook salmon captured in gillnets was 0.4% age-1.1, 16.3% age-1.2, 42.6% age-1.3, 36.8% age-1.4, and 3.9% age-1.5 fish. During both runs, midriver Chinook salmon captures were on average larger and older than nearshore captures