Kasilof River Sockeye Run Fish Counts

The Kasilof River sockeye salmon run is a single run that begins June 16 and ends around August 16. Fishing is usually pretty good right at the start of the run with around 5,000 fish arriving around June 16th. The number of arriving sockeye daily will continue to increase until around 7/21 when the run will peak for the summer.

Over the last couple of years, restrictions on the Kenai River king salmon fishery have been put in place. When Kenai River king salmon restrictions are placed on the sport fishery there are also restrictions place on the commercial fishing sockeye nets that are placed near the entrances to both the Kasilof River and Kenai River. These commercial fishing restrictions severely limit the number of days that commercial fisherman can fish for sockeye because they can inadvertently catch and kill king salmon. King salmon stocks have been in significant decline over the last several years so Alaska  Department of Fish and Game is doing everything they can to protect these fish. 

When commercial fishing nets are not in the water significantly more sockeye salmon make it into the river system. Seeing, 55,000 sockeye salmon, or more, entering the Kasilof River is incredibly high, and is the result of the lack of commercial fishing net. On years when commercial fishing nets are allowed we typically won’t see such a high number. The fishing is excellent just the same. 

begins on July 1st and continues until August 31st. There is actually an earlier run of sockeye salmon that migrate up this river but because those fish are primarily spawning at the Russian River, a tributary of the Kenai, those fish are counted as Russian River Sockeye. There is an early-run and late-run of Russian River sockeye but that fishery is detailed on a dedicated page.

Kasilof River Sockeye Salmon Fish Counts
Escapement & Daily Fish Count Averages

The graph on the left shows the escapement of the late-run Kasilof River Sockeye Salmon. The run begins June 16 and ends August 20. The Kasilof River sockeye salmon run is generally very healthy and strong, and rarely are there concerns about meeting the targeted escapement goals to sustain the fishery. In fact, in most years, folks wonder when Alaska Department of Fish and Game will liberalize the fishery and allow for sport fisherman to harvest more fish. As you can see from the graph the minimum escapement goal is usually reached around July 7th. There are so many fish coming into the river at this point that usually the optimum escapement goal is achieved just 13 days later on July 20. The minimum escapement goal is 160,000 sockeye salmon and the optimum goal is 360,000. On average, for the last 3 years, we have seen nearly 800,000 sockeye salmon making it into the river to spawn. 

If you look at the graph to right showing the daily Kasilof River sockeye salmon fish counts, you can see the sockeye really start showing up in good number around June 16th and then it just takes off for the next 6 weeks. The Kasilof River is much smaller than the Kenai River so we don’t need to see near as many fish entering the Kasilof River for the fishing to be considered excellent. The biggest trick to successfully fishing the Kasilof River is getting the timing correct. Kasilof River sockeye salmon will enter the river in large schools on the incoming tides. And, they don’t wait around long, aggressively swimming all the way to Tustamena Lake very quickly. Therefore, it’s important to get the timing right to catch them as they pass through the Kasilof River. 

The normal daily limit for Kenai River sockeye salmon is 3 per person per day.  When the run is particularly strong it’s not uncommon for Alaska Department of Fish and Game to up that limit to 6.