Alaska fishing

Anyone fishing Whiskey Gulch yet. I am going to try to get my kayak down there next weekend. Should be some halibut interested in herring. And the weather will be warmer and less windy.

Hey Badger68, you might want to check the tides. We have some of the biggest tides of the year during this month's flood tides. Thursday through Sunday the tides are going to be in the minus 5.0+ foot range for those days so the water exchange will be covering up to a 27 foot drop from top to bottom. Take that into consideration if you do launch this week.

The weather is definitely predicted to be sunny and in the lower 60's for much of the Kenai Peninsula.

I did not calculate in Mother's Day. So I will wait until next week. I am thinking that the Kings do not start in until more the end of the month?

The feeder kings are present year 'round but haven't been on the bite lately from a few of my sport boat friends and one charter boat friend's reports. And halibut seem to be scarce right now too.  It looks like it may be one of those years when the below normal winter temps and excessive ice in the Inlet has created a cold water spring. This quite often slows down the movement of halibut from the open ocean into Cook Inlet and affects the salmon migrations by a week or longer too.

For the migrating/spawner kings, the first to show are those heading into the Anchor River right about now for the first scouts. For Deep, Ninilchik, Kasilof and Kenai kings the timing is a bit later. The closer to Memorial Day you get the better the saltwater fishing as there is a mix of many runs moving through the same area by then. I will say that my earliest documented Kenai king caught was April 29th one year by a drift boat angler with ice blocks still on the riverbank. Usually after May 15 there is trickle into Kasilof and Kenai that the early bird anglers will target in the streams.

However there are a few bright spots at this time. A friend was out of Homer with 3 buddies fishing halibut Monday and out off of Seldovia they said there were very good numbers of two different species of whales feeding all around them indicating a good presence of forage fish moving into Cook Inlet. And the largest whale put on a good show of breaching just a quarter mile from them. BTW, they fished the entire day and brought back one 25 pound halibut for the group and only a couple missed takedowns.

The other bright spot was Tuesday that same friend was in Kasilof helping a friend on his greenhouse and they decided to go down to the mouth of the Kasilof River and fish for halibut from the beach, which is getting quite popular especially with our pandemic hunker down and be safe directives. The Fish Cops had been down on the beach apparently on Monday to check licenses and witnessed six people fishing and 3 halibut on the beach.  On the Tuesday when my buddy was fishing, the Fish Cops were again checking the 25 people that were scattered along the beach fishing the incoming tide. At that time there were six halibut to 25 pounds on the beach. (There actually is a hooligan run in the Kasilof River that very few people know exist. Opps.)

So there are halibut targeting the near shore migration of hooligan and herring up the Inlet. And for a few lucky beach anglers they are putting some fish on the table. When you are fishing this early in the season staying in the nearshore zone should provide opportunities for both halibut and kings without having to venture farther out into deep water.  Good Luck.