The Alaska Department of Fish and Game opened the Fishing Hole to snagging Wednesday at noon. Snagging will be allowed until 11:59 p.m. on July 6. All other regulations are in effect, including the daily bag limit of two kings of any size. Salmon 20 inches or longer must be recorded in ink on the back of the license or on a harvest record card.
It took eight weeks to find them, but last weekend two lucky anglers landed the first tagged fish of the 2003 Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby. Michael Wilson of Wasilla landed a $1,000 fish on June 21, and Joseph Kriebs of Carthage, Mo., caught a halibut worth $500 the next day.
Edgar Rhyan of Columbus, Ohio, leads both the June and overall standings with a 256.8-pound fish landed on June 22. Halibut fishing out of Homer has been good-to-excellent throughout the week with plenty of 35- to 40-pounders caught.
On June 21 the Department of Fish and Game issued an emergency order opening the Russian River Sanctuary area to red salmon sport fishing. Anglers are reporting a few fish heading up the Russian River, but are having better success in the sanctuary itself.
The Division of Sport Fish has been tagging sockeyes incidentally caught in the king salmon test nets to determine how long it takes the fish to make the journey from the lower Kenai to the Russian.
Anglers can retain the fish, tagged with a pink "spaghetti" tag near the dorsal fin, as part of their regular bag limit. But the division would like anglers to send the tag number, date of capture and specific location of capture to Mary King, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 43961 Kalifornsky Beach Rd., Ste B, Soldotna, Alaska 99669.
The Anchor River and Deep Creek will open to sport fishing for Dolly Varden and species other than king salmon on July 1. Rainbows and steelhead are catch and release only and can not be removed from the water.
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