A busy week on the Kenai brings a run of fishing citations

The Kenai's salmon frenzy is drawing crowds — and along with them, a run of citations for anglers on the wrong side of the rules. Alaska Wildlife Troopers wrote up four people in a single morning this week at two of the river's busiest spots.

At Bings Landing in Sterling, a citizen tip led troopers to three out-of-state visitors who had each kept two snagged sockeye without releasing them — anglers from California and Georgia, cited over fish that regulations required them to let go. The six seized salmon were donated to a local charity.

Down at the mouth of the Kenai, another tip brought troopers to an Anchorage woman dipnetting two days before the July 10 opener — fishing a closed period in a fishery that hadn't started yet. She was cited as well. The Kenai's personal-use dipnet fishery is open only to Alaska residents and draws thousands of people from Anchorage and the Mat-Su each July, enough that the city says it strains local services and public safety all season.

The common thread is timing and rules that shift fast. Alaska's salmon regulations trip up visitors and residents alike, and emergency orders can change a published season on short notice — which is why the state's standing advice is to check the current rules and any orders before stepping in the water. All four anglers are presumed innocent.