Ketchikan anglers can keep more kings this month, even with a slow run

Anglers fishing Ketchikan-area waters can keep more king salmon this month than they could in July, even though the Alaska Department of Fish and Game says the run itself remains slow. Effective Aug. 1, the resident daily bag limit is three king salmon over 28 inches, and the nonresident daily limit is two, with an annual limit of four fish that size.

"King salmon fishing in the Ketchikan area is slow as we move into the beginning of August," Kelly Reppert, the department's area management biologist for Ketchikan, said in the Aug. 7 fishing report.

The higher limits do not lift local closures. Special king salmon restrictions continue in multiple Ketchikan-area waters through Aug. 14, under advisory announcements that include area maps. The department directs anglers to check those before retaining a fish, since limits in Southeast Alaska are set annually by emergency order and vary by area, season and user group.

The change follows earlier adjustments this summer. Alaska News previously reported on the July 11 change that raised the nonresident daily limit in Ketchikan waters to two fish, while local restrictions and wild-stock rules stayed in effect through mid-August.

The increase sits alongside a mixed statewide picture. Fish and Game's reports elsewhere this season have described closures and reduced limits, including a one-fish Kodiak Area limit after only 93 king salmon were counted in the Karluk River, and continued closures on the Kenai River and in the Yukon River drainage. The department hasn't stated a rationale for the Aug. 1 Ketchikan increase; what the report says is that limits went up while fishing stayed slow.