The Kenai coho limit stayed at two when it was supposed to go to three

Kenai River anglers can keep two coho a day this weekend, not the three the regulations had scheduled. Fish and Game is holding the limit at two through Nov. 30.

Under the 2026 Southcentral regulations, the limit was set to rise on Sept. 1 to three per day and three in possession and stay there through November. An emergency order overrode that and kept the two-fish limit for the rest of the coho season. It applies to coho 16 inches or larger in the flowing waters of the Kenai, not its tributaries.

The department calls the move precautionary. It cites below-average coho abundance in Cook Inlet and limited escapement monitoring, the counts that track how many fish reach spawning grounds, which leaves this year's run strength uncertain. Large producing streams in Northern Cook Inlet look weak, the order says, while smaller systems including Jim Creek, Ship Creek, Fish Creek and the Anchor River are performing well.

The fishing itself is good. Cook Inlet Management Coordinator Patrick Fowler, who signed the order, wrote Thursday that the Kenai "is still producing limits early in the morning and late in the evening," on spoons, spinners, back-trolled plugs and twitching marabou jigs.

One rule catches people out: a coho 16 inches or longer that comes out of the water has to be kept, and counts against the bag limit of whoever hooked it. Lifting one that size and releasing it is not allowed.

Coho fishing runs to Bing's Landing through Nov. 30, and above Bing's to the Kenai Lake outlet through Oct. 31. Quartz Creek above the Sterling Highway bridge and Hidden Lake both close to sport fishing on Sept. 15. Kenai king salmon fishing has been closed by emergency order for the entire 2026 season.