Troopers cite three anglers for keeping snagged sockeye on the Kenai

Four sockeye salmon were seized from three anglers on the Kenai River in a five-day stretch in late July, each taken after Alaska Wildlife Troopers determined the fish had been snagged and not released. All four went to charity. The Department of Public Safety posted the three dispatches Saturday, about two weeks after the citations were written.

The first citation went to a 69-year-old Arizona man on July 22; one sockeye was seized. A 62-year-old Anchorage man was cited July 25, also for one fish. A 42-year-old Anchorage man was cited July 26 after two sockeye were seized. All three were charged with failing to release a snagged fish in freshwater. Under Alaska law the charges are accusations, and each man is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

"Snagging or trying to snag a fish is illegal in all fresh waters of Alaska," the Alaska Department of Fish and Game says in its Kenai River guidance. A fish hooked anywhere other than the mouth has to go back, whether or not the angler meant to foul-hook it. Some anglers see that rule as hard to apply in practice, arguing that accidental foul-hooking happens in fast-changing river conditions and that an honest attempt to release a fish can be difficult to judge in the field. The citations came from Alaska Wildlife Troopers, not Fish and Game, and the dispatches do not describe what troopers observed in each case beyond the finding that the fish had been snagged and kept.

These are not the season's first. Alaska News previously covered troopers citing four anglers on the Kenai in one morning, three of them for keeping snagged sockeye at Bings Landing, and a separate day in which at least 12 dipnetters were cited.

Fish and Game's July 24 inseason assessment put the late-run Kenai sockeye count at 967,000 fish and projected a total run of 3.0 million, below the preseason forecast of 4.5 million fish.