t in 2004, reported harvests indicated 791 hatchery-produced kings and 714 wild kings were kept, while in 2005, it was 741 hatchery-produced fish to 862 wild fish. And by mid-July this year it was 458 hatchery-produced and 941 wild fish.
Breakfield was quick to point out, though, that these numbers are for fish recorded during Fish and Game creel surveys which only take place five days a week, and not the full 24 hours a day that anglers are allowed to fish. He said the final estimate for how many fish are caught “is definitely higher.”
While exceeding the upper-end escapement for Crooked Creek isn’t desired, people reaping the benefits from this fishery’s enhancement is one of the facility’s goals, according to Breakfield.
“We try to help the wild fish by enhancing the sport fishery with hatchery fish. This way people get to keep fish, but wild fish also make it to escapement,” he said.
Breakfield said that this enhancement work is also the reason the Kasilof River can be fished 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“If it wasn’t enhanced people would likely only be able to fish one or two days a week,” he said.
Breakfield said this 24-7 fishing on the Kasilof River also reduces pressure on nearby waterways that have smaller wild runs, such as the Ninilchik River, Deep Creek and the Anchor River.
While sportsfishermen receive most of the dividends from this Crooked Creek fishery enhancement, they do provide some of the investment for it. It costs roughly $121,700 annually to operate the Crooked Creek facility and this money comes from a combination of federal funding and state funding generated from sportfishing license fees, Breakfield said.
However, this still doesn’t get successful anglers out of that cup of coffee.
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