A sockeye salmon jumps from the water, Friday, July 5, 2002, while trying to navigate the Russian River Falls near Cooper Landing, Alaska. The surging water is one of the last hurdles the fish has to clear before it spawns and dies. An orange fishing lure in its mouth hints at a previous close call. Anchorage Daily News archive 2002

By MIKE CAMPBELL, mcampbell@adn.com 
Published: August 11th, 2010 01:39 AM The worst return of red salmon to the Russian River in 33 years has convinced Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists to shutter the popular sport fishery the rest of the season and try to unravel how one of Alaska’s most consistent fisheries suddenly went belly up. As of Monday, just 15,519 reds have been counted swimming past the fish-counting weir below Lower Russian Lake. So, beginning Thursday morning, all red salmon fishing in the river as well as the fly-fishing only area in the Kenai River at the confluence will be closed to all fishing, including catch and release. Unless a surge of salmon appears in the final days of the fishery, this year’s return will be the worst since 13,926 fish came back in 1977. “It’s been a ghost town,” said guide Fred Telleem of Mystic River Fly Fishing in Cooper Landing. “There hasn’t been anybody in Cooper Landing since the first run.” Each year, the Russian sees two red runs — an early one that ends July 14 and the typically larger late run that can see as many as 157,000 fish pass the weir. Just last year, when 80,000 reds returned, there were 31 days when at least 1,000 fish moved upstream. This year there have been two. “It’s surprising based on the number of sockeye passing through the (Kenai River) sonar,” said Fish and Game area management biologist Robert Begich. “Generally when we get this many sockeye in the drainage, we have no problem achieving the Russian (escapement) goal. “We’ve had weak, weak production for whatever reason. We just don’t know.” …

Russian River fishery closed for season over weak red return