Public Radio for Alaska's Bristol Bay
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 10, 2021

Steve Hoffman

The Nushagak continues to cool off: yesterday the fleet hauled in less than a million fish for the second day in a row. Things are picking up on the East Side where fleets in the Naknek-Kvichak District nearly doubled their catch yesterday. The Ugashik District passed the one-million mark for their total season catch.

The Numbers

The bay-wide run continues to barrel ahead at 41.8 million fish, and an estimated 730,000 fish are swimming up the plentiful rivers around the bay. 

Yesterday’s catch was up again as fishermen hauled in 2.2 million fish. The total catch is now around 25 million. Escapement yesterday kept steady as 1.6 million fish swam up river. Total escapement this season is now 16 million. 

The total run for the bay is now 41.8 million. 

Nushagak District

The Nushagak District saw another below-million harvest yesterday. The fleet caught another 830,000 fish. But, the average drift delivery increased with 1,393 sockeye. The Nushagak’s total harvest is now 14.4 million. 

Drifters have caught around 83% of that cumulative harvest, while Nushagak set netters have totaled 11% and Igushik set netters have hauled in just over 2%.

Yesterday, 388,634 fish escaped in rivers across the district, for a cumulative escapement of 8 million.

The district’s total run is now at 22.4 million fish. 

Let’s take a look at how that plays out in each river.

Nushagak River

Sockeye continue at a steady rate up the Nushagak River -- escapement was 152,000  [152,042] yesterday. The Nushagak’s sockeye escapement is now almost 4.2 million. 

The Chinook saw a slight comeback yesterday. Nearly 1,889 kings escaped up river, bringing the season’s total escapement to 47,159.

The chum run nearly doubled yesterday when nearly 12,936 fish swam up river, bringing the chum sum to just over 101,859.

Wood River

The Wood River’s salmon run saw a small drop with just over 190,566 yesterday, and another 29,988. The Wood River’s total escapement is at 3.4 million. 

Igushik River

The Igushik River’s run remains steady — 46,026 fish swam past the counting tower yesterday, and another 6,150 passed as of 6 a.m. today. The total escapement on the Igushik is just over 501,882.

Togiak

Togiak’s daily haul was on par with previous days with 15,000 for the second day in a row, bringing the total catch to almost 99,020. The drift fleet hauled in an average of 316 sockeye per delivery yesterday. 

Looking at counts from the Togiak River tower, 5,436 fish escaped yesterday, and another 376 escaped this morning. So far, 26,392 fish have escaped to the spawning grounds there.

Togiak’s total run is at 125,036.

Naknek-Kvichak

Fishermen in the Naknek-Kvichak hauled in nearly double yesterday with 811,000 fish. The average drift delivery was up quite a bit with 1,358 sockeye. The district’s harvest total is now at 4.2 million. 

Of that total catch, drifters hauled in around 66%, while Naknek set netters caught just over 17% and Kvichak set netters harvested 16%.

A little over 1 million fish swam up rivers in that district yesterday bringing the total escapement for the Naknek-Kvichak to 6.5 million. 

The total run there jumped to 11.3 million. 

Naknek River

The Naknek River tower was down a bit with 99,570 fish swimming up river, bringing the total escapement to almost 1.98 million. 

Kvichak River

The Kvichak was the big winner in the district once again yesterday as 571,104 fish swam up river. That river’s total escapement is at 2.8 million. 

The in-river estimate stayed the same -- with around 600,000 fish swimming up the Kvichak. 

Alagnak River

398,220 fish escaped up the Alagnak River, bringing the total escapement there to 1.7 million. 

Egegik 

The Egegik fleet hauled in 322,000 fish yesterday, similar to the previous day --- which brings that season total to nearly 5.27 million.  The average drift delivery was 772 sockeye. 

Egegik’s drift fleet has harvested around 83% of the district’s cumulative catch, and set netters have pulled in just above 17%.

Escapement up the Egegik went down somewhat to 114,366 yesterday, bringing that total to 1.4 million spawning salmon. 

The in-river estimate is 80,000 fish, and the total run for the district is now 6.76 million. 

Ugashik

Ugashik fishermen were out on the water again yesterday and brought in 191,000 fish. Now, the cumulative catch there is at 1.1 million.

The average fish per delivery remained high with 1,544 sockeye delivered per boat.

93% of the harvest went to the drift fleet while 7% went to set netters.

Escapement made a jump in the Ugashik as 10,080 fish escaped up the Ugashik River, bringing the district’s total escapement to 56,000.

The in-river estimate is currently 50,000 fish and the total run for the district is now 1.17 million. 

Chignik Weir Counts 

The Chignik weir counted nearly 7,000 fish on July 8, and 6,600 more swam through the weir on the morning of July 9. The season total for sockeye is now 236,371. The early run is about 211,131 and the late run is 25,240. 

The Chinook run remains weak, 24 kings passed the weir. Total king escapement this season is now 146. 

As mentioned yesterday, Chignik has its first opener scheduled for Monday. It is restricted to areas frequented primarily by pinks and chums. 

Area M 

At Area M, fishermen harvests took a significant nose-dive yesterday. Yesterday’s sockeye harvest came to nearly 36,764, the season sockeye total remains around 4.6 million. A whopping 7 Chinook were harvested, and fishermen caught zero coho, pink or chum. 

Port Moller Test Fishery

Now for an update from the Port Moller Test Fishery. Yesterday both research vessels encountered unfishable conditions yet again, and therefore they did not fish. However, the weather and seas look promising for the next several days.

Though the conditions have been tough all around, Scott Raborn, Port Moller’s scientist, believes the team will complete the Port Moller “2021 picture” in the next few days.

Yesterday, an amazing feat of dynamic decision making, flexibility and ingenuity was put in motion to hand off the fish samples through several pairs of hands in order to get them to Anchorage for testing. 

Stock Composition July 7-8

The Ugashik District will see about 14% of the run while Egegik will see nearly 15%. 

The Naknek-Kvichak District will see nearly 40% of the July 7-8 fish. The Kvichak will see the majority with 18%, while 14% are heading to the Naknek River. The Alagnak will see less with 7.5%. 

The Nushagak District will continue to see a good amount of the run with 28% heading that way. The Nusgahak River will see just over 14%, the Wood River will see 13% and less than 1% of fish will swim to the Igushik. 

The estimated run to Togiak is less than 1%. 

Vessel registration Saturday July 10 9:00 a.m. to Monday July 12 9:00 a.m.

Registrations continue to be on the up around the bay. A total of 1,234 boats are currently registered in the bay, 375 of those were D-boats. On Sunday morning that number will take a small jump to 1,330, 394 of those will be D-boats. 

The Nushagak continues to see the most boats in the bay. There are 472 vessels registered in the Nushagak District, 142 of those are D-boats. That will decrease again by Monday morning, with 462 boats registered, 133 of which will be D-boats. 

The Naknek-Kvichak will see a big jump in 48 hours. There are 377 vessels registered to fish there, 92 of which are D-boats. That goes up to 447 on Monday 122 of those will be D-boats. 

Egegik’s fleet has 239 vessels, 73 of which are D-boats. On Monday morning it stays more or less the same with 240 registered vessels. The number of D-boats remains at 79.

Ugashik’s fleet continues to grow with 113 vessels today, 51 of which are D-boats. In 48 hours, that will jump quite a bit to 148 vessels, 66 of which will be D-boats. 

Finally, Togiak’s fleet grew by one to 33 and will remain the same through Monday. 

Messages to the fleet

To: Captain Mike "Fishhead" Fourtner and the fine crew on the Bonnie B somewhere on the bay...

Been reading the fine fishing reports from the folks at KDLG.  With the exceptional season I'm wondering about the future "fishing stories" and perhaps other tails from the transom. Savor the moments and continue to be safe.

-A friend in Charleston SC 

Happy birthday to captain of the Dire Straights — your friends on the F/V Halcyon.

Correction: The bay-wide return was at 41.8 million as of July 9, not the bay-wide harvest as initially reported.

Contact the fish team at fish@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.