The catch from the first Nushagak Section drift opening was solid, but not stellar. Over on the east side, the Naknek-Kvichak District was put on active management this morning, but there are no openers yet.
The Naknek-Kvichak District is on active management, but that doesn’t mean things are starting right away. We talk to area management biologist Travis Elison about how things look on the Eastside.
With fish escaping upstream, business is picking up at local sportfishing lodges. We take a look at how a new generation of guides is bringing a local touch to fly fishing.
Finally on this evening’s program, we have a musing from Melanie Brown, a Naknek set netter who has fished on her great grandfather’s site since 1979, and began writing for the fisher poets.
On the west side in the Nushagak Section, the daily catch was 61,000 for a cumulative harvest of 70,400.
In the Nushagak District, 15% of the cumulative harvest was caught by Igushik set netters. 20% was caught by drifters in the Nushagak section, and set netters have caught 65% of the total harvest so far.
Sockeye escapement up the Nushagak was 32,000 yesterday for a cumulative 68,000. King escapement was at 5,000 for a cumulative of 18,000.
Escapement at the Wood River at 6 AM this morning was at 31,000. Yesterday’s escapement was at 62,000, bringing the total to 141,000.
Fishermen in Egegik and Ugashik should stand by at noon on Saturday for the next possible announcement.
64% of Egegik’s harvest so far was caught by the drift fleet, and 36% by set netters. In the Naknek-Kvichak, the drift fleet harvested 29% of the catch, while 62% was harvested by the Naknek set netters and 9% were harvested by set netters in the Kvichak.
Escapement in Egegik yesterday was 4,700 for a cumulative of 20,000. No official escapement numbers yet from the Naknek-Kvichak District -- the Naknek counting tower just started counting this morning, and according to management biologist Travis Elison, about 500 fish passed by this afternoon.
At the Chignik Weir, 6,042 though 3 PM this afternoon. That puts the total escapement for the early run at 67,200. That falls far short of the next escapement goal set for June 25, which is between 215,000 and 320,000.
On the South Peninsula, Area M saw a total sockeye harvest of 398,000. A big push of pinks made for a total of 5.6 million as of June 20.
The North Peninsula’s Area M had a total harvest of 37,000 reds.
For both the North and South Area Ms, the daily harvest yesterday was 66,200 sockeye for a cumulative 435,000.
The total pink harvest is 5.6 million.
Catch this program nightly live at 6 p.m., with replays at 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. on AM 670, and online at KDLG.org. (With early broadcasts of the numbers Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.)
Letters from home to your friends and family in the Bay this summer? Email us at fish@kdlg.org or call 907-842-5281.
Have feedback or suggestions of something you'd like to hear? Reach Izzy Ross / Tyler Thompson / Alex Hager / Sage Smiley (in Naknek)
