Yesterday, fleets around Bristol Bay caught 478,000 fish bringing the total area-wide catch so far this season to 1.36 million.
Escapement in the bay yesterday was 496,138, bringing total escapement to 1.69 million.
Nushagak District
The total run so far in the Nushagak District is now 1.97 million.
Fishermen have been busy in the Nushagak, yesterday they caught 273,000 fish bringing the total harvest to 669,992.
Total escapement for the year is 1.29 million, yesterday escapement for the district came in at 377,080.
The Igushik tower was set up and started counting at 8 a.m. this morning, numbers will be on the way soon.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River continues to see a large sockeye escapement. Yesterday 221,926 sockeye swam upriver bringing total escapement to 830,605.
On Friday, 1,159 Chinook swam up the Nushagak River, bringing the Chinook total run to 14,683. Chum escapement remained steady with about 7,000 yesterday, bringing chum total escapement to 25,726.
Wood River
Sockeye escapement up The Wood River remains strong, yesterday 155,000 sockey swam past the tower. As reported by 6 a.m. this morning an additional 34,536 bringing the Wood River total to 503,580.
Ugashik
We now have numbers from the Ugashik District. Fishermen in the district hauled in 46,000 fish yesterday bringing the total season harvest to 105,582.
Egegik
After a short break, Egegik continued its harvest yesterday catching 157,000 fish. That brings Egegik’s total season catch to 572,163.
108,810 fish escaped up the Egegik river yesterday bringing the total escapement to around 380,526.
Egegik’s total season run is 952,689 fish.
Naknek/Kvichak
Boats out in the Naknek/Kvichak District caught 1,900 sockeye bringing the harvest total to 6,575.
There was a much larger push up the Naknek River yesterday, the tower counted 10,200 bringing total escapement to 11,304.
Togiak
Zero fish were caught in Togiak; the total catch remains at 2,191.
Chignik
The Chignik weir counted 270 sockeye yesterday, and as of 9 a.m. this morning -- the weir counted zero fish. The early season run in the Chignik River is about 81,594.
Area M
The South Alaska Peninsula commercial salmon fishery opened for fishing yesterday, and will remain open through Monday.
Yesterday, fleets in Area M harvested 320,745 fish, bringing the season total to 6.68 million.
On Friday, 187 kings were caught, bringing the total to 2,405. Sockeye harvest was about 138,923, bringing the total to 2.99 million. No coho were caught yesterday. Nearly 130,000 pink were harvested, that total is 2.99 million. Lastly, chum catches jumped to 52,000 with a total of 694,235.
Port Moller Test Fishery
Unfavorable weather kept the Port Moller Test Fisher from catching fish for a few days, but they were back at it yesterday.
Station 2 caught 1 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 0 in the 5 1/8. The catch index was 2.
Station 4 caught 0 fish .
Station 6 caught 8 in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 1 in the 5 1/8. The catch index was 18.
Station 8 caught 8 fish in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 1 in the 5 1/8. The catch index is 19.
Station 10 caught 29 in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 22 in the 5 1/8. The catch index is 96.
Station 12 caught 41 in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 44 in the 5 1/8. The catch index is 146.
Station 14 caught 1 in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 38 in the 5 1/8. It had a catch index of 84.
Station 16 caught 66 in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 44 in the 5 1/8. It had a catch index of 183.
Station 18 caught 35 in the 4 1/2 inch mesh and 5 in the 5 1/8. The catch index is 14.
Station 20 was not fished.
Stock Composition
Port Moller scientist Scott Raborn said research vessels are on their way to Port Moller to deliver June 25th samples. Once en route to Anchorage, the team should know the date of Stock Composition #5.
Harvest Allocation
In the Ugashik District, 93.5% of the cumulative harvest has been caught by drift boats, while 6.5% has gone to the set net fleet.
In Egegik, set netters caught 28.2% and drift boats caught 71.8%.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, 33.2% of fish were caught by Kvichak set netters, 58% goes to the Naknek set netters and nearly 8.8% to the Naknek drift fleet.
And in the Nushagak, Igushik set netters have harvested 5.2%, Nushagak drift fleet has caught 81.2% and Nushagak set netters harvested 13.7%.
Vessel Registration June 26 at 9:00 a.m. through June 28 at 9:00 a.m.
Vessel registration remains consistent and increasing in most areas of the bay -- with the most boats continuing to register in the Nushagak District.
As of 9 a.m. this morning, there are 1,055 boats registered in the bay, 334 of which are D-boats. There will be a slight increase again on Monday with 1,101 boats, 354 of which will be D-boats.
In the Nushagak, there are 600 registered boats, and 219 of those are D-boats. On Monday, that will increase to 618 boats, 230 of which will be D-boats -- continuing with the most in the bay.
Over to Egegik now: 304 boats are fishing there, 88 of those are D-boats. On Monday morning, there will be a slight increase to 317 boats and 92 D-boats.
Naknek-Kvichak boat registration is slightly increasing -- the total is at 92, 8 of which are D-boats . On Monday, that will increase to 105 vessels. The number of D-boats will climb to 12.
Ugashik added a few boats bringing the total to 33 boats registered in its fleet, 19 of which are D-boats. On Monday the district will add a few coming to 35 with, 20 D-boats.
Finally, in Togiak, 26 boats are fishing -- which has remained the same and will remain the same through Monday.
Messages to the Fleet
To: Captain Mike "Fish Head" Fourtner and the hard working crew on the Bonnie B.
Message: Hard working days, restless nights and jockeying for the line. All your hustle will pay off soon. Hey it's time to haul back!
From: Geoff
Contact the fish team at fish@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.