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Bristol Bay fishery Wednesday update

DILLINGHAM: Bristol Bay fishermen netted 2 million sockeye Tuesday, bringing the summer's harvest to almost 25 million. The total run is estimated at 36 million fish so far.

Naknek-Kvichak fishermen had another big day Tuesday as well, with 1.2 million fish caught, bringing the summer's harvest to about 10 million.

At Nakeen Homepack in King Salmon, Amanda Wlaysewski said the surge is a welcome change of pace from earlier in the season - although it means less sleep.

“We’re really happy to have our fishermen call us in high spirits and tell us they’re whacking ‘em and they want to be bringing in as much as we can possibly handle,” she said.

Catches continue in the other eastside fisheries as well. Egegik fishermen caught 321,000 sockeye Tuesday, bringing the season total to 6.3 million. 

Coffee Point Seafoods Office Manager Eric Handsted said he's had a full crew all season, but still had to put fishermen on limits.

“Fishing has been pretty heavy the last couple of days, we’ve been hit hard, that however seems to be passing,” he said Wednesday.

And Ugashik fishermen caught 326,000 fish through Tuesday, for a season total - so far - of 3.8 million.

Tuesday's Nushagak catch was smaller, at just 151,000 sockeye, putting this year's harvest at 4.3 million through Tuesday.

That's largely because setnetters and some drifters have been on processor-imposed limits, and at times shut down entirely, which drifter Steve Johnson said has been frustrating.

“The salmon season was pretty much scratch fishing all season, and then we finally get a push of fish and when we really need it we go on limit, and then Peter Pan shuts us completely down, so we’re on hook,” Johnson said. “It’s pretty hard seeing other people with loaded boats while we sit on the hook.”

Ekuk Fisheries was able to hold off on limits longer than other processors, and setnetters there say the past week has seen strong catches.

Ekuk setnetter Ani White said they were catching big slabs, and the limits didn’t seem to be stopping too many people’s catches.

“It was pretty slow out there before the weekend and we were kinda thinking this season was gonna be a bust, but, we caught some fish and we’re still plugging away so it’s exciting,” she said.