The Nushagak River Chinook run continues to struggle this season. Bag limits for sport fishermen have been lowered. Starting on Wednesday, fishermen won’t be allowed to retain any fish to one fish over 20 inches per day, with an annual limit of two kings that size.
Lee Bordan is the area management biologist for Bristol Bay’s sport division. He says the run started strong. But it seems to have tapered off.
“It kind of started to fall behind in the last couple of weeks," Bordan said. "Starting around June 25th through the 28th is when things started to fall behind and then they just continued to fall behind.”
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported abysmal returns last week: On three days the Nushagak River crew counted no Chinook swimming upriver to spawn. Sunday’s escapement was around 350 fish
The last day the Nushagak River had a push of over 1,000 Chinook was June 28. In an interview on Friday, Bordan said state biologists with Fish and Game are unsure if Chinook will even reach the state’s minimum escapement goal of 55,000 fish.
“Our current projection right now is a little bit below the lower end of the escapement goal, so we took some action this week, we restricted the fishery, and we’re likely to take further action," Bordan said.
Bordan says despite the low counts this month, he’s trying to stay optimistic.
“In the past we have had a late push in the run from time to time. It wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility to have a couple days in a row with a few thousand fish," he said.
Sportfishing camps up the Nushagak usually target Chinook. But Bordan says the guiding industry has generally been supportive of the recent limits.
“They’re all pretty understanding, they get how this all works. They’re aware of the king salmon management plan so they know that action must be taken based on the numbers," he said.
In their place, Bordan says guides can have their clients target sockeye.
"It really helps out when the sockeye are running strong, if the kings are slow, it still allows people to take home some fish and that always makes clients and guides happy," he said.
On the East Side of the bay, Fish and Game only tracks the sockeye run, and doesn't have an escapement goal for Chinook. But one guide has noticed their Chinook runs seem lower than normal as well.
“King fishing has been really slow," said Patricia Edel. She owns the Blue Fly Bed and Breakfast in Naknek and works as a guide in the summer. "It’s probably been the slowest year for kings that I can remember in like the last 20 guiding out here. So that has been pretty disappointing."
She says her team tries to let as many Chinook escape as possible.
“If we’re lucky enough to catch one, it’s all catch and release. We sort of modified our own policy here at Blue Fly and that’s kind of how we roll," Edel said.
Edel expects the king run to pick up in the third week of July, once commercial fishing lets up. And she says her crew and clients have had much more success with sockeye – especially in the last few years.
“They have some days where fishing is slow and they have to work hard for their fish depending on when the nets are out in the bay. And then sometimes, just like this morning, they limited out in an hour and a half for four people and 20 fish. So that was pretty outstanding," she said.
She says the most important priority for her camp is sustainability.
“You got to do everything you can because you’ve got to take care of it, or else it’s going to be gone. So everybody’s got to do their part, you know?”
Sailing to Naknek
We’re tracking the journey of a wooden sailboat making the journey back to Naknek this summer. We have an update from Tim Troll, a Bristol Bay historian and one of the crewmembers onboard.
On Friday evening we were welcomed at Pedro Bay with a village potlatch, and we gave a presentation on the Sailboat Days of Bristol Bay. Saturday was set aside to give rides on the sailboat. Angry Eagle allowed us to use their dock as a staging area and provided coffee and treats to waiting passengers. We left Pedro Bay this afternoon and made it across Lake Iliamna with a little help from a guide boat provided by the Newhalen Tribal Council. We arrived about 7 to a beach of welcoming people from Newhalen. Tomorrow about 2, we plan to give rides on the sailboat to folks in Iliamna and Newhalen. Tuesday we will give a presentation about Bristol Bay's sailboat history and collect stories. We hope to head across the lake to Kokhanok on Wednesday. Again, the Newhalen Tribal Council is providing a safety vessel to escort us across the Lake.
The numbers
On Sunday 2.63 million sockeye were harvested to make a cumulative count of 43.8 million fish this season. Another million - 999,798 fish - swam up rivers to their spawning grounds, for a total of 12.76 million. The in-river estimate is 675,000 fish. The total bay-wide run is now 57.2 million fish – the eighth-largest on record.
Nushagak District
Nushagak District’s total run is now 25.7 million fish.
The fleet saw a smaller harvest day, but still significant with 700,000 fish caught Sunday, for a total of 19.2 million. Average drifters brought in 765 sockeye per delivery.
250,000 sockeye escaped for a count of 6.5 million so far.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River had 73,884 fish come through the river there. Cumulative escapement for the Nushagak is 3.15 million fish.
73,884 were sockeye for a total of 3.15 million fish.
2,343 chum returned for a count of 83,456 – far short of the minimum goal of 200,000 fish.
And 392 Chinook returned for a count of 42,772 – still below the minimum goal of 55,000.
Wood River
The Wood River had 164,892 fish come through on Sunday with another 33,780 fish this morning for a total run of over 3.1 million fish.
Igushik River
The Igushik River had another 10,758 fish come through with 3,834 this morning. Total escapement there is now over 193,000.
Togiak District
The Sunday run in Togiak had 4,572 fish, and 1,158 this morning. Total escapement is now over 20,400 fish. 9,400 were harvested with average drift deliveries at 143 fish. Total harvest there is now just over 103,000.
The total run in Togiak is now just over 122,000.
Naknek-Kvichak District
The Naknek-Kvichak District’s total run is now 12.5 million fish.
On Sunday, harvest was at 904,000 fish for a total harvest of 8.2 million sockeye. Average drift deliveries there were 1,557 sockeye. Escapement was at 474,882 for a count of about 4 million along with another 400,000 estimated in the rivers.
And to break it down by river,
Naknek River
The Naknek River had a larger count on Sunday – 117,696 fish made it past the tower for a total of 1.28 million this season.
Kvichak River
The Kvichak River had another big surge of fish come by their tower with 254,382 fish along with another 400,000 estimated in that river. Kvichak escapement is now at 2.02 million sockeye. It has now passed its lower escapement goal of 2 million fish.
Alagnak River
The Alagnak had 102,804 fish counted for a running total of 690,318 fish so far.
Egegik District
Egegik’s fleet caught 598,000 on Sunday, with an average drift delivery of 1,300 fish. That brings the total harvest to 12.4 million. Escapement up the Egegik was 84,036 for a total count of 1.43 million. Another 75,000 fish are estimated to be swimming up the river.
Egegik’s total run is at 13.88 million.
Ugashik District
Over to Ugashik, fleets caught 426,000 fish for a total harvest of 3.9 million fish. The average drift delivery was 2,150 fish.
Another 186,774 evaded nets and made it past the counting town, for the cumulative of 806,000 fish - now well over the lower escapement goal. 200,000 fish are estimated to be in-river
Ugashik’s total run is at 4.9 million.
Vessel Registrations
In Egegik, there are 268 permits on 207 boats. Those numbers will stay the same by Wednesday. DBoast will also stay the same at 61.
Looks like more boats are headed to the Naknek-Kvichak District - there are 463 permits now, but that will rise to 584 in two days. The number of vessels will go from 377 to 474 and the number of DBoats will go from 88 to 112.
The Nushagak District has 586 permits now, which will drop slightly to 582 on Wednesday. The number of vessels will go from 431 to 427, and DBoats will stay the same at 157.
The Togiak District has 37 permits on 37 boats, and that will stay the same for two days.
The Ugashik District will grow from 211 permits to 277, the number of vessels from 160 to 211, and Dboats will go from 50 to 67 by Wednesday.
Chignik Weir Counts
Chignik’s first opener kicked off today. It will stay open until noon on Wednesday.
The Chignik River Weir counted 11,780 sockeye and 12 Chinook on Sunday. 6,587 sockeye were part of the early run, which is now above its lower boundary for their escapement goal with 367,627 fish. The Late Run had 5,193 fish for a count of 70,930 sockeye, and the total Chinook run so far is now 218.
Area M
Area M fisherfolk caught 177,315 salmon on Sunday for a total harvest of 8.34 million fish. 175,960 of them were sockeye, 644 were chum, 60 Chinook, 631 were pinks and 20 coho.
Total harvest for each species is now 6.57 million sockeye, 1.17 million pinks, 580,133 chum, 5,507 Chinook, and 456 silvers.
Port Moller Test Fishery
Station 4, 22, and 26 caught zero fish.
Station 2 caught 6 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 2 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 18.
Station 6 caught 0 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 1 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 3.
Station 8 caught 5 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 0 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 10.
Station 10 caught 14 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 2 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 30.
Station 12 caught 15 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 2 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 27.
Station 14 caught 3 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 16 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 32.
Station 16 caught 3 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 5 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 14.
Station 18 caught 0 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 13 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 24.
Station 20 caught 2 fish in the 4 ½ inch mesh and 0 fish in the 5 ⅛. That catch index is 3.
Station 24 was not fished.
The stock composition estimate shows a fairly even spread of fish swimming to the bay’s rivers.
