If you’d like to send a message to the fleet, get in touch or give some perspective, give us a call 842-5281 or send an email to fish@kdlg.org.
Messages to the Fleet
For the Captain of the Linda K:
Welp all tucked in ...in our Corpus Christi (Texas hotel). Short over night but the hotel is right on the water. Went to the Water Street Oyster Bar...it was a 30 min wait but did get to walk along beach. nice, warm, windy and oysterless.
Big sigh...
Hope you all are doing well and catching lots of fish.
Signed,
Miss Denver
To the crew on the F/V Independence:
Hey folks. Got your letter and requests. Will be unable to find eye patches and peg legs before the season ends. Also doubt the sweatshirt reading “Captain Bligh” will finish in time. I was able to find nasal strips for snoring and the pocket guide to “Understanding your Captain’s facial tics”. Also - Taylor: I doubt the airlines will let you check a cutlass in as baggage, so am not sending that.
Love you all,
Montana Chick
The Numbers
The bay-wide catch on Friday dipped somewhat to 817,905.
The total season catch is now at 19.6 million. Cumulative escapement is at an estimated 6.2 million with another 670,000 in-river.
The total run as of Friday July 7 was an estimated 26.5 million sockeye.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets hauled in 128,638 fish on Friday, with an average drift delivery of 163 sockeye. The total catch is at 7,829,965.
The drift fleet has caught about 80 percent of that total harvest, while Nushagak set netters have harvested 17 percent, and set netters in the Igushik have harvested 3 percent.
Nushagak River
At the Nushagak River sonar, an estimated 36,681 sockeye passed on Friday for a total of 1,428,615 fish up the river so far.
An estimated 232 chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar yesterday for a total of 28,654 this season. The escapement goal is at least 55,000.
Another 1,240 chum salmon passed the sonar, for a total of 74,351 this season.
Wood River
An estimated 40,308 sockeye passed the Wood River counting tower on Friday, bringing the total escapement to 2,013,426. Another 6,720 swam up by 6 am this morning.
The escapement goal for the Wood River is up to 3 million fish, and the forecast is around 8 million sockeye.
Igushik River
An estimated 16,566 sockeye passed the Igushik counting tower on Friday, for a total of 204,828 fish this season. Another estimated 2,304 swam past the tower as of 6 am this morning.
Togiak
The Togiak counting tower estimated 6,906 sockeye swam past on Friday, and another 2,298 as of 6 am this morning.
Togiak escapement is forecasted at 700,000.
Togiak fleets caught 8,422 fish yesterday, for a season total of 47,303]fish. The average drift delivery was 138 fish. The total run in Togiak is an estimated 63,569.
Naknek-Kvichak
Naknek and Kvichak fishing fleets hauled in 93,277 fish, bringing the season total catch to 4,604,570 fish. The average drift delivery was 67 fish. Yesterday’s escapement was estimated at 610,530, with another 450,000 estimated in-river. Total escapement is now estimated at 1,761,840.
The drift fleet caught about 76 percent of the total harvest, Naknek setnetters caught around 12 percent and Kvichak setnetters around 11 percent.
In the Naknek River, another estimated 85,188 fish swam upstream Friday, bringing the river’s total escapement to 652,590.
In the Kvichak River, an estimated 427,404 fish made it upstream past the counting tower, for a total escapement of 840,738 fish so far. The in-river estimate for the Kvichak was 450,000 on Friday.
In the Alagnak River, an estimated 97,938 spawners swam upstream yesterday, for a total season escapement of 268,512 fish.
The Naknek is forecasted to see a 6.5 million sockeye run, and the Kvichak is expecting to see over 8 million fish. The Alagnak is forecasted to get around 4.2 million.
Egegik
Egegik fishing crews caught 408,172 fish on Friday, with an average drift delivery of 703 fish. The season’s total catch is now at 6.6 6,696,261.
Egegik drifters have caught about 82 percent of the harvest this season, and setnetters have caught 18 percent.
Escapement yesterday was estimated at 55,014 fish, for a total season escapement of 767,088 fish. The total run is now at an estimated 7,563,349.
Ugashik
Ugashik fleets harvested 179,396 sockeye, for the season total of 458,883 fish harvested. So far, Ugashik drifters have caught 73 percent of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 27 percent.
Total escapement in Ugashik was estimated at 10,932 fish, with another 120,000 estimated in-river. The total run in Ugashik is estimated at 594,891
Vessel Registrations
As of 9 am this morning, in Egegik, there are 400 permits on 304 boats. That will increase to 436 permits on 331 boats by Monday, and the number of DBoats will increase from 96 to 105.
In the Ugashik District there are 97 permits on 72 boats, which will increase to 157 permits on 115 boats in the next 2 days. DBoats will go from 25 to 42 by Monday.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are 614 permits on 461 boats. That will increase to 670 permits on 507 boats in the next two days. DBoats will increase from 153 to 163.
In the Nushagak, there are 402 permits on 303 boats. In the next 2 days, that will drop to 379 permits on 282 boats. DBoats will decrease slightly from 100 to 98 boats by Monday.
The Togiak District has 23 permits on 23 boats, which will stay the same in the next two days.
In total bay-wide, there are 1,536 active permits on 1,163 boats and 374 DBoats. That will increase by about one hundred to 1,165 permits on 1,258 boats by Monday, and DBoats will be 408.
Chignik River
Chignik fleets have harvested 120,983 sockeye this season, as of the latest update on July 4.
At the Chignik River weir, an estimated 11,494 sockeye swam through the weir Friday, for a season total of 397,855 fish.
An estimated 11,494 fish were part of the early run yesterday, for a season total of 360,648. An estimated 3,696 fish were part of the late run yesterday, for a total of 37,207 fish.
Area M
In Area M, North and South Peninsula fleets harvested 94,476 sockeye on Friday. The season’s total is 1,601,983 fish.
They caught 63 chinook yesterday, for a season total of 2,882. Fleets hauled in 53,414 chum, 11,659 pinks, and 666 coho.
The total Area M season harvest for sockeye is 1.6 million, and across all five species is now at 2.1 million.
For the South Peninsula, total harvest is at 904,454 sockeye and 1,775 chinook.
In the North Peninsula, total harvest is 697,529 sockeye and 1,117 chinook.
Port Moller Test Fishery
No stock composition estimates to report today.
Port Moller techs report that the daily catch index on Friday was down from the day before, indicating that the passage rate at the Port Moller Test Fishery has fallen off. The report “our best guess is that half the run is left to show in-shore."
For Port Moller catches on Friday, no fish were caught at Stations 16, 18 or 20.
At the following test fishery stations, the smaller mesh size is 4 ½ inch and the bigger mesh size is 5 ⅛.
Station 2 caught 1 fish in the small net and 1 fish in the big net. That catch index is 5.
Station 4 caught 3 fish in the small net and 6 fish in the big net. That catch index is 21.
Station 6 caught 27 fish in the small net and 35 fish in the big net. That catch index is 133.
Station 8 caught 20 fish in the small net and 9 fish in the big net. That catch index is 64.
Station 10 caught 16 fish in the small net and 3 fish in the big net. That catch index is 46.
Station 12 caught 0 fish in the small net and 6 fish in the big net. That catch index is 14.
Station 14 caught 24 fish in the small net and 11 fish in the big net. That catch index is 49.
Station 22 caught 25 fish in the small net and 12 fish in the big net. That catch index is 67.
