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
To the Captain and crew on the F/V Solstice:
Hey guys. Hope all is well and fishing is good. I picked up mail and will forward the magazines, including Rio’s stack of “Emus and Llamas - Today, Tomorrow, and Forever”, Aidan’s copy of “I Love Cats and Crocheting”, and Jim’s newsletter from “Doja Cat Super Fans Fan Club”.
Stay safe!
-Montana Chick
A happy birthday to Eric Pink on the F/V Swamp Phink
-From the Darkwing Duck crew
To all the moms out fishing today,
in addition to all the things a skipper has to do
you might also have morning sickness
a crying baby to leave for the tide
the guilt of leaving kids in town
it's okay, you can do it
get your strength from the tide
-From salmon mama
The numbers
The baywide catch on Saturday dropped down to 505,538 fish harvested.
The total season catch is now at 20,142,562 fish. Cumulative escapement is at an estimated 6,772,223 with another 580,000 in-river.
The total run as of Saturday July 8 was an estimated 27,494,785 sockeye.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets hauled in 64,384 fish on Saturday, with an average drift delivery of 125 sockeye. The total catch is now at 7,894,349 fish.
The drift fleet has caught about 80.1 percent of that total harvest, while Nushagak set netters have harvested 17 percent, and set netters in the Igushik have harvested about 2.9 percent.
Nushagak River
At the Nushagak River sonar, an estimated 24,590 sockeye passed on Saturday for a total of 1,453,205 fish up the river so far.
An estimated 212 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar yesterday for a total of 28,866 this season. The escapement goal is at least 55,000.
Another 1,082 chum salmon passed the sonar, for a total of 75,433 this season.
Wood River
An estimated 28,248 sockeye passed the Wood River counting tower on Saturday, bringing the total escapement to 2,041,674 fish. Another 3,498 swam up as of 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 13,494 sockeye passed the Igushik counting tower on Saturday, for a total of 218,322 fish this season. Another estimated 2,994 swam past the tower as of 6 am this morning.
Togiak
The Togiak counting tower estimated 6,012 sockeye swam past on Saturday, for a season total of 22,278 so far. Another 1,950 swam upstream as of 6 am this morning.
Togiak escapement is forecasted at 700,000.
Yesterday, Togiak fleets caught 5,529 fish, for a season total just under 52,832. The average drift delivery was 207 fish. The total run in Togiak is an estimated 75,110.
Naknek-Kvichak
Naknek and Kvichak fishing fleets hauled in 158,404 fish on Saturday, bringing the season total catch to 4,763,016 fish. The average drift delivery was 507 fish. Yesterday’s escapement was estimated at 445,698, with another 450,000 estimated in-river. Total escapement is now estimated at 2,207,538.
The drift fleet caught about 76.9 percent percent of the total harvest, Naknek setnetters caught around 12 percent and Kvichak setnetters around 11 percent.
In the Naknek River, an estimated 12,522 fish swam upstream Saturday, bringing the river’s total escapement to 665,112.
In the Kvichak River, an estimated 345,702 fish made it upstream past the counting tower, for a total escapement of 1,186,440 fish so far. The in-river estimate for the Kvichak was 450,000 on Saturday.
In the Alagnak River, an estimated 87,474 spawners swam upstream yesterday, for a total season escapement of 355,986 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 112,515 fish on Saturday, with an average drift delivery of 330 fish. The season’s total catch is now at 6,808,776.
Egegik drifters have caught about 81.8 percent of the harvest this season, and setnetters have caught 18.2 percent.
Escapement yesterday was estimated at 17,496 fish, for a total season escapement of 784,584 fish. The in-river estimate yesterday was 50,000 fish. The total run is now at an estimated 7,643,360.
Ugashik
Ugashik fleets harvested 164,706 sockeye, for a season total of 623,589 fish. The average drift delivery on Saturday was 1,821 fish. So far, Ugashik drifters have caught 75 percent of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 25 percent.
28,614 spawners swam upstream yesterday, for a season total of 44,622 fish up the river so far, and another 80,000 estimated in-river. The total run in Ugashik is estimated at 748,211.
Vessel Registrations
As of noon today, in Egegik, there are 389 permits on 297 boats. That will increase to 408 permits on 312 boats by Tuesday, and the number of DBoats will increase from 92 to 96.
In the Ugashik District there are 116 permits on 86 boats, which will more than double in the next 2 days, jumping to 234 permits on 174 boats. DBoats will go from 30 to 60 by Tuesday.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are 633 permits on 474 boats. That will increase to 685 permits on 517 boats in the next two days. DBoats will increase from 159 to 168.
In the Nushagak, there are 338 permits on 254 boats. In the next 2 days, that will drop slightly to 332 permits on 250 boats. DBoats will decrease from 85 to 83 by Tuesday.
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 1,499 active permits on 1,134 boats and 366 DBoats. That will increase to 1,682 permits on 1,276 boats by Tuesday, and DBoats will be at 407.
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 8,648 sockeye swam through the weir on Saturday, for a season total of 406,503 fish.
An estimated 5,523 fish were part of the early run yesterday, for a season total of 366,171. An estimated 3,125 fish were part of the late run yesterday, for a total of 40,332 fish.
Area M
No harvest data to report for Area M today.
Port Moller Test Fishery:
No stock composition estimates to report today, for where fish are heading. But technicians have age composition data for the run so far this season through July 5. That’s looking at how many years fish spent in freshwater and in the ocean. For 2023 ages so far…
An estimated 11 percent of fish sampled by the Port Moller test fishery spent 1 year in freshwater and two years at sea,
6 percent spent 2 years in freshwater and 2 years at sea,
57 percent of fish spent 1 year in freshwater and 3 years at sea,
And 25 percent of fish spent 2 years in freshwater and 3 years at sea.
Test Fishery technicians say so far this year, fish are coming in older and with more years spent at sea than predicted by the season’s age composition forecast. We’ll have more on that later in the week.
For Port Moller catch indices, only the outer stations and station 6 were fished yesterday due to bad weather, and no fish were caught at Stations 20 or 22.
At the following test fishery stations, the smaller mesh size is 4 ½ inch and the bigger mesh size is 5 ⅛.
Station 6 caught 15 fish in the small net and 6 fish in the big net. That catch index is 28.
Station 12 caught 7 fish in the small net and 16 fish in the big net. That catch index is 34.
Station 14 caught 0 fish in the small net and 1 fish in the big net. That catch index is 2.
Station 16 caught 22 fish in the small net and 12 fish in the big net. That catch index is 82.
Station 18 caught 0 fish in the small net and 1 fish in the big net. That catch index is 2.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org.
