Get in touch and share some perspective — give us a call at 907-842-5281 or send an email to fish@kdlg.org. If you’d like to get a message out to the fleet on this show, send your messages to the fleet to fish@kdlg.org.
Messages to the Fleet
Happy belated birthday Billy! Your sister and your nieces and nephews are all thinking about you and wishing you a happy 70th birthday. From Barbara, Jimmy, Alaina, Logan, and Liam.
To Capt. Sean Guffy, Fishing Vessel Waterman
Carmel zip ties. Toy boat, Toy boat, Toy boyt
—The Commitee
An we have a message from a special marine mammal for Steve–
Hey this is "buddy the dolphin" my English isn't so good but we got your message. Tell captain norby and Steve that the bottom paint looks great, glad to see you went with the copper free environmentally safe version. Also buddy Jr. might be a father soon, and we’re gonna push some fish your way come July 2nd.
The Numbers
The bay-wide catch on Monday was 65,447 fish, bringing the total season catch to 300,928.
Nushagak
At the Nushagak River sonar, fish counts were quite slow on Monday. Just 760 sockeye passed on Monday for a total of 93,149 fish up the river so far.
513 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar, for a total of roughly 10,236 so far this season.
3,032 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of around 45,780 thus far.
The Nushagak River is estimated to see a 3.5 million sockeye run this season, with an escapement goal range of 370,000 to 1.4 million.
For chinook salmon, the escapement goal range in the Nushagak River is 55,000 to 120,000.
Wood River
A very small run of 3,168 sockeye passed the Wood River counting tower on Monday, bringing the total escapement to 156,852, with another 354 fish passing the tower as of 6 a.m. this morning.
The escapement goal range for the Wood River this year is 700,000 to 3 million fish, and the forecast is for around 7.8 million sockeye.
Igushik
The Igushik tower crew is now set up and escapement counts are coming in. As of 6 a.m. this morning, they’ve counted 276 fish so far.
Togiak
Crews in Togiak caught 1,598 fish on Monday, for a total catch of 2,057 so far.
Togiak’s escapement counts are scheduled to begin on July 5th.
The total inshore run for Togiak River sockeye is forecasted to be around 680,000 fish, with an escapement goal range of 120,000 to 270,000.
Naknek-Kvichak
Naknek and Kvichak fishing fleets caught no fish yesterday, their season total remaining at 1,605 fish. So far, drifters in the Naknek and Kvichak Rivers have caught 44.4% of the season’s total catch. Setnetters on the Kvichak have caught 44.6% of the season’s catch and setnetters on the Naknek have caught 11%.
The Naknek tower crew counted 72 spawners yesterday, bringing their total to 438 fish so far.
And the Kvichak tower crew counted 174 fish yesterday and a total of 360.
Alagnak escapement numbers will likely start coming in on June 29th.
An inshore run of approximately 15 million sockeye is expected across the Naknek/Kvichak district this season.
The Naknek River escapement goal range is 800,000 to 2 million sockeye. In the Kvichak River, the escapement goal range is 2 million to 10 million, and the Alagnak River has a minimum escapement goal of 210,000.
Egegik
Over in Egegik they had a catch of 63,849 fish yesterday, bringing the cumulative catch to 244,952, with an average drift delivery of 267 fish. So far, Egegik drifters have caught 83.4% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 16.6%.
30 spawners made it past the counting towers in Egegik yesterday, bringing the season’s total escapement to 4,902 fish so far.
The Egegik district’s inshore run this season is forecasted to be about 5.5 million sockeye salmon and the river’s escapement goal is 800,000 to 2 million fish.
Ugashik
Ugashik crews brought in no fish yesterday, and the season’s cumulative catch is 46,614. So far, Ugashik drifters have caught 94.3% of the season’s total catch, and setnetters have caught 5.7%.
The district’s inshore run this season is forecasted to be about 4.6 million sockeye salmon and the river’s escapement goal is 500,000 to 1.4 million fish.
Ugashik escapement counts are scheduled to begin on June 27th.
Vessel Registrations
As of 9 a.m. this morning, in Egegik, there are 233 permits on 174 boats. That will bump up to 234 permits on 175 boats by Thursday, and the number of DBoats will remain at 59.
The Ugashik District has 123 permits on 83 boats, which will increase to 135 permits on 90 boats in the next 2 days. DBoats will move up from 40 to 45.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are now 107 permits on 92 boats. That will bump up to 124 permits on 104 boats by Thursday. DBoats will increase from 15 to 20 in 2 days.
In the Nushagak, there are 260 permits on 205 boats. In the next 2 days, that will increase quite a bit to 371 permits on 275 boats. DBoats will skyrocket up from 55 to 96.
The Togiak District has 14 permits on 14 boats, which should stay the same in the next two days.
In total bay-wide, there are 737 active permits on 568 boats and 169 DBoats.
Chignik River weir
At the Chignik River weir, 8,943 sockeye swam through the weir on Monday, for a season total of 118,572 so far.
An estimated 8,509 fish were part of the early run, and 434 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over there in Area M, fleets harvested 18,817 sockeye on Monday for a season total of 999,151 sockeye.
51 chinook were caught in Area M yesterday, bringing the total season harvest to 1,236 so far.
And only 10 chum were caught yesterday, their season harvest is at 283,530.
No pinks or coho were caught on Monday.
But the pink’s season total is at 239,247, and the coho’s season total is 135.
The majority of commercial harvests this season have been caught on the South Peninsula by South Unimak and Shumagin Islands fleets, with increasing sockeye harvests coming in from Port Moller to Outer Point Heiden and Nelson Lagoon.
Port Moller Test Fishery:
Yesterday the test fishery posted a stock composition estimate for June 23 and 24.
The largest percentage of the fish sampled were swimming towards the Egegik River – around 28 percent were headed there.
About 25 percent of the sampled sockeye were swimming towards the Kvichak River.
An estimated 21 percent of the samplings were on their way to the Nushagak River, and another 19 percent to the Wood River.
About 3 percent were heading towards the Ugashik River and almost 2 percent to the Naknek river.
Less than 1% are on their way to the North Peninsula and to the Igushik, Kuskokwim, Togiak and Alagnak Rivers.
North Peninsula 0.4%
Ugashik 3.1%
Egegik 27.7%
Naknek 1.7%
Alagnak 0.0%
Kvichak 25.2%
Nushagak 20.5%
Wood 19.5%
Igushik 0.5%
Togiak 0.0%
Kuskokwim 0.4%
The updated average weight of sockeyes caught in test nets is now 4.5 lbs. As for sockeye age class, test fishery crews report run samples dominated by younger fish, more specifically, fish who spent only two years out in the ocean rather than three. Of the sampled fish so far, 68.6% spent one year in freshwater and two years at sea, and 12.6% spent two years in freshwater and two years at sea.
The overall daily catch index from Port Moller has been around the same for the past five days, according to Port Muller. But they also say that North Westerly winds averaging 14 knots may be impacting where they see those fish, with higher catch indexes at their higher number test fishing stations. It’s not clear how today’s catch indexes will translate into inshore catch and escapement.
For Port Moller catches on Monday, no fish were caught at Station 2.
At the following test fishery stations, the smaller mesh size is 4 ½ inch and the bigger mesh size is 5 ⅛.
Station 4 caught 33 fish in the small net and 8 fish in the big net. That catch index is 85.
Station 6 caught 54 fish in the small net and 9 fish in the big net. That catch index is 130.
Station 8 caught 8 fish in the small net and 4 fish in the big net. That catch index is 26.
Station 10 caught 24 fish in the small net and 30 fish in the big net. That catch index is 116.
Station 12 caught 1 fish in the small net and 1 fish in the big net. That catch index is 5.
Station 14 caught 12 fish in the small net and 2 fish in the big net. That catch index is 32.
Station 16 caught 7 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net. That catch index is 18.
Station 18 caught 13 fish in the small net and 1 fish in the big net. That catch index is 30.
Station 20 caught 4 fish in the small net and 5 fish in the big net. That catch index is 21.
Station 22 caught 13 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net. That catch index is 28.
Station 24 caught 1 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net. That catch index is 2.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.
