Messages to the Fleet
No messages to the fleet tonight. If you’d like to send a message to the fleet, give us a call at 842-5281 or send an email to fish@kdlg.org.
The Numbers
The bay-wide catch on Wednesday was 1,250,824 fish, bringing the cumulative catch to 20,987,367 sockeye; the catch forecast bay-wide is 32.26 million sockeye. Escapement yesterday was 1,128,420 fish, bringing the total run so far to 33,493,766 fish. The forecast this year estimates a total run of 44.05 million sockeye.
Nushagak
In the Nushagak District, fleets caught 347,386 fish on Wednesday, for a total season harvest of 7,480,029, with an average drift delivery of 661 sockeye. 74.9% of harvest has been caught by the drift fleet, 21.9% by Nushagak set netters, and 3.1% by set-netters in the Igushik. The forecasted harvest is 13.9 million sockeye.
The total run this season in the Nushagak District is now 13,050,318 sockeye. Their pre-season forecast is an 18.39 million fish run.
Nushagak River
The Nushagak River sonar counted about 16,692 sockeye on Wednesday, for a total of 2,981,493 sockeye up the Nushagak so far.
The Nushagak River is estimated to see an 11.1 million fish run this season, and they are past their escapement goal range of 370,000 to 2.6 million fish.
576 Chinook passed the Nushagak River sonar; their total is 32,330 fish so far this season. The escapement goal range for those chinook salmon in the Nushagak River is 55,000 to 120,000 fish.
About 4,651 chum salmon passed the sonar yesterday, for a total of 159,845 fish.
Wood River
The Wood River tower crews counted 41,166 sockeye on Wednesday, making their total count 2,270,592 fish, plus another 17,094 sockeye past the tower as of 6 a.m. this morning.
The Wood River is estimated to see a 6.43 million fish run this season, and they are within their escapement goal range of 700,000 to 2.8 million fish.
Igushik
Igushik crews counted 18,138 fish yesterday, for a total escapement so far of 318,204 fish, with an additional 3,108 sockeye as of 6 a.m. this morning. They have an estimated run of 890,000 fish, and an escapement goal range of 150,000 to 400,000 fish.
Togiak
In Togiak, 4,822 fish were caught yesterday; their total season catch is now 43,431 sockeye, with an average drift delivery of 76 sockeye.
The Togiak tower crews counted 816 sockeye on Wednesday, making their total count 1,290 fish, plus another 534 sockeye past the tower as of 6 a.m. this morning.
The Togiak River’s forecasted inshore sockeye run this season is 530,000 fish, with an escapement goal range of 120,000 to 270,000.
Naknek-Kvichak
In the Naknek- Kvichak district, 296,484 fish were caught yesterday, bringing their total catch to 2,755,045, with an average drift delivery of 358 sockeye. So far, 22.2% of the district’s catch has been from Kvichak set-netters, 17.9% from Naknek set-netters, and 59.9% by the Naknek-Kvichak drift fleet. Their forecasted season harvest is 6.2 million sockeye.
Towers crews on the Naknek River counted 60,204 fish, for a total of 722,628 fish so far. The Naknek river has an escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million, and an estimated inshore run of 3.9 million sockeye.
Kvichak crews counted 211,746 fish yesterday for a total of 2,165,712 sockeye so far. That’s now within the Kvichak’s escapement goal range of 2 million to 10 million fish. The estimated inshore run for the Kvichak is 3.9 million fish.
Yesterday, Alagnak towers counted 116,136 fish, for a season total of 771,198 fish so far. The Alagnak River’s forecasted run is for 3.2 million sockeye, and they are past their minimum escapement goal of 210,000 sockeye.
The total run for Naknek-Kvichak is now 6,764,583 fish. The pre-season run forecast for the district is about 11 million fish.
Egegik
Egegik crews caught 322,829 fish yesterday, with an average drift delivery of 567 sockeye. Their season total catch is 6,722,814 sockeye so far. 82.5% of the harvest was caught by the drift fleet, and 17.5% by the set-netters. Their harvest is forecasted at 7.5 million sockeye.
81,360 spawners made it past the counting towers in Egegik yesterday, bringing the season’s total escapement to 1,556,406 fish so far. They are within their escapement goal range of 800,000 to 2 million fish.
Overall, the total run for Egegik is 8,354,220 sockeye, well on its way to the forecasted inshore run of 8.9 million fish.
Ugashik
Ugashik crews hauled in 279,303 fish yesterday; their season’s total catch is now 3,986,048 sockeye, with an average drift delivery yesterday of 1,115 sockeye. 87.5% of the catch was caught by the drift fleets, and 12.5% was caught by set-netters. The forecast predicts a harvest of 4.3 million fish.
A big jump in escapement yesterday in Ugashik, with 582,162 fish counted swimming past the towers, more than doubling their season’s total escapement for a total of 993,876 fish. Their escapement goal range is 500,000 to 1.4 million sockeye.
The Ugashik total run is now 5,279,924 fish, having now just hit the inshore run forecast.
Vessel Registrations
As of 9 a.m. this morning, in Egegik, there are 389 permits on 269 boats. That will decrease to 381 permits on 264 boats by Saturday, and the number of DBoats will drop from 121 to 118.
The Ugashik District has 325 permits on 222 boats, which will increase to 333 permits on 225 boats in the next 2 days. DBoats will go up from 103 to 108.
In the Naknek-Kvichak District, there are now 482 permits on 357 boats. That will have a BIG jump up to 614 permits on 444 boats by Saturday. DBoats will go from 125 to 170.
In the Nushagak, there are 340 permits on 248 boats. In the next 2 days, that will decrease to 330 permits on 242 boats. DBoats will move down from 92 to 88.
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 1,559 active permits on 1,119 boats and 441 DBoats.
Chignik River Weir
At the Chignik River weir, 3,625 sockeye swam through the weir on Wednesday, for a season total of 377,133 sockeye. 2,145 fish were part of the early run, and 1,480 fish were part of the late run.
Area M
Over in Area M yesterday, fleets harvested 24,810 sockeye for a season total of 3,566,750 fish.
4 chinook were caught, their total season harvest is 1,457 so far.
Fleets caught 250 chum on Wednesday, for a season total of 516,402.
Just 5 pinks were caught the other day, their harvest is 1,381,281.
No Coho were caught on Wednesday, their total is 1,480.
A total of 5,467,371 million salmon across all species have been caught in Area M so far this season.
Port Moller Test Fishery:
Port Moller’s 11th stock composition was just released this afternoon, covering July 6-7.
North Peninsula 0.8%
Ugashik 14.8%
Egegik 29.4%
Naknek 6.2%
Alagnak 11.5%
Kvichak 14.0%
Nushagak 10.6%
Wood 5.5%
Igushik 1.9%
Togiak 1.3%
Kuskokwim 4.0%
The Port Moller crew says rough weather kept them from fishing those outer stations on the transect yesterday. The catch indices from the day are low, as is expected during the tail of the run at Port Moller, but they say that yesterday’s rough seas may have contributed to those low counts.
For Port Moller catches on Wednesday, no fish were caught at Stations 2, 6, and 14. Stations 18, 20, 22, and 24 were not fished.
Station 4 caught 21 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net. That catch index is 43.
Station 8 caught 12 fish in the small net and 27 fish in the big net. That catch index is 81.
Station 10 caught 24 fish in the small net and 15 fish in the big net. That catch index is 75.
Station 12 caught 1 fish in the small net and 2 fish in the big net. That catch index is 5.
Station 16 caught 2 fish in the small net and 0 fish in the big net. That catch index is 23.
Overall, the average catch index for Wednesday was 20. The average length of fish caught in the small mesh was 504mm, and in the big mesh, 531mm.
Get in touch at fish@kdlg.org.
