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Lower Kuskokwim Fishing Opening Announced For June 22

Gillnet fishing on the Kuskokwim River near Aniak.
Dave Cannon

There will be another fishing opening on Saturday, June 22 for the lower Kuskokwim River. The opening applies to federal subsistence users in the federal waters of the Kuskokwim River from the river’s mouth to the bluffs below Kalskag.

Regulations remain the same as previous openers this season. Gillnets will be allowed for 12 hours from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and are limited to 6-inch mesh, 45 meshes in depth. Net lengths are restricted to 150 feet above the Johnson River and 300 feet below the Johnson River. Nets cannot stretch across more than half of a waterway.

King salmon caught in these nets can be kept, as can kings caught in fish wheels, dip nets, beach seines, and hook and line.

All gillnets must have an attached keg or buoy with the fisherman’s first initial, last name, and address written on it. Phone numbers are helpful, but not required.

Salmon-spawning tributaries remain closed to gillnets.

As of Wednesday, June 19 at 6 p.m., the Kuskokwim waters around Kalskag opened to subsistence fishing full-time until further notice, joining the middle and upper river under state management. The area where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lifted federal restrictions on king salmon fishing stretches from the refuge boundary at Aniak, downstream to the Kalskag bluffs.

Anna Rose MacArthur served as KYUK's News Director from 2015-2022.