Hunting & Fishing

On the Yukon River, the summer chum salmon have been a little late showing up, but the Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports that they are beginning to enter the lower river during strong tides. The Yukon River’s king run is about the same as last year's, and managers are continuing to authorize reduced subsistence harvests to ensure that enough salmon swim upriver to spawn. The subsistence fishing schedule is being reduced to half the scheduled regulatory windows, and gillnets are being restricted to 6-inch or smaller mesh. 

Many of the nets seized during Kuskokwim subsistence fishing openings have been returned to their owners. Alaska Wildlife Troopers seized 18 nets during the June 8 opening. Troopers confiscated fewer nets during the June 12 opening. Most of the nets were returned before the subsistence opening on June 15.

The king salmon run is growing in the Kuskokwim River as the season advances. From Tuntutuliak to Akiak along the Kuskokwim mainstem, federal biologists estimate that about 8,650 salmon were harvested on the June 12 subsistence opening. Almost all the salmon were kings, about 8,040. The remainder were around 310 chum and 290 reds. Harvest estimates from the June 15 subsistence fishing opening will be released the following week.

The summer chum salmon run on the Yukon River has begun, and so far the numbers are coming in higher than historical averages. It is still early in the run, though, and the fish may just be returning early.

The number of king salmon returning this year are at about the same levels as last year, and about average for the river system.