Hunting & Fishing

When and where you can fish on the Kuskokwim River.

There will be three drift gillnet openings along the Kuskokwim River, from the mouth to the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge boundary at Aniak. Each opening will last 12 hours, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The openings are on June 12, June 15, and June 18.

The salmon run is in its initial push up the Kuskokwim River and is growing stronger by the day.

Salmon are beginning to swim up the river, and many people are watching to see what kind of run there will be on the Kuskokwim this year.

Regulations for the Kuskokwim River salmon fishery will look similar to recent years.

A special hunt has opened for two muskoxen stranded on a barren island. The unnamed island is located less than a mile south of Nunivak Island.

Bethel will smell like fried smelt tonight, Tuesday, May 19. The smelt began passing Bethel, traveling up the Kuskokwim River on Tuesday morning. Families and subsistence users headed to the seawall with long nets, dragging them through the water and lifting out the smelts’ narrow, silver bodies. 

It takes more than a pandemic to stop fishing. The salmon are on the way, and fishermen will be out on the Kuskokwim River this summer. With them will be biologists and harvest monitors. Orutsararmiut Native Council biologists and staff, among others, are getting ready to survey the salmon catch.