Hunting & Fishing

A positive COVID-19 case in Mountain Village has shut down commercial fishing in that community. Kwik’pak, a plant that processes Yukon River salmon, has stopped purchasing fish in Y2, or District 2 of the Yukon River, which includes Mountain Village, Pitkas Point, St. Mary’s, Pilot Station, and Marshall.

There will be another 12-hour commercial salmon opening in Kuskokwim Bay on Friday, July 3 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Subsistence fishing in the area will close for 24 hours, from 12:01 a.m. on Friday, July 3 to 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, July 4. 

The lower Kuskokwim River will remain closed to gillnets until more red and chum salmon arrive. King salmon numbers are low, but are expected meet the lower end of the state’s Kuskokwim River drainagewide spawning escapement goal. Meanwhile, the chum and red salmon are running late and just starting to pick up at Bethel. Managers want to see more salmon passing Bethel before allowing gillnets to return to the lower mainstem of the river.

Fisheries managers in Western Alaska have been concerned about salmon returns this year, but there was good news from the Yukon River system this past weekend. So many king salmon swam by the sonar station that fishing restrictions have been loosed. 

This weekend, gillnets were allowed back into the Yukon River to target non-salmon species. The nets can only be used during fishing closures in sloughs and tributaries. They may not be used in the main stem of the river. 

The king salmon run on the Kuskokwim River is coming in low. Meanwhile, chums and reds are late. Fishing with gillnets is being shut down in the lower river through at least the end of the month.

A group of fishermen in Quinhagak has formed an organization to revitalize commercial salmon fishing in Kuskokwim Bay. Their group is called the Independent Fishermen of Quinhagak Cooperative.

The chums are beginning to swim up the Yukon River. They are even later than last year’s run, which was the latest run biologists had ever seen.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game manager Holly Carroll says that the subsistence fishing openings are designed to target chums using dip nets and beach seines, and let all kings swim on to spawn.

The Yukon River king salmon run appears to be coming in much weaker than forecast. State management biologist Holly Carroll says that both the king and summer chum runs are running late, and king numbers are very low.