The chum salmon are creating a plentiful harvest for gillnetters, who have turned out en masse to bring in the bounty.
“The early part of the season is going very well and as anticipated for the chum return,” said Randy Bachman with Alaska Department of Fish and Game commercial fishery division in Haines.
Bachman said officials are predicting a harvest of between 500,000 and 600,000. As a result, boats from outside the immediate Haines area have flocked to the grounds.
“We’ve just been kind of the only game in town for the fisheries,” Bachman said.
That was until early this week when the Taku grounds near Juneau starting showing positive numbers of fish and word of strong catches made their way across the radio waves.
“Monday there was a mass exodus out of there and down to Taku,” he said. Bachman said several Haines boats stayed in the area and enjoyed some extra room to make longer sets and drifts. This week and next are considered the peak harvest weeks for chums, Bachman said.
Sockeye runs on the Chilkat River are also looking positive, Bachman said, but not so on the Chilkoot River. He said the run is about 20 percent through, with 7,300 fish passing through the weir. He said at this time Fish and Game is not planning openings along the eastern shore line north of Point Bridget.
The warmer than normal weather and dry conditions are also not working in the fish’s favor, Bachman said.
“This is not fish friendly weather right now,” he said.