One of the largest surges of sockeye into Chilkoot Lake kept commercial fishermen busy and swamped subsistence nets in the past week.
About 40,000 reds passed Chikoot weir, more than doubling escapement for the entire season and setting records including a single-day count of 13,701 on Thursday, Aug. 4.
The 10-year average escapement for the same week is 8,000 sockeye, said Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Mark Sogge. “We’ve never had that kind of movement,” he said.
The four-day opening for commercial fishing of sockeye that started Sunday, Aug. 7 will continue through Thursday, Aug. 11, but Sogge said it may be extended if the run keeps surging.
There is a possibility of going over the top range of the agency’s escapement goal of 86,000, but Sogge said he is managing the harvest to not let that happen.
Normally a few thousand sockeye gradually come through the weir per week in August, and barely any reds are counted by the end of the month.
“Fish seem to be coming in very late and very strong,” Sogge said.
While it may seem reassuring, a rush of sockeye late in the season can be hard on fishermen, who don’t get to harvest as many fish as when the salmon arrive in steadier numbers over a longer period of time.
It’s also difficult for Fish and Game biologists to predict a rush of salmon when weir counts are average only days beforehand, even compared to the parent year in 2011 when 28,000 fish came past the weir in the first two weeks of August.
Sogge said surges also make it tough to predict a percentage of the total number of fish being harvested.
Although official harvest numbers weren’t available at the time of publication, Sogge said commercial fishing boats on Lutak Inlet and Mud Bay have done very well and caught a good supply of Chilkoot sockeye.
“I’m having a great week,” gillnet skipper Norman Hughes said Wednesday. “It’s my second best week of the year.” He said the sockeye harvest has slowed down since Sunday’s opening, but he hasn’t had to move more than about half a mile from his spot near the Lutak Inlet.
Subsistence fishermen Stephanie Yard and Mark Fontenot took their boat out on the Lutak Inlet Saturday, Aug. 6 and caught 41 sockeye and nine pink salmon in three hours. Yard said she would normally catch three to five sockeye in that amount of time.
Over her eight years of fishing experience and Fontenot’s 20 years, this harvest broke both of their personal records. The pair split the catch and filleted, froze, smoked and canned the lot.
“The boats out there that day were all happy and full,” Yard said.
Fish wheels on the Chilkat River have been steadily producing sockeye, but fish numbers on the Chilkat Lake weir are just barely inside the minimum escapement goal and below where Fish and Game would like them to be at this time of year.
Sogge said high water levels from snow and glacial melt in Chilkat Lake with low drainage cause salmon to have a hard time finding the lake in their transition from salt water to fresh water.