Upper Cook Inlet Commercial Fishing Announcement No. 6 opens commercial salmon fishing with set gillnets in the Kasilof Section of the Upper Subdistrict from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 25.
Fishing in the aforementioned waters is warranted in order to harvest sockeye salmon returning to the Kasilof River.
Area Management Biologist Brian Marston: “The Kasilof section of the Upper Subdistrict is open Thursday from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. For this oepning, gear restrictions will be that one deep net or that two shallow nets may be used.”
By regulation, all other set gillnet fisheries in Upper Cook Inlet, with the exception of the Kenai and East Foreland sections, can fish their regularly scheduled period from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Also by regulation, drift gillnetting will be open district-wide, except for Chinitna Bay, from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
They note that as a reminder, any set gillnet that is not more than 29 meshes in depth as part of this restrictive provision must be identified at the end of the gillnet with an attached blue buoy that is not less than nine and one-half inches in diameter.
The Kenai River Late-Run King Salmon Management Plan restricts the Upper Subdistrict set gillnet fishery to no more than 36 hours per week, with a 36-hour continuous closure per week beginning between 7:00 p.m. Thursday and 7:00 a.m. Friday. With regularly scheduled fishing periods on Mondays and Thursdays no longer in effect in the Upper Subdistrict set gillnet fishery, any and all fishing time may occur only via emergency order. With this fishing announcement, 27 hours of emergency order time will have been used for the week of June 21 – June 27.