This year’s Cook Inlet East Side fishing season may look a lot like last year’s: no bait for sportfishing and emergency openings for commercial.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game Management Biologist Pat Shields said he will be surprised if the late run king salmon season begins without restrictions and closures due to not reaching escapement goals.
Shields: “So there was a number that was chosen and in this case it was 22,500 and that is the number that is expected to enter the river and if it is less than that number then the department has restrictions which they take in both the sport fisheries and the commercial fisheries.”
That stems from a 2014 Board of Fish proposal passage which modified a new management plan for the late run king salmon.
Shields said 2014’s forecast was for around 19,000 late run king salmon and this year is forecast for 22,000.
He said while that few thousand doesn’t seem like much, everyone is hoping the forecast is low and that both sportfishing and commercial fishing can proceed without further restrictions or closing.
