Although the sockeye salmon fish counters will not go in the water until June 15, public reports indicate the Russian River is already seeing good numbers.
Fisheries Biologist Aaron Dupuis detailed some early indicators.
Dupuis: “What we like to look at is what’s going on in the Copper River, what’s going on in Kodiak and in Bristol Bay, it’s a little too early for the bay right now but Kodiak, the sockeye runs there at least in the early parts looking pretty darn good, they’ve had some really high escapements in some of their systems that had been doing poorly, which are now doing really well.”
An Emergency Order by the Department of Fish and Game inreased the sockeye bag limit to 10 per day in the Ayakulik River drainage. The order was based on the fact that the minimum escapement goal for that area is 140,000 and as of June 8 the weir count of sockeye was 96,893.
Based on historical run timing that is only about 17% through the run.
Dupuis said if that trend continues, commercial fishermen here may see some extra days in their season.
Dupuis: “For the commercial fishing management plan in the Kasilof section which is for the set netters, which is everything south of what we call the Blanchard line, that’s kind of in between the Kenai and Kasilof rivers, everything south of that down to Ninilchik, the regular start date this year is going to be the 26th of June, but in the Kasilof River if we have 50,000 sockeye pass the counter in the Kasilof between the 20th and the 26th we can open early.”