FAIRBANKS — King salmon should begin showing up any day now in the Yukon River, but only time will tell if enough fish will return to feed Alaska’s biggest subsistence fishery.

So far, it appears the Yukon River kings are running behind schedule.

As of Friday, biologists had not caught any kings or summer chums in their test nets at the mouth of the river. The first test nets were set May 31 and more were set to be deployed Friday. A sonar counter was installed at Pilot Station, about 120 miles upstream from the mouth of the river, on June 1 and no fish had been detected as of Thursday.

“This is late for us to see fish,” said biologist Steve Hayes, who oversees the Yukon River king fishery for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “I think we’re looking at a little late run timing.”

While summer might have arrived early in the wildfire-torn Interior, that hasn’t been the case in western Alaska, he said.

“It was still snowing a little bit yesterday here,” Hayes said from the village of Emmonak near the mouth of the river on Thursday.

“It was 30-something (degrees) when I woke up this morning. I’m hearing reports of a lot of ice still on the (Bering Sea) coast,” he said. “The (Yukon River) ice was four or five days later than usual going out.”

The late breakup, combined with late or low king runs in other areas of the state such as the Kenai River and Copper River, leads Hayes to believe this year’s Yukon River king run also will be late.

The department’s normal subsistence fishing schedule goes into effect on the lower river on Monday and will be implemented in other parts of the river as the fish move up.

Starting Monday, subsistence fishermen in the lower river will be allowed to fish for two 36-hour periods per week.

Subsistence fishing previously was open seven days per week, 24 hours per day, but there has been virtually no subsistence fishing yet in the lower river, Hayes said.

The Yukon River king salmon run, the state’s largest subsistence fishery, has been in the spotlight for much of the past decade as a result of poor runs that have restricted subsistence fishermen and eliminated a once-profitable commercial fishery in the lower river.

There has been no commercial fishing in the past two years. In January, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke declared the 2008 and 2009 Yukon River commercial king salmon fisheries a disaster and Congress last month agreed to provide $5 million in relief funds for commercial fishermen on the lower river.

Subsistence fishing time has also been cut the last two years, making it impossible for many fishermen to catch enough fish to feed their families.

Biologists predict this summer’s king salmon run will be average to below-average. The preseason forecast is for anywhere from 155,600 to 226,200 kings, which would be a slight improvement over last year.

If the king run looks like it’s bigger than biologists projected, there could be some commercial fishing, Hayes said. If it looks like it’s smaller than predicted, there could be tighter subsistence restrictions.

The Yukon River king run consists of three main pulses, Hayes said. The first pulse typically hits the mouth of the river around June 11 or 12.

Last year, no fishing was allowed on the first pulse of kings that hit the river, a strategy employed by managers to get more fish to Canadian spawning grounds, and subsistence fishing time was cut in half the rest of the season.

The strategy worked, but almost too well. The restrictions helped meet the obligations of a U.S.-Canada treaty, but managers surpassed the goal of getting 55,000 kings into Canada by about 15,000 fish, according to a sonar counter at Eagle, about 10 miles from the border. The fact the sonar count was close to 70,000 led to complaints from subsistence fishermen that restrictions had been excessive.

Compounding the situation was the fact that managers acknowledged late in the season, after seeing the Eagle sonar count, that early season sonar counts at Pilot Station were flawed because of high, silty waters and the king run was larger than initially thought.

Biologists weren’t able to get the sonar counter installed at Pilot Station last year until June 9 and were plagued by high water and debris early in the season, Hayes said.

This year, after one of the lowest snowfalls on record in the Interior, the Yukon River is lower than normal. Biologists had the sonar fully operational at Pilot Station on June 1.

“Water conditions are favorable for us right now,” Hayes said. “We don’t have debris getting in our test nets and low water is good for getting the sonar in.”

Now, they just need some fish.

Contact staff writer Tim Mowry at 459-7587.