The first kings were detected by a sonar counter near Eagle on Saturday, and the estimated count through Monday was 28 kings.
“It’s too soon to evaluate any run strength based on that number,” Steve Smith with the Department of Oceans and Fisheries in Whitehorse, Yukon said during the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association’s weekly teleconference on Tuesday.
The border escapement goal in the Pacific Salmon Treaty is between 42,500 and 55,000 kings. Last year, in part because of restrictions imposed on subsistence and commercial fishing in Alaska, about 70,000 kings made it across the border. It was the first year in the past three the treaty goal was met.
Biologist Dan Bergstrom, management supervisor for the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region, said Alaska managers remain “cautiously optimistic” the treaty goal will be met again this year without having to restrict subsistence fishermen. Biologists are anticipating one more small pulse of kings to hit the river this week, he said.
“We don’t expect it’s going to be really big but hopefully there will be some numbers to it,” Bergstrom said.
As of Tuesday, the sonar count at Pilot Station was estimated at 102,000 kings. Biologists want to see at least 130,000 kings by the sonar, Bergstrom said.
Kings caught in test nets at the mouth of the river are reported to be bright and silver, which indicates more fish should be on the way, Bergstrom said.
“We aren’t seeing a lot of red or blushed fish yet,” he said.
The main wave of kings headed toward Canada should be around Rampart Rapids above Tanana, Bergstrom said. It will probably take those fish two weeks to reach the Eagle sonar, 16 miles downstream of the Canada border.
“The peak (of the king run at the Eagle sonar) is more the end of the month,” he said. “They should see fish for the next month.”
Judging from reports by fishermen on Tuesday’s teleconference, most subsistence fishermen on the lower Yukon are about done for the year while subsistence fishermen farther up river are just beginning to catch fish.
Fishermen in Ruby are catching as many sticks as fish, Ed Sarten said.
“We’re doing OK but we’ve got a ways to go,” he said. “There’s a lot of debris in the water. We’ve had a lot of trouble with sticks in our nets. The water just keeps coming up.”
Up river, fishermen in Tanana are gearing up for king fishing, James Roberts said.
“Everybody is into subsistence mode right now,” he said.
Stan Zuray at Rampart Rapids said king catches so far this year have been poor and people are just starting to put fish away. Fishermen have been hampered by high water, and most fishermen at the Rapids have pulled their fish wheels ashore to prevent damage.
Even though the Eagle sonar has detected few kings, the farthest up river fish have been caught is Fort Yukon, about 230 miles downstream from Eagle.
On the Tanana River, the first king salmon was caught in a test wheel in Nenana on July 1. As of Monday, the count was 47 fish.
No king salmon have been seen at counting towers on the Chena or Salcha rivers in Fairbanks as of Tuesday.
The summer chum salmon run, meanwhile, continues to chug along. An estimated 1.125 million chums passed the Pilot Station sonar as of Tuesday and biologists are projecting a run of 1.5 million.
The department began opening the lower river to commercial fishing for summer chums on a limited basis last week and more openings are scheduled this week.
As of Tuesday, the combined harvest during those openings was an estimated 5,900 king salmon and 77,000 summer chums.
Fishermen are restricted to using nets with a maximum of 6-inch mesh, which targets smaller summer chums.
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