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FAIRBANKS — Citing a small harvest and only about a 50 percent participation rate, the Department of Fish and Game will issue twice as many whitefish spearfishing permits for the Chatanika River this year as it did last.

The department will issue 200 personal-use permits to spear whitefish in the Chatanika River later this fall beginning at 8 a.m. Monday on a first-come, first-served basis. The permits are good for 10 fish per household.

The season opens Sept. 26 and closes Oct. 26.

The department issued 100 permits last year, the first time spearfishing was allowed on the Chatanika River in more than a decade. Each permit holder was allowed a maximum of 10 fish for the season.

But Audra Brase, lower Tanana area management biologist with the Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks, said only 52 of the 100 permit holders participated in the fishery and the total harvest was only 267 fish, an average of about five fish per permit. Biologists said the fishery can handle a harvest of 1,000 fish.

“There were a lot of people who didn’t fish,” Brase said. “We want to give folks more opportunity if people are not going to fish.”

The season was also extended this year. Last year the season ran from Sept. 21 to Oct. 8 and this year it will be open from Sept. 26 to Oct. 26.

People who did participate in the fishery last year reported better success later in the season, prompting managers to move the season to a later date and extend it by about two weeks.

One permit per household is issued and you must be an Alaska resident to get a permit. Permit applicants must have a Alaska sport fishing license.

The bag limit will remain at 10 whitefish per household. The fishery boundaries are also the same — from the downstream side of the Elliott Highway bridge to Department of Fish and Game markers located about seven miles down from the bridge at the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline crossing.

Anyone with questions can call the Division of Sport Fish in Fairbanks at 459-7224.

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Dip netting in the Copper River is better than it was but it’s still not great, judging from the reports coming back from Chitina.

“People are still expecting to come down and get 30 fish in five hours and it’s not like that,” Glennallen area biologist Mark Somerville said. “If you come down and spend a couple days you might get your limit.”

Dipping did pick up in the past week, though, according to Mark Hem of Hem’s Charters.

“Fishing is the best we’ve seen all year,” Hem said on his hotline report Tuesday after the fishery opened following a 36-hour closure.

The Copper River is finally dropping and there appear to be a slug of fish moving through the Chitina area, based on test fish wheel catches and dip-netter reports.

“The river came down a bit and I think that got some fish that were holding moving up the river,” Somerville said.

The fish dip-netters are catching are the biggest of the season, Somerville said. An ADF&G research crew reported catching a 14-pound red salmon the other day, he said.

“That’s huge,” Somerville said.

The dip net fishery is open continuously through midnight on Aug. 24. It will then be closed until noon on Aug. 28, Somerville said.

Charters will ferry dip-netters to fishing spots from O’Brien Creek at least through Aug. 23, Hem said on his hotline.

For the latest scoop on dip netting in Chitina, call Hem’s hotline at 823-2200.

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Even with the high price of gas, it might be worth a trip to the Mat-Su Valley for some silver salmon fishing.

“There are silvers all over the place,” reported sport fish biologist Samantha Oslind with ADF&G in Palmer.

The Eklutna Tailrace, Jim Creek, the Little Susitna River, the Deshka River, the Parks Highway streams, the Talkeetna River, you name it and there’s a good chance you’ll find some coho, Oslind said.

This is a big pink salmon year in the Valley, too, and there are lots of pinks in the Parks Highway streams and Little Susitna River.

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Red salmon fishing on the Kenai Peninsula is winding down and will close in the Russian and Kenai rivers on Aug. 20.

“It’s coho and rainbow season around here now,” said area management biologist Robert Begich with ADF&G in Soldotna.

Anglers are still having moderate success picking up reds in the Russian River and the upper Kenai River. No fishing is allowed below a sonar counter at Mile 19 of the Kenai and the bag limit has been reduced to one fish a day above the sonar.

The current sonar count is 590,000 reds and biologists are hoping for a count of 650,000, Begich said.

The start of the coho run has been strong and silver fishing is better than normal this early in the season, he said. There are silvers spread from Skilak Lake all the way down to the mouth. There are some silvers in the Russian River, too.

There have been only a few silvers reported in the Kasilof River but numbers should increase as the month progresses.

There are lots of pink salmon entering the Kenai River and the bag limit for pinks is six a day, said Begich.

King and red salmon are spawning in the upper Kenai River and the rainbow trout fishing is picking up. It should just get better with time.

Contact staff writer Tim Mowry at 459-7587.