Friday 8/20 Update
What a difference a week makes. Chum returns to the Sitka area have improved greatly over the past week. We have seen our weekly catch numbers match our long-term average for Deep Inlet for stat week 33, and based upon current catch, this week at Deep Inlet may surpass the long-term average. Most recent Deep Inlet gillnet sample indicates 65% male and 63% 3-year olds. Troll catch continues to be excellent at both Deep Inlet and West Crawfish with a current catch rate of ~80k per week for the troll fleet at Deep Inlet/Eastern Channel alone. An additional 50k chum were caught last week in...
Read MoreMonday 8/16 Update
The Deep Inlet fall chum catch continued to be strong over the weekend with another good catch on Sunday by the seine fleet and the combined gillnet, seine, and troll catch for stat wk 33 is looking to be over 200k fish. The most recent seine samples from Fri and Sun show a drop in male ratio to ~50% male and an increase in the 3-year old percentage from the mid 30% range prior week to 65% 3-year olds, with age fours making up the remaining 35%. While the recent strong catches are good to see the rapid drop in 4-year olds is concerning and likely means the run will have a sharp drop off...
Read MoreDeep Inlet update Fri 8/13
The fall chum catch in Deep Inlet has remained strong since the uptick in gillnet catch Monday morning through the Friday seine rotation. Initial indications are the gillnet catch will surpass 35k fish for M-W and the Th-F seine catch will almost certainly top 100k fish. There have been reports that Friday afternoon the seine catch had slowed but still is an impressive build from the extremely bleak stat week 32. The Tuesday 8/11 gillnet catch was 67% male with a 60% 4-year old component and 39% 3-year olds. We will be sampling the Th-F and Sun seine catch to see if the sex ration and...
Read MoreWK 32 Return Update
Returns through week 32 for fall chum salmon continued to be weak to Deep Inlet despite significant troll interception in the Sitka Sound troll fishery totaling 57k fish in week 32. With the change in weather over the past weekend some of the volume in Sitka Sound has begun to make it into Deep Inlet and the gillnet fleet. The gillnet fishery is still ongoing today but there has been a significant increase in the catch from last week starting Monday and continuing through today (Wednesday) and by far will be the largest weekly gillnet catch of the season. Additionally another 23k troll...
Read MoreWK 31 Return Update
Returns in stat week 31 continued to be poor and below forecast for fall chum salmon at Deep Inlet. Historically stat week 31 is when the fall chum run catch begins to increase at Deep Inlet. This past week in stat wk 31 the catch actually dropped from week 30. Beginning on Saturday, July 31, strong troll catches of chum started to develop in Sitka Sound and continued into the first few days of the current stat week 32. There was considerable troll effort in the sound Monday through today but indications are per boat catch has dropped with the increased effort and change from calm sunny...
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