July 21st Return Update
Returns to Hidden Falls have tapered since opening on Sunday July the 13th when 300k chum were harvested. Openings are continuing but have averaged around 40k adult chum each opening. Hidden Falls will be open this Sunday (7/23) with same lines as this past Thursday. While the returns have tapered quickly since the 23rd we will still most likely surpass 1 million total chum return to Hidden Falls. We continue to make strong progress with chum egg takes at Hidden Falls and are currently at 80 million taken of our 198 million goal and have utilized 100k adults to date. Our estimate is between...
Read MoreJuly 13th Return Update-Hidden Falls produces
The big news this week is today’s Hidden Falls chum opener which, when it is all over today, will be the largest single day harvest in at least the past decade. Early estimates indicate total harvest may top 300k adult chum. This is fabulous news and puts us on a potential path to top a 1 millionchum return this year to Hidden Falls which hasn’t happened since 2013 (1.38m in 2013). Keep in mind we currently release approximately 50% fewer chum fry from Hidden Falls than we did in the brood years that made up the 2013 return. Today Hidden Falls is beginning their chum spawn and we...
Read MoreJuly 5th Hidden Falls return update
Chum returns to Hidden Falls continue to improve and it is beginning to look like our forecast of 800k adults may be possible. To date approximately 213k adults have been harvested by the seine fishery. This will certainly be the largest commercial catch in the Hidden Falls THA in over a decade by the time it is over. While I am optimistic that the return is coming in strong and continuing to build, the Thursday July 6th Hidden Falls opener has had further area restrictions to begin to accumulate brood stock in Kasnyku Bay. Currently there is less than 5k adults behind the barrier net with...
Read MoreFriday June 30 Return Update
After a slow first 10 days of fishing at Hidden Falls things have begun to pick up. Yesterday (6/29) in the Thursday seine opening approximately 60k chum were harvested compared to a cumulative total of 25k for the previous 10 days. The 6/29 sample had a 6.5lb size avg, 67% male and the age structure of the return so far is relatively “normal” with the majority being age 4. . While this harvest increase gives us confidence that the return is tracking our forecast of 800k total return, the lines have been modified for Sundays (7/2) opener to provide more protection for brood...
Read MoreUPDATE: “WE CAN GO FISHING” – Federal Court rules in favor of the Wild Fish Conservancy
June 21, 2023 – “We can go fishing” Following excerpt from ADF&G Advisory Announcement on 6.21.2023: “Today, June 21, 2023, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of the vacatur order and halted the implementation of a U.S. District Courts decision that would have shut down the Chinook salmon troll fishery in Southeast Alaska/Yakutat beginning this summer. Further information is provided in the Alaska Department of Law press release issued earlier today, June 21, at the following address:” “A summer troll fishery advisory announcement will...
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