Eggtakes began Saturday and continued Sunday with a total of 5 million chum eggs. The broodstock picture is improving but not yet secure. The estimate for Medvejie/Bear Cove is 35,000 fish with another 25,000 around the corner at the outfall of the Green Lake dam in Silver Bay (these will likely come around to Medvejie). Deep Inlet fish are still scattered through the THA but no large schools at the head end.
It appears the chum coming into Deep Inlet continue to ‘visit’ and swirl back out to Eastern Channel. Troll and sport charter reports are very good with observations of thousands of chum in the Makhnati area and further out. They report a mix of sizes and conditions from bright to very dark, large males. The good news about our observations and analysis is that the fish we need for broodstock are here; what is frustrating is that the fish are not in any one place where we can efficiently collect them. I expect on the low end 100,000 left in the run; on the high end 250,000. Until we get the total 90,000 chum goal at Medvejie or in net pens we cannot risk opening the fisheries. The netpens are at Deep Inlet, we have a purse seine boat ready to go, and as soon as we have an opportunity we will secure the balance of what we need.
Warm water temperatures may be a factor in the fish not collecting at the head of Deep Inlet. The cooler, more voluminous waters of Medvejie and Green Lake dumping into Silver Bay may present conditions more favorable to holding the chum there. The modest storm we had Sunday seemed to help move the fish around and we expect to see further improvement today.
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