Troll fishery has short closure after long king opening - KFSK

Posted by Joe Viechnicki | Jul 26, 2022Commercial salmon trolling in most of Southeast Alaska shuts down briefly just before midnight Thursday, July 28. That’s after a king salmon opening that lasted for most of this month.The first summer opening for kings started July 1st and was projected to last 10-12 days. The fleet has caught an estimated 87,000 chinook during that time, well below the target of 106,900 fish.Grant Hagerman, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s troll management biologist for Southeast, said catch rates have been lower than expected“We initially had projected out 10-12 days,” Hagerman said. “But it was very apparent I think at least when the first set of landings came in over that first week, not only from fish tickets but from fishermen interviews that things weren’t quite as good as what we anticipated as far as catch rates. It’s just not consistent through the region. There has been some very good king fishing but it’s just not distributed all throughout the...