BRISTOL BAY, Alaska — July 7, 2014 — More than half a million sockeye were counted as escapement on the Wood River on June 26, the second highest daily amount ever.
Last year, the sockeye salmon run to Bristol Bay came early by six or seven days. It also peaked early, and many fishermen missed out. This year, the fleet was prepared for a repeat, which didn't happen. Fishermen were anxious and a little antsy leading up to the first sockeye openers, which seemed a long time coming as the sockeye trickled their way into the rivers. Based on catch numbers from the Port Moller test fishery down river, and the sonar and tower counts upriver, drift boat skippers carefully weighed which district to register in.
Then came the reds. Bristol Bay fishermen went from a total catch of 307,000 sockeye on Tuesday June 24 to 1.4 million on Wednesday, followed by three consecutive days of over 2 million sockeye harvested. Processors all across Bristol Bay were "plugged," and had to restrict fishermen's delivery sizes or enact their own openings and closures for their fleet.
"We do not normally see it ramp up like that," said Fish and Game's manager for the Nushagak and Togiak districts Tim Sands, speaking Tuesday. "We went from really slow escapement, like 10,000 a day, to 22,000 a day on the Wood River, to all of a sudden 200,000 in one day. And then it doubled the day after that."
Read the full story at The Bristol Bay Times