Southeast trollers have an additional ten days to hunt for coho — also known as silver salmon prior to the time when the summer season officially draws to an end.
The Alaska Department of Fish & Game announced the extension on Friday, moving the date of closure for the season up from normal September. 20 to Sept. 30.
The last time we heard of summer trolling included an incredible chum harvest. This year silvers are the talk of the town.
“You know this year will be the first time in about five, six or seven years that trollers want to capture more than a million cohos” explained Grant Hagerman, the area biologist who manages trolls of Southeast Alaska. Chum runs are mostly produced by hatcheries. While Chum runs were strong however, the cost of chum dropped, which forced the fleet to restart and turn its attention to coho.
“With the fall-off in this market, it changed the market quite a bit, and the effort was reduced,” said Hagerman. “And when chinook shut down the effort went back to coho which was not available this year. We weren’t able to meet the chinook limit, and coho fishing was lower than usual, because we only had one third of our fleet fishing the hatchery, chum Salmon for the third quarter in the course of summer. It was definitely distinct this year.”
In the past few weeks, the catch rate for the coho has been over times the average over time this is not only for the trollers but also for gillnetters. The department is witnessing positive escapes, as coho that are able to catch through the hooks and nets are able to reach their home streams in large numbers.
Hagerman claims that the price went up in the latter part of the season, when coho got noticeably bigger. While the final price usually isn’t decided by processors until the end of the season is over, Hagerman believes it will be around $1.80 which is $2.00.
Although it’s not the gimmick of 2022’s chum season but coho fishing could be a source of steady income in a field which is inherently volatile.
“I believe that it was an incredible amount of money, $9-to-10-million which was taken during a six- to 7-week time period” stated Hagerman of the 2022 chum chum season. “Without an industry for these chums and chinook salmon being shut to the public, good to know that these cohos were available.”
A large portion of the coastline that lie between Baranof as well as Chichagof islands, as well as those at the Fairweather Grounds, will be closed for the duration of the extended season due to the large number of King salmon. Anglers who wish to hunt this species will only need to wait for a couple of weeks. The Chinook’s winter season begins on October. 11.
