What's Up With Local Fisheries As Of July 11th, 2025

The Fisheries Report From Glennallen 

Miles Lake (Wikipedia) 

 Here is this week’s management update on Copper River fisheries.

 

Commercial Fishery:

When I emailed Thursday, July 3, the Copper River District was open for a 36-hour commercial fishing period. A total of 68 king salmon and about 59,700 sockeye salmon were harvested during that period.

 

Another 36-hour commercial fishing period occurred on Monday, July 7. A total of 60 king salmon and roughly 41,700 sockeye salmon were harvested this period. This has brought the season total harvest in the Copper River District to 5,385 king salmon and 623,139 sockeye salmon. 

 

The Copper River District opened yesterday, Thursday, July 10, for a 36-hour commercial fishing period. Preliminary data from this opening will become available Saturday.

 

Miles Lake SONAR:

Total salmon passage past the sonar is 729,454 salmon through yesterday, July 10. This is about 219,000 more fish than the total management objective for this date. Daily passage remains strong and continues to exceed anticipated passage. You can monitor the sonar counts, and how they compare to the anticipated or expected counts, by CLICKING HERE. Miles Lake sonar counts are also found on the Department’s Fish Counts webpage.

 

King salmon cumulative apportionment at the Miles Lake sonar is tracking very similar to 2021and 2024. This apportionment figure below was provided by the Division of Commercial Fisheries on page 4 of their PWS Salmon Fishery Announcement #26.

 

Native Village of Eyak (NVE) Fish Wheels:

As of July 10, the NVE Baird Canyon fish wheels have captured a total of 2,907 king salmon. For this date, over 99% of the king salmon run has passed the tagging site at Baird Canyon. The NVE fish wheels running at Canyon Creek have captured a total of 549 salmon, of which 79 have been marked. Currently, 14.4% of all king salmon captured at Canyon Creek have been tagged fish. This is a high recapture rate, which is indicative of low abundance. The low sample size of captures at Canyon Creek for most of the season will likely bring a fair amount of uncertainty with the post-season abundance estimate. Tagged king salmon recaptured at Canyon Creek are averaging about 13 days of travel time to get there from Baird Canyon.  Current indices point to a weak king salmon run and currently projections from the NVE data indicate that the final inriver king salmon abundance estimate will be below the lower bound of the SEG.

Copper River:

The Copper River stage height at the Chitina-McCarthy Bridge has been fluctuating around 13.5 ft. The river remains lower than last year on this date and is about 2 feet below the average stage height for this time of year. You can monitor the Copper River stage gauge in Chitina online at this NOAA site.

 

CHITINA SUBDISTRICT PERSONAL USE FISHERY:

The Chitina Subdistrict Personal Use salmon dip net fishery is currently open and will remain open through midnight on July 20.  King salmon retention in the personal use fishery has been prohibited this season by Emergency Order. Any king salmon caught must be released immediately and returned to the water unharmed.  

 

GLENNALLEN SUBDISTRICT SUBSISTENCE FISHERY:

The Glennallen Subdistrict subsistence salmon fishery is currently open and will remain open through September 30. There are no restrictions in place for king salmon in the subsistence fishery.

 

SPORT FISHERIES:

All Upper Copper River drainage king salmon sport fisheries have been restricted to catch-and-release and bait and treble hooks have been prohibited in all flowing waters. King salmon reports from the Gulkana River has been that it’s slow fishing from Sourdough to upstream of the West Fork.  Anglers have reported king salmon catch in the Klutina from the lower river up through 14-mile, but fishing has slowed now that bait cannot be used. Sockeye salmon fishing has picked back up over the past week in the Klutina River.

 

On going salmon research in 2025:

The Gulkana counting tower has passed a total of 2,295 king salmon and 3,474 sockeye salmon through July 10. Gulkana River fish counts can be tracked at theADF&G Fish Counts webpage.

 

Through July 10, a total of 828 sockeye salmon have been radio tagged at Baird Canyon and a total of 301 tagged fish have swam past our lower Copper River tracking station downstream of the Tonsina River. A total of 13 tagged fish have entered the Chitina River drainage, 2 tags have entered the Tonsina River, 188 tags have entered the Klutina River, followed by 26 tags in the Tazlina River, 6 tags in the Gulkana River and 11 tags have passed the Gakona station. Of those 11 radio tags that have passed Gakona, 8 have passed Chistochina heading further upstream. 

 

If you catch a radio-tagged salmon this season, we ask that you please contact the office at 907-822-3309 so we can collect data on when and where the fish was harvested, and the tag number located on the tag itself. Also, if you can return the tag to us in a timely manner, it can be reused this season and put into another salmon.

 

WHAT WE ARE WATCHING FOR NOW:

SOCKEYE SALMON:  We will continue to monitor and track daily passage at Miles Lake. As of today, cumulative passage past the sonar is projecting an end the season sonar count of 921,000 salmon.

 

KING SALMON: The NVE mark-recapture project is nearing the end of the season and projections on king salmon are unlikely to change in any large magnitude.  It is unlikely that any additional restrictions will occur in the upriver fisheries from here onward.  

 

Thanks again for taking the time to read through this update. You’ll hear from me again next week.

-Tracy