June 12th, 2026 Copper River Salmon Report

 Summer's Here! 

Commercial Fishery:

Harvest estimates from the 12-hour period that occurred on June 4 were 915 king salmon and 72,032 sockeye salmon, bringing the season total harvest to 3,930 king salmon and 209,836 sockeye salmon.

 

No commercial fishing period occurred on Monday, June 8. Instead, the Copper River District commercial fishery opened for its fifth period of the season at 7:00 am yesterday, Thursday, June 11. This was a12-hour period that used the offshore boundary, which is the boundary that was used in three of last year’s (2025) commercial fishing periods and is further offshore than the intermediate boundary that has been used so far this season. Preliminary harvest data from this fishing period will be posted on the Copper River Inseason Commercial Harvest Estimates webpage as it becomes available. 

 

For further details on commercial fishery harvest, timing, assessments, and strategies, please refer to the Division of Commercial Fisheries’ Inseason Alaska Commercial Salmon Summary that is available online throughout the fishing season for all areas of the state, including information for Copper River and PWS Drift Gillnet fisheries. 

 

Miles Lake SONAR:

Salmon passage at Miles Lake sonar this season has consistently been below daily anticipated passage until last week, when a welcome spike in fish passage came and brought daily counts within (and even above for a single day) the anticipated range through last weekend. However, counts have dropped back down as of Monday and have remained slightly below the expected daily range since then.

 

 

Total salmon passage through yesterday, June 11, was 171,862 fish. This is about 56,000 less fish than the target cumulative management objective for this date. 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.

A total of 10,938 large king salmon have been counted at Miles Lake sonar through June 9. This cumulative count of large king salmon is tracking very closely to what was observed last year at this time and is also is very similar to what was observed in both 2020 and 2023 for this date. For reference, the 2020 season ended with the lowest large king salmon count since sonar apportionment began and the escapement goal was not met that season, and the 2023 season ended with a very strong count of large king salmon and the escapement goal was exceeded that season. 

 

Large king salmon counts are available online on the Department’s Fish Counts webpage. Because of data processing constraints, counts of large king salmon passage are not available on a next-day basis like the unapportioned, total salmon counts. Large king salmon counts are posted online at least twice a week, typically on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

 

Native Village of Eyak (NVE) Fish Wheels:

The NVE Baird Canyon research fish wheels along with the upriver Canyon Creek camp fish wheels have been catching king salmon. It is still too soon to make any sort of inseason projection of run strength from NVE capture and recapture data.

 

Gulkana River Counting Tower:

The Gulkana River has been very murky over the past week and limited the ability for the tower crew to conduct visual counts for salmon for several days following installation.  Water clarity improved enough on June 7 for the crew to once again begin counts on the East channel and by the following day (June 8), counts resumed on the West channel. The first salmon were observed at the project on June 9. A total of 48 king salmon and 348 sockeye salmon are estimated to have passed the tower site as of yesterday, June 11. Salmon counts from the Gulkana River can be tracked online inseason on the Fish Counts webpage.

 

In case you’ve never had the opportunity to see the Gulkana River counting tower firsthand, I’ve included an aerial view photo below. The project is located upstream of the West Fork, where an island splits the river into 2 channels. Having 2 channels makes it easier for observers to see the full width of the river (2 narrower channels instead of 1 wider channel).  A tower platform, which is about 15-ft high, is installed adjacent to the flash panels and provides the crew a vantage point to conduct their count. Flash panels, which are 8-ft wide white tarps, are affixed to the river bottom to aid in visibility. A small section of picket weir at the base of the tower platform funnels fish offshore and over the flash panels to help ensure they can be easily seen. Salmon are identified by species and tallied as they swim upstream. 

 

The counting tower has been operating each season for over 20 years and provides an annual estimate of the number of king salmon spawning upriver.

 

 

Copper River:

Water level at the Chitina-McCarthy Bridge has continued to rise over the past week. The Copper River has come up about a foot since my last email but is still tracking below average for this time of year. If you don’t remember, last season had historical low water at the Chitina-McCarthy Bridge through mid-June and we are sitting about 2 feet higher than last year at this time. You can monitor the Copper River stage gauge in Chitina online at the NOAA website. 

 

The figure below shows the range of average daily river stage heights observed since 2006 (shaded gray), the average stage height from all years (solid black line), this year’s reading (solid red line), and how that compares to last year’s reading (blue dashed line). 

 

CHITINA SUBDISTRICT PERSONAL USE FISHERY:

The Chitina Subdistrict Personal Use salmon dip net fishery opened for the season today, at 12pm noon on Friday, June 12. This week, the Emergency Order announcing the fishing time for June 15-21 was released on Wednesday, and the fishery will now be open through 11:59 p.m. Sunday, June 21.  Remember, dipnetters fishing in the Chitina Subdistrict are not allowed to keep any king salmon during the month of June. Any king salmon caught must be released immediately.  

 

GLENNALLEN SUBDISTRICT SUBSISTENCE FISHERY:

The Glennallen Subdistrict subsistence salmon fishery is open now through September 30. Salmon are being caught in fishwheels from Chitina to Gulkana. Last weekend, subsistence dipnetting upstream of the Chitina-McCarthy Bridge was reported as slow and effort was very low. I anticipate more effort occurring this weekend.

 

SPORT FISHERIES:

Reports of king salmon being caught in the lower Gulkana River sport fishery have been coming in over the past few days, with most catch occurring from Sailor’s Pit downstream to the Richardson Highway. Effort is still low but will likely begin to pick up over the next two weeks as more salmon enter the system. The water clarity has been improving over the week, but the river is not yet running completely clear. The Gulkana River is the only road-accessible king salmon fishery open right now in the Upper Copper River drainage – as the king salmon season does not open on the Klutina and Tonsina Rivers until July 1. Anyone fishing for king salmon in Upper Copper River drainage this season is required to obtain a King Salmon Sport Fishery Permit to record their harvest and report that information back to the department by the end August.

 

Sockeye salmon are being caught in the Klutina River and numbers of fish moving into that system should continue to improve each day for the remainder of the month.

 

WHAT I AM THINKING NOW:

Salmon entry into the Copper River this season has been slow, and has been presumably late due to the cold, late-spring conditions that persisted throughout the month of May. Because of this, we have been consistently behind the expected, cumulative count of salmon inriver this season.  The minimum, expected total salmon count in river through yesterday, June 11, was 227,588 fish and we are about 56,000 salmon short of that.

 

Generally, the first half of June brings the strongest salmon counts at Miles Lake sonar for the season. I was encouraged by last week’s increased passage numbers and I was anticipating seeing passage counts that would fall well within the daily objective range this week, and perhaps even exceed the range for a day or two, as that is what we have observed many times in the past during this time of year. However, that is not what has happened so far. Instead, daily counts at Miles Lake have since dropped back down and salmon passage has only been hovering near the minimum daily objective. Long story short, I was thinking we would “make up” some of this salmon deficit we have due to the late run entry but that has not yet happened.

 

While the majority of the sockeye run is still ahead of us, I feel this current deficit supports conservative management of sockeye salmon fisheries upriver, specifically the Chitina Subdistrict personal use dip net fishery. The personal use fishery has the highest harvest potential of all the upriver fisheries, due to the high amount of participation and effectiveness of fishing in that portion of the Copper River.  Until we see substantial sonar counts to make-up this deficit, we may need to reduce weekly fishing time in the personal use fishery even if we are meeting the daily count objectives.  For example, this could look like reducing the fishing time up to 50% (7 days reduced to 3.5 days). From experience, we know that when fewer fish pass the sonar the upriver harvest naturally declines but by taking a proactive approach to conservative management in the personal use fishery, we should most likely be able to maintain consistent fishing opportunity for dipnetting below the bridge throughout the entire season. At this point in time, no action would likely be needed in the sport fishery since harvest of sockeye is overall low in that fishery and based on current passage trends, it is highly UNLIKELY that the subsistence fishery would require any sort of restriction.

 

I think it’s worth mentioning that we have been in this situation before during the 2023 season, when salmon entry into the Copper River was late. The later portion of the run that year was very strong and no additional reductions in fishing time were needed in the personal use fishery that season other than for 1 week. I am optimistic that a similar trend will follow this year.  I’ve included graphs below that show this season’s salmon passage (the red line) compared to the 2023 season’s passage (black dashed line) for reference. 

 

 

King salmon run strength is still not yet certain. Large king salmon passage trends at Miles Lake through June 9 are tracking similar to last year as of this date, and last season’s total large king salmon count was approximately 28,000 fish. If large king salmon counts continue to track like last year, no restrictions in the subsistence fishery will be needed this season.  

 

With that said, we have had other years where total sonar large king salmon counts are similar to what we have now where we have not met escapement (2020) and also years where we have exceeded the upper end of the escapement goal (2023). This is why it is so difficult to gauge what this year’s king run will materialize to be. The run may be weak. There is also a chance that the king salmon run may be late, as we know water temperatures have been cold this season and those seem to affect salmon run entry. For now, we continue to sit and impatiently wait to see apportionment data from Miles Lake. We have time and will continue to monitor the run before implementing any management action since very little harvest of king salmon is occurring in the sport fishery and no harvest of king salmon is allowed in the personal use fishery this month