Bait allowed again on lower Klawock River as fall coho move in

"There are a lot of fresh fish in the Klawock River which opened to bait on September 15," Area Management Biologist Craig Schwanke wrote in this week's Prince of Wales Island report.

That opening runs against the grain of the season. Fish and Game has imposed bait bans and coho closures elsewhere in Southeast on weaker runs. The Klawock can absorb the pressure because its escapement is mostly hatchery fish — enough so that the department dropped its wild escapement goal for the river and now manages it to the hatchery's schedule instead.

Bait is allowed only downstream of department markers below the weir, from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15. Above those markers it's unbaited lures or flies year round. Regionally, bait is legal Sept. 15 through Nov. 15 unless a special rule says otherwise.

Southeast limits are six coho a day, 12 in possession, 16 inches or longer.

Schwanke also pointed anglers toward Staney Creek, the Harris River and the Klawock hatchery return as good alternatives. Subsistence and tribal users in the drainage are under their own closures and gear limits.