Fairbanks-area personal use fishers can use gillnets and keep coho starting Friday

Personal use fishers between the Wood River and the Salcha River may set 6-inch or smaller mesh gillnets, dip nets, and fish wheels, and keep coho salmon starting at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game ties the gear and species expansion to a fall chum run it now projects at more than 900,000 fish.

The schedule itself does not change. Subdistrict 6-C, covering Fairbanks, North Pole and Salcha, stays on two 42-hour periods per week: 6 p.m. Mondays to noon Wednesdays, and 6 p.m. Fridays to noon Sundays. What changes is gear and retention. Under the department's advisory of Aug. 26, the fishery was open for chum only, with dip nets and manned fish wheels, and "All coho salmon must be released alive."

Subsistence fishing for chum and coho salmon in District 6 opens on the same two-period weekly schedule Sept. 4, under Emergency Order 3-S-FY-07-26. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a corresponding federal special action, TSA 03-FC-12-26. An earlier action, TSA 03-FC-06-26, had closed fall chum and coho harvest for all users in federal public waters of the Tanana River drainage through 8 a.m. Dec. 31.

The reversal is recent. Personal use salmon fishing in 6-C closed at noon on Aug. 12 as the department shifted District 6 into fall management, then reopened for chum on Aug. 28. The department's latest projection puts fall chum above the drainagewide escapement goal range of 300,000 to 600,000 fish. Coho are the weaker run, projected at 107,000 to 138,000 fish against a historical average index of 212,000, and are still authorized for harvest.

The Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association, in its statement on Yukon River salmon declines, argued that non-selective gillnet gear raises bycatch risk for depleted stocks across the drainage. The department's advisory included no stakeholder comment.

A personal use salmon permit and a valid sport fishing license are required. Yukon Area permits expire Oct. 15, with harvest reports due Oct. 25. 6-C permit holders must also file weekly reports.