Fall chum and coho fishing is closed across the Tanana drainage

Harvest of fall chum and coho salmon is closed across the Tanana drainage for sport, subsistence and personal use, starting Saturday and running through the end of the year unless the state reopens it. The closure covers those two species only, not all fishing.

State and federal managers issued the closures together Aug. 11, shutting harvest in both state and federal waters. The move follows the Board of Fisheries designating fall chum a stock of management concern this year and shifting the fall season three days earlier than usual.

Fish and Game calls the closure precautionary. Fall chum are running above their long-term median on the Yukon so far, but the department says it is too early in the season to judge the strength of the Tanana-bound run specifically, and it expects a below-average coho return. Genetic sampling in late July and early August found about a quarter of the fall chum passing the lower river were Tanana-bound stock.