Kuskokwim subsistence fishing reopens as salmon run strong

The salmon are running well enough on the lower Kuskokwim that subsistence fishing is opening back up — and the state, not the federal government, is back in charge of much of the river.

Fish and Wildlife handed management of the lower mainstem back to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Monday, and subsistence fishing is now open across Sections 1-5 for all salmon and all gear types. The exception is the Aniak River, where gillnets stay closed and any Chinook caught on a line has to go back in the water alive.

The numbers behind the opening are encouraging: about 90% of the Chinook run has already passed Bethel with the escapement goal on track to be met, and chum are running well above average.

That state-versus-federal handoff has been about who controls the Kuskokwim and has been fought over for years.

Federal managers have priority on the river to protect rural subsistence users — a authority Alaska has repeatedly challenged, arguing the Kuskokwim is a navigable waterway the state should control, not "public land" under federal subsistence law.

The state lost that fight: a federal appeals court upheld the federal role in 2025, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take Alaska's appeal early this year. So while the state manages the mainstem again for now, it does so under a legal order affirming that federal authority holds when subsistence is at stake — the tributaries in Sections 1-3, in fact, stay under federal control.