Southeast troll fishery extended through Sept. 30 for all salmon but kings

Trollers get ten more days on surplus coho, but a smaller fleet may not cash in

Southeast and Yakutat trollers get ten more days on the water. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game extended the summer troll fishery through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, for retention of all salmon species except Chinook. The season had been set to end Sept. 20.

The extension does not reach everywhere. Districts 11, 14 and 15 close to commercial trolling at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 20, as do the waters of District 12 north of 57°41.65′ N latitude. Waters of frequent high king salmon abundance and the general regulatory closures stay shut, along with the District 181 area closure at Yakutat in effect since June.

The department's stated reason is escapement, not abundance in the troll fleet. It projects regional coho escapement goals will be met and that fish beyond spawning needs are available in select waters. In the Southeast Alaska Summer Troll Fishery Announcement, the department writes that regional weekly wild coho catch per unit effort in the troll fishery "has been below the recent 20-year average for the duration of the summer season," while drift gillnet coho rates have climbed to near or above the 10-year average. Accounting for what it calls substantially reduced troll fleet effort, the department estimates the 2026 cumulative wild coho troll harvest will land below the recent five-year average and below the record lows of 2018 through 2025.

Here is what gets lost in the word extension: more days are not more fish. This fleet is smaller and slower than it was, the same pattern that stretched the summer Chinook season into mid-July with half the 84,000-fish target still in the water, as Saving Seafood covered in July, citing troll management biologist Grant Hagerman.

Terminal harvest areas run on separate clocks. Anita Bay stays open to troll gear for all salmon, including Chinook, through Nov. 10; Neets Bay is open Sept. 18 through Oct. 10, no kings. Winter troll opens 12:01 a.m. Oct. 11, and every summer-caught fish must be offloaded before a vessel joins it.