Tanana subsistence chum fishing reopens while coho stays closed

Subsistence fishers on the Tanana River can keep chum salmon and nonsalmon species again, around the clock, after an 11-day closure. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reopened the fishery at 1 pm Wednesday in Subdistricts 6-A and 6-B and the Old Minto Area.

The water runs from the mouth of the Tanana upstream to the Wood River, taking in the Kantishna River drainage, Lake Minchumina, Manley, Minto and Nenana. The opening begins 500 feet upstream of the Yukon River mainstem, which stays shut.

Fall chum came back stronger than the department expected. Roughly 752,000 were estimated in the river as of Aug. 25, about a quarter above the top of the drainagewide escapement goal of 300,000 to 600,000 fish.

Coho did not. The department projects a run of 63,000 to 86,000 this year against a historical average of 212,000, somewhere between a third and two-fifths of normal. Coho subsistence fishing stays closed, and any coho caught has to be released alive. So does any Chinook.

The Yukon mainstem remains closed to protect Canadian-origin fall chum, the same treaty shortfall behind the Aug. 15 closure of this district.

Gear is limited to selective types: manned fish wheels, dip nets, beach seines, rod and reel, hand line, longline, fyke net, and gillnets with mesh no larger than six inches.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a matching action on federal public waters in the Tanana drainage, running through the end of the year, where chum harvest is limited to federally qualified subsistence users. Personal-use chum fishing in Subdistrict 6-C opened separately Friday evening and runs on two 42-hour periods a week.

A subsistence permit is required for salmon in the Tanana drainage up to the Wood River. Schedules and counts are available from area management biologist Matt Olson at 1-866-479-7387.