Want to spear whitefish by lantern light? The permit deadline is Friday

Alaska resident households have until 11:59 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7, to enter the lottery for one of 400 permits to spear whitefish on the Chatanika River. Miss it, and there's no permit through this lottery for the season.

It's a distinctive fishery. Permit holders work the river after dark with lanterns and spears, covering about seven miles from the Elliott Highway Bridge down to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline crossing, usually mid-September through mid-October. A household can take 10 fish, in any mix of humpback whitefish, round whitefish and least cisco, and has to record the catch before leaving the site.

The lottery and the harvest cap exist to protect the whitefish, which were overfished years ago badly enough to force a long closure. Applications go through the ADF&G online store, one per household, with every member named. This is a personal use fishery, not sport, and spearing whitefish here under sport regulations isn't allowed.

Harvest reports are due Oct. 31, and a household that skips the report loses its eligibility for next year.