Emergency Opener

By Caylen Kalmakoff

Fish and Game had to open the Chignik Bay salmon fishery early due to too many fish passing through the weir. Usually, fishing doesn’t start until the middle of June to early July but this year it started on June 3. No fisherman was expecting this to happen. I mean no one. The Fish and Game count limit is supposed to be forty thousand but there were too many fish going up the river. 20,000-30,000 salmon and more passed through the weir in a single day.

Cape Caution Tender

            This year there were over 50 boats fishing in the Chignik Bay fishery. The first week or two of fishing was so good that every boat was loaded full; some even had a big bag alongside. The kind of salmon caught here is red, “humpy”, king, dog and silver salmon. The others are good, but red salmon are the fish we want.

Fishing Net

            When Fish and Game announced that there would be an emergency opener, people started to scrabble all around. There were planes coming in full of passengers. After everything was said and done it meant money in their pockets. And it meant a lot more work, because the more fish they caught, the more work there was. The price for the fish this year was $1.20/lbs.  This fishing season was the best out of the past years so far.