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Bristol Bay Fisheries Report: July 1, 2017

UW Fisheries Research Institute, Dr. Curry Cunningham

A wimpy 62,700 sockeye landed Friday, and just 202,000 counted as escapement ... Bristol Bay is in the doldrums this weekend ... how soon till it picks up? Paul Salomone is on the show to discuss that and his coming plans, plus Naknek drifter Gabe Dunham on hoping for something other than a "compressed" run, and we climb aboard the Olivia M as it buys fish Wednesday night in Egegik.

Catch this program nightly at 6 p.m., 10 p.m., and 2 a.m. on AM 670, and online at KDLG.org. (With early broadcasts Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.)

The total run to Bristol Bay through Friday's catch and escapement is just inside of 8 million, and seems stalled out just a bit. The genetics from Port Moller showed a strong Egegik component since the project began, but have those fish just not "committed" to the river yet? Naknek-Kvichak is bracing for a "compressed" run if 16 million run inshore together, and Ugashik boats, a long way from "home" in Naknek, are hopefully enjoying a good book. Maybe the salmon are looking for the upper hand here ... if you were a Bristol Bay sockeye, wouldn't you blast up the west side early, surge en masse up the Naknek-Kvichak, and fidget around with Egegik and Ugashik, hoping to catch them off guard? ADF&G's Paul Salomone, the Oracle's Gabe Dunham, and a trip aboard the tender Olivia M in Egegik on today's show.

Credit Sam Gardner / KDLG
Bradley Gardner prepping for a career in this fishery.

Catch this program nightly at 6 p.m., 10 p.m., and 2 a.m. on AM 670, and online at KDLG.org. (With early broadcasts Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.)

Letters from home to your friends and family in the Bay this summer? Email us at fish@kdlg.org or dave@kdlg.org, or call 907-842-5281. 

Have feedback, suggestions of something you'd like to hear? ReachAveryLill / Nick Ciolino /Allison Mollenkamp / or Caitlin Tan (in Naknek)

Credit ADF&G