Fish On!

So after dropping Chad at the airport we headed down to the lagoon to get front row seats for the commercial salmon opener at Hume point. Fish and Game keeps sockeye counts at their weir and finally had enough escapement (~200,000) to allow a 48 hour opener. So, they decided to open the season at 3:30 pm on June 20. We arrived a half hour early to ensure that we would not miss it. There were about 20 boats waiting for the countdown to make their first sets of the season.

At 3:30 the Fish and Game boat gave a radio countdown and fired a flare gun ( a couple seconds early) to indicate the fishery open.

Nets out!

The Kurt Eldon makes their first set of the season with the tender practically pulling the net up on the beach. He is only about 50 feet from where we stand on the shore.

Kurt Eldon with a nice haul pulling the boat over. The first day of lagoon fishing netted about 19,000 fish for the fishery, so now the cannery is in full swing as well. More on that later.