By Sentinel Staff
A large area off the shoreline on the southwest side of Sitka Sound was opened for nearly five hours of fishing in the sac roe herring fishery Monday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported.
Fishing started at 12:15 p.m. and closed at 5 p.m. in the opening, which occurred around Redoubt Bay, Pirates Cove and Samsing Bay. Catch totals were not released as of press time today.
By Saturday, the most recent previous opening, the total catch in the annual fishery was 4,200 tons of the guideline harvest level of 30,124 tons, Fish and Game said.
A Monday morning test set in Redoubt Bay pulled up herring with 11.1 percent mature roe and 0.1 percent immature roe, and another test set a few minutes later at 8:52 a.m. in Kidney Cove netted fish with 10.7 percent mature roe and no immature roe, Fish and Game said. A third set at Cape Burunof netted fish with 11.8 percent mature roe and 0.2 percent immature roe. In the three sets, female fish made up between 44 and 50 percent of those caught, the agency said.
The agency planned to conduct more herring surveys today. They report active herring spawn has extended in a clockwise fashion across much of the shoreline of Sitka Sound from the east side of Kruzof Island, northward into the Magouns, along the southern shore of Krestof Island and along the northern half of Sitka’s road system. Spawn has also occurred around Crow Pass, the Siginaka Islands, Gavanski Island, and on the Sitka shoreline from Halibut Point nearly to Sitka Channel.
All told, Department of Fish and Game surveys spotted 29.3 nautical miles of active spawn Monday, for a cumulative season total of 47.1 nautical miles.
