Winter troll fishery: 'amazing catch rates at good prices'

Days are long and arduous in January and February for trollers fishing Chinook salmon in rough weather conditions.

But the "amazing catch rates at good prices" encountered during those months benefitted not only the resident fishermen "out there, grinding away"- but also the overall troll fishery, which harvested over the entire winter allocation of 45,000 king salmon.

Grant Hagerman, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) Region I Commercial Troll Management Biologist, told the Pilot that harvest rates in January and February "were very high ... much higher than we've ever seen..."

"It was...