According to data from last year's Kenai River sockeye run, the fishing was steady. More than enough fish made it up the river to spawn and commercial fishermen were slightly over their 10-year average harvest. But for dipnetters?
Slow fishing and a lower-than-average overall harvest.
Some 259,000 fish were harvested by permit holders last year, according to preliminary harvest numbers from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game released earlier this week. That's down 31 percent from 2015 and trailing both the 10- and five-year averages for the popular sockeye salmon fishery.
Why?
