United States: Togiak wraps up herring season with good fishing, no hope for good prices

The herring harvest this spring was about average for Gillnetter Frank Woods. But the season came with a few surprises:, “The fish came in ripe, and were spawning as they came in,” he said. “And the age-class composition was mixed before they even hit the shore.”, Some fish usually spawn as they enter the district, but Woods said normally, many spawn only after they reach warmer waters closer to shore., Seiners reported that mixed age classes made targeting bigger fish difficult. Woods started fishing about a week after the opener, and by then, the fish were smaller., “We started out with three-inch gear, which was trying to target the 350 or 300 gram fish,” he said. “We got a bunch, but after the fifth or sixth day it was pretty much over — all the fish had moved offshore.”, When the purse seine fleet stopped fishing in mid-May, state managers expanded the fishing area for the gillnet fleet, which didn’t stay out much longer., “The gillnet fleet subsequently quit fishing, and so ...