2026 Fishing Information

KRITFC In-Season Managers, Executive Council members, Elder Advisors, and staff are actively working with our collaborative management partners at Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge to prepare for the upcoming salmon season.

The Alaska Department of Fish & Game is forecasting a 2026 Chinook salmon return between 128,000 and 200,000 fish, which is higher than the estimated 2025 return of 120,000 Chinook— meeting the upper-end of the escapement goal range (65,000–120,000) to restore and conserve these stocks. There are not pre-season forecasts for other salmon species on which our communities and ecosystems depend.

Our KRITFC-Yukon Delta NWR team will rely on in-season indicators of salmon abundance to guide our management, as well as Traditional Knowledge, but we anticipate the need for conservation closures to protect the health of present and future Chinook, chum, and coho salmon stocks. Our goal is always to provide as many opportunities for Federally qualified subsistence fishing as we can, even with closures, as outlined in ANILCA Title VIII, as well as in our joint 2025 Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Strategy.

Keep afloat of fishing information this season! Follow us on Facebook, sign up for our email newsletter, join our weekly in-season teleconferences, and check back to this page for regular updates as the season progresses.

Quyana! Dogedinh! Chin’an! Tsen’anh! Thank you!

Federal Management Actions

There have been no announced federal management actions for the 2026 fishing season.

To receive Federal Subsistence Management Program announcements by email, contact fws-fsb-subsistence-request@lists.fws.gov to sign-up.

State Management Actions

For the Kuskokwim River:

There have been no announced federal management actions for the 2026 fishing season.

For the Kuskokwim Bay:

There have been no announced federal management actions for the 2026 fishing season.

To sign up to receive Alaska Department of Fish & Game advisory announcements by email, sign up here.

2026 Harvest Stimates (Between Tuntutuliak and Tuluksak)

There have been no fishing openers yet in 2026. Check back for harvest information after the first opener!

South Alaska Peninsula (Area M) Salmon Harvest Estimates

The annual June Area M fisheries are known for intercepting Western and Interior Alaska salmon migrating from the Gulf of Alaska to the Bering Sea. These are total numbers of salmon bycatch and not Kuskokwim-specific salmon. Over time, Western and Interior Alaska chum salmon have made up 18–57% of overall chum salmon landings in the Area M June fishery. An unknown number of Western and Interior Alaska Chinook salmon are caught in these fisheries.

This state fishery is managed by the Alaska Board of Fisheries and Alaska Department of Fish & Game.

Bering Sea Salmon Bycatch Report

These federal fisheries are managed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) and NOAA Fisheries, and they include pollock trawl fisheries. On average, 40-50% of all Chinook salmon and 12-20% of all chum salmon bycatch in Bering Sea pollock trawl fisheries are of Western and Interior Alaska origin.

Banner photo courtesy of Leona Burnett.

2026 Fishing News