I know ..... really novice question
Are the salmon around most all the time, and then seasons open? Or do they go so far "out to sea" that they are not around at times?
Obviously only age classes spawn so they have to live oceanside for some amount of years.
Commercial and sport would both have specific seasons?
down here, that I can recall, there is no "fishing" season so to speak freshwater. And very few seasons salt until you get offshore.
There is usually kings around, but most of them are around April-Aug. There is a winter fishery that runs Oct 14-April 30, or when we reach 45k treaty fish. This is confined to within the surf lines. This is more of a scratch fishery, but it can be very lucrative when you find some as they are worth a lot. Then, we have smaller spring hatchery openings in May/June, like the one I was fishing. They are smaller confined areas where you catch a high percentage of AK hatchery fish which don't count against the treaty. We are still getting winter prices of 9.75lb for larges, and 9.25lb for meds. Summer kings is July 1st, and usually lasts around a week. It's open everywhere, and it's a derby style opening. Coho fishing is open July 1st to the end of Sept. Usually we have a second summer king opening about the 2nd week of Aug for 2 or 3 days. You can also fish for chum and pink salmon.
So yeah, you can fish almost all year if inclined. I'll do my of my commercial salmon trolling Feb-April for kings, May for kings, July 1-5 for kings, and Sept for cohos. I guide June/July/Aug. I fish a lot.
Sport salmon fishing is open all year, but typically most of it occurs May-Aug.
