Two small commercial fisheries open soon in Upper Cook Inlet.
The commercial herring fishing season starts April 20 and closes May 31. The season for hooligan — a type of smelt — will be open between May 1 and June 30.
The fisheries are small, with fewer than a dozen permit holders each. Both fisheries have quotas but those quotas are rarely met before seasons’ end, said Fish and Game Management Biologist Brian Marston.
Marston said the herring fishery has never been closed early. The smelt fishery typically reaches quota close to the end of the season.
Marston said most of the permit holders who get herring permits do so because they have property near the spawning areas.
Fishermen harvest herring in Cook Inlet for bait, not for roe, like in Sitka. The Sitka herring fishery is much larger than the herring fishery in the inlet.
The fisheries are the first in Cook Inlet to open this year.
Personal-use hooligan fishing opened yesterday. But with the Kenai still icy in parts, anglers may have to wait a while.
