Catch up, prices down at Copper River

Here's the box score from Thursday's season opener in the Copper River District.

Total catch was 1,549 Chinook salmon and 20,216 sockeye.

My sources in Cordova tell me the ex-vessel price, the amount processors pay to gillnetters for raw fish, was about $5.25 per pound for Chinook and $3.50 for sockeye.

Last year, the opening day catch was 800 Chinook and 2,400 sockeye, with prices running about $6.50 and $4 respectively.

So, obviously, a substantially larger opening day harvest this year, but lower prices. The price drop was expected, I reckon, considering the recession.

My Cordova friends say weather was fairly miserable yesterday, windy and cold.

But conditions were better than last year when lots of boats stayed in port on opening day due to a storm. This year's catch was bigger at least in part because more boats went fishing.

The state Department of Fish and Game has scheduled another 12-hour opener beginning at 7 a.m. Monday.