Are you ready for salmon?

Gillnetters are expected to get their first crack at those famed Copper River king and sockeye salmon on May 16.

That's the word from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which yesterday issued this season outlook for the Prince William Sound region.

Last year's Copper River fishery started a bit earlier, on May 13.

The Copper River traditionally stars as the year's first major gillnet salmon fishery, and gastronomes nationwide pay handsomely for the catch.

The Sound's other fleet, the purse seiners, will start May 23 with a fishery targeting chum salmon returning to the Armin F. Koernig hatchery, the outlook says.