Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Commercial troller Lindsay Johnson had just limped out of the hospital in Juneau last week when she looked at a text on her phone: the commercial chinook troll fishery was back on after a federal court decision this spring put the entire fishery on hold.

“It’s exciting but it’s also like, ‘Oh god, what do we have to do immediately?” said Johnson.

She and partner Graham Kraft sprung to work on boat projects on the 37-foot Sika: replacing anchor lines, buying groceries, fueling up, and checking the engine to make sure it can make the 20-hour ride to the outer coast without breaking down. Doctors had just told her that surgery on a broken fibula could wait.

“It hurts, but I can walk on it, and it’s better than boots and crutches,” she said.

In May, a federal judge stopped the $85 million fishery after a Washington-based environmental group sued fisheries managers, claiming commercial king fishing threatened an endangered orca population off the Puget Sound.

The news inflamed many Alaska fishermen, who appealed the decision, arguing that the science used by the judge was flawed. Last week, a federal appeals panel reversed the decision for this season, less than two weeks before the fishery starts July 1.

While most trollers are concentrated in Sitka, about 20 Haines residents hold commercial troll permits.

“It’s been an extreme rollercoaster,” said troller Holly Enderle. On Monday, Enderle was at the small boat harbor worrying about a leaky fuel tank. She said restoring the fishery was about more than just the thousands of dollars of income she would earn through chinook, which can fetch up to $90 each.

Trollers specifically target chinooks based on the length of leader lines. When a fish strikes, trollers pull in the lines by hand before pulling them onto the boat.

“It’s completely different than fishing cohos,” she said. “It really is a fight all the way up to the boat and it’s really exciting.”

Enderle, who grew up trolling out of Elfin Cove with her dad, was expecting to troll for just coho, or silver, salmon this year. That run is generally later and less lucrative, with each fish bringing in about $8.

Don Nash, another Haines-based troller, said with prices for silvers at just $1.50 per pound, it takes hundreds of fish per day to make up for the estimated $300 it takes to run his boat, the Shinaku.

“It takes the pressure off knowing that we can fish king salmon -- it will seem like kinda a bonus because we kinda ruled the season off,” he said.

Nash said he was thrilled that the court settled on a “common sense” decision. He said ironically, his last fishing season was the best he’s had in 25 years, despite widespread concerns about chinook stocks.

Lindsay Johnson said the same, but acknowledged the long-term outlook for chinook fishing is worrying. “It restores some faith in the system, but uncertainty looms,” she said.