Weekend sees surge of sockeye, capsized boats in Haines

The George family assists an overturned boat Sunday afternoon in Lutak Inlet. Sunday, July 19, 2026. (Courtesy of Kerry McIver)

By Will Steinfeld

Chilkat Valley News

The Chilkoot River sockeye run arrived in a large surge last weekend, bringing the fish count at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Chilkoot Weir to nearly six times what it had been just 48 hours before.

As of Friday evening, roughly 3,000 sockeye had passed through the weir since it was installed at the end of May, a number below the historical average for mid-July. 

When 6 p.m. hit, the start of the Friday evening shift for Fish and Game staff at the weir, that all changed. Over the three-hour counting period, an average of over 30 sockeye per minute came through the weir, totalling 6,500 fish, department salmon researcher Shelby Flemming said this week. A similar influx of fish continued the next day, with a small lull around midday. 

All told, from Friday through Sunday, department staff counted 16,820 sockeye passing through the weir. 

News of the sockeye arrival brought anglers and subsistence fishermen out in numbers. Fish and Game’s area sportfish biologist, John Whitinger, reported “hot” fishing around Letnikof Cove. “People pulling their subsistence nets out had sockeye bigger than I’ve ever seen,” he said. “People were telling me they had more fish than they even really needed.”

Amid the fishing frenzy, at least two boats capsized. One of the boats overturned Saturday and sank in Lutak Inlet. A second boat that capsized the next day was salvaged by borough staff. No one was hurt. 

The first boat overturned Saturday mid-morning in Lutak Inlet, said Joanne Waterman, who was fishing from a nearby vessel.

Waterman said that while wind and seas were picking up, she and fishing partner Dean Heard saw a small skiff nearby sitting low in the water and a lone boater beginning to bail with a bucket.

Waterman and Heard assisted the other boat, which they found without power due to a subsistence net tangled in the prop.

“The boat took a couple of good waves over the back and it started to sink,” Waterman said. “(Boat owner Linda Huber) was hanging onto the boat and we got her into our boat and then backed off, because the wind was bumping our boats together.” 

Huber was the lone person in the vessel, joined only by her dog, who Waterman said was wearing a personal flotation device and also was saved. 

Haines Volunteer Fire Department chief Zak Overmyer said the department sent an ambulance to the scene, but Huber declined medical attention. Huber did not return calls seeking more information.  

The second boat capsized Sunday afternoon in Lutak Inlet. 

Haines resident Michael George said he was boating nearby when he saw the overturned skiff with a man hanging off. 

George’s son, Siyel George, piloted a Zodiac his family had been towing toward the overturned boat and hoisted the stranded boater, who was not wearing a personal flotation device, out of the water. Another crewmember of the overturned boat had already swum to shore. 

Michael George said the capsized boaters, who he did not know, told him they had rapidly taken on water over the stern of their boat. When he arrived at their boat, George said their subsistence net was underwater and snagged on their outboard motor. 

Haines harbormaster Henry Pollan said he towed the empty boat on Sunday afternoon from the mouth of the Chilkoot River to the Lutak launch ramp. 

• This article originally appeared in the Chilkat Valley News.