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Commercial driftnet fishermen experienced a record day on Thursday, bringing in about 450 fish per boat, Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists say. But many driftnetters who fished Cook Inlet last weekend came back with only a few fish.

The commercial driftnet fishery peaks between July 15 and 20, with driftnetters bringing in about 1,200 fish per boat, said Jeff Fox, Fish and Game commercial fisheries biologist. When most driftnetters went out on Thursday, they came back with 450 fish per boat, the highest average per boat for that day ever, he said. The Offshore Testfish project indexes were high on Thursday, but dropped off during the latter part of the weekend, Fox said.

"This isn't a barn burner, it's just a barn burner for the third of July," Fox said. "There are years when on the Fourth of July we've caught 700 (fish) so it changes rapidly from the first days of July on."

Driftnetter Dyer VanDevere and his crew fished Cook Inlet and returned with 600 fish on Monday, which he says is satisfactory, but on Saturday he said he came back with only six fish and a few of his friends came back with nothing. The fishery experienced three or four days of good index points, he said, but the index points decreased dramatically on Saturday.

"Half a dozen is nothing in the scheme of things as far as fuel and crew shares (go)," he said. "Fuel gets eaten up and the crew share comes out first on my boat. This weekend was pretty pathetic."

VanDevere said he didn't fish on Tuesday and won't fish until he gets a favorable report from other driftnetters. Six fish, he said, aren't worth it. Despite this, VanDevere says he expects the run to pick up later in the season and that Thursday's fishing was incredible for this time of year. In mid-July last year Cook Inlet processors were inundated with fish when driftnetters were bringing them in by the tens of thousands.

"This year I got aspirations that things are going to be good," VanDevere said. "The index points just went down to nothing after being really incredible for a first-time day."

VanDevere said another reason he's waiting to fish is because the setnetters' catch has tapered off too. Last week fish processors received salmon primarily from the setnet fishery, but this weekend things really slowed down.

"It was really slow over the weekend," said Karl Kircher, a setnetter from Kasilof. "The wind just flattened out."

Kircher and his crew fished on Saturday and Monday, he said. A few setnetters were getting fish, but Kircher said most on the beaches north of Clam Gulch would call it a slow day.

"Nobody's getting much fish," he said Tuesday. "Right now I'm sitting here with six guys to go out and catch 20 fish. Feeding and housing them is not really cost efficient at the present time."

Local processors are also feeling the decline in fishing. David Brindle, Pacific Star Seafoods plant manager, said Fish and Game opened the Kasilof to driftnetters, but very few went out to fish. Fish and Game opened the entire inlet to fishing on Monday and the entire fleet went out.

"We had a real high index number last week and then all of a sudden we had a real low one just the other day," he said. "We could either end up with a lot of fish or very little. We got mixed numbers."

On Monday Brindle said Pacific Star was on standby to take some Bristol Bay production and also bought sockeyes from Lower Cook Inlet, but the plant's primary concern is operation in the Upper Cook Inlet driftnet and setnet fisheries. The fishery peaks between July 16 and 22, Brindle said.

"It's building steadily," he said.

Dan Thompson, a driftnetter and co-owner of Kenai River Seafoods, was in the middle of the inlet south of Ninilchik anticipating the four-hour ride home on Monday. The first serious driftnetting day was Thursday, he said, and it was a little bit shy of normal, but the weekend was real poor. Despite the poor weekend, Thompson says he'll be fishing steadily until the middle of August.

"Anybody that's going to fish this year they're out now," he said.

Jessica Cejnar can be reached at jessica.cejnar@peninsulaclarion.com.