Section 5 AAC 52.022 - General provisions for seasons, bag, possession, and size limits, and methods and means for the Upper Copper River and Upper Susitna River Area(a) Unless otherwise specified in 5 AAC 52.023, or by an emergency order issued under AS 16.05.060, the following are the seasons, bag, possession, annual, and size limits, and method and means that apply to sport fishing for finfish in the Upper Copper River and Upper Susitna River Area: (1) in all flowing waters of the Upper Copper River drainage and Tyone River drainage, only unbaited, single-hook, artificial lures may be used;(2) in all lakes, except Crosswind Lake, Lake Louise, Paxson Lake, Summit Lake, Susitna Lake, and Tyone Lake, bait and artificial lures may be used; in Crosswind Lake, Lake Louise, Paxson Lake, Summit Lake, Susitna Lake, and Tyone Lake, a hook and bait may be used only as follows: (A) from April 16 - October 31, only unbaited, single-hook, artificial lures may be used;(B) from November 1 - April 15, only single-hooks may be used; bait may be used;(3) king salmon: may be taken only from January 1 - July 19, as follows; (A) 20 inches or greater in length; bag and possession limit of one fish; annual limit of four fish; a harvest record is required as specified in 5 AAC 75.006;(B) less than 20 inches in length; bag and possession limit of 10 fish;(C) in all waters, a king salmon that is removed from the water must be retained and becomes part of the bag limit of the person that originally hooked the fish; a person may not remove a king salmon from the water before releasing the fish;(4) salmon, other than king salmon: may be taken from January 1 - December 31, as follows; (A) greater than 16 inches in length; bag and possession limit of three fish, except that the daily bag limit for sockeye salmon greater than 16 inches in length is three fish and the possession limit is six fish;(B) 16 inches or less in length; bag and possession limit of 10 fish;(C) in all waters, a salmon, including a king salmon as specified in (3)(C) of this subsection, that is removed from the water must be retained and becomes part of the bag limit of the person that originally hooked the fish; a person may not remove a salmon from the water before releasing the fish;(5) rainbow/steelhead trout: may be taken from January 1 - December 31; bag and possession limit of two fish, of which only one may be 20 inches or greater in length;(6) burbot: may be taken from January 1 - December 31; bag and possession limit of five fish; no size limit;(7) Arctic grayling: may be taken from January 1 - December 31; bag and possession limit of five fish; no size limit;(8) Dolly Varden/Arctic char: may be taken from January 1 - December 31; bag and possession limit of 10 fish; no size limit;(9) lake trout: may be taken from January 1 - December 31; bag and possession limit of two fish; no size limit;(10) other finfish not specified in (3) - (9) of this subsection: may be taken from January 1 - December 31; no bag, possession, or size limits;(11) whitefish may be taken from October 1 - March 31 by spear or bow and arrow;(12) suckers may be taken from January 1 - December 31 by spear or bow and arrow;(14) the use of set lines is prohibited.(b) For the purposes of this section, "bow" means a long bow, recurve bow, compound bow, or crossbow.Eff. 5/4/94, Register 130; am 5/5/94, Register 131; am 4/11/97, Register 142; am 7/8/99, Register 151; am 3/16/2000, Register 153; am 5/11/2003, Register 166; am 3/30/2006, Register 177; am 4/24/2009, Register 190; am 3/24/2012, Register 201; am 2/23/2014, Register 209, April 2014; am 2/22/2015, Register 213, April 2015; am 3/29/2018, Register 225, April 2018; am 6/28/2019, Register 230, May 2019; am 3/27/2022, Register 241, April 2022; am 7/28/2023, Register 247, October 2023Authority:AS 16.05.060
AS 16.05.251