Though this year's run of Yukon River chinook is the worst in 13 years, there's still optimism at the Whitehorse Fish Ladder.

Ladder manager Michelle McKay said this morning staff are hoping more than 1,000 chinook will go up and over the Whitehorse Rapids Dam this summer, with 711 having already made the climb.

The largest daily count so far was last Saturday, when 100 salmon went through the ladder, she said.

Another 96 made the climb last Sunday, followed by 72 Monday and 58 Tuesday.

"I think we should be able to break a thousand,” McKay said. "We are pretty close to that, and there's still fish coming.”

McKay noted as of Aug. 20 last year, 437 chinook has arrived, though the run was later than this year.

Ladder staff will hold their annual Yukoner Appreciation Night from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. today. Handlers will be sorting fish in the holding tank at about 7 p.m.

In all of 2012, 1,030 chinook passed through the ladder, according to records.

The numbers vary greatly, from a record 2,958 in 1996 to a low of 121 in 1976.

The ladder opened in 1961 to reduce the impact on the chinook stocks from the construction of the dam.

The Whitehorse Fish Hatchery began rearing chinook in the mid-1980s from eggs and sperm taken from fish going over the ladder.

The first 16 hatchery fish returned in 1988.

Of the 711 over the ladder so far this summer, 446 were reared at the hatchery, and 265 are from wild stock.

Officials estimate the total run of chinook into the Yukon this year is just under 31,000, or the worst since 2000 and the second worst in the last 31 years.