A season of salmon fishing winding down

Trevor Rollman shares a Northern District Commercial Perspective (page 8 —Sunday Sept. 3, 2023 Frontiersman) It can be thought provoking and enlightening to consider another point of view. The Upper Cook Inlet Board of Fisheries process that is scheduled to start February 2024 in Anchorage is a meeting which allows the public to express their own thoughts and ideas as Upper Cook Inlet fishing regulations are developed to cover the seasons of 2024 - 2026. The regulation ideas Mr Rollman has written about will be discussed and considered for adoption into regulation under Proposal 211.

There are times when Mr. Rollman and I may agree to disagree on specific issues (Management Trainwrecks) - however, the Northern District Setnetters Association has been a key ally in Board of Fisheries adoption of the Conservation Corridor concept, that allows increased numbers of Northern Cook Inlet bound salmon windows of opportunity to migrate through the Central District of Upper Cook Inlet during portions of July, August, and September.

Author Feels the Tug

On Sunday afternoon I drove over to Eklutna Tailrace to relax and unwind while casting a #4 Vibrax Spinner near the Knik River confluence. Suddenly there was a commotion at the end of my line, and I found myself doing battle with a dime-bright coho salmon that still had 3 sea lice clinging to her side, when I finally slid her up on the beach. I only saw two other salmon legally caught while I was there —- and I believe this was only the second coho salmon I had personally caught in 2023. I will be the first to admit, under such conditions there was certainly some luck involved — but it is always fun to feel the tug. I enjoyed it even more, since it was the first fish I had caught on a rod I had built last spring.

Mat-Su Basin Salmon Habitat Partnership Tour — Big Lake Drainage

When several coho salmon sport fishing restrictions and closures occurred earlier in August, my charter schedule became filled with cancellations, however, this provided me with the opportunity to participate in the Big Lake Drainage site tour on August 22, 2023. It was fun seeing, hearing, and listening to several professionals talking about habitat projects they were or had been working on in this very prolific Mat-Su salmon-producing drainage.

The lower section of Fish Creek, draining from Big Lake, provided one of the few solid Mat-Su salmon harvesting opportunities for many Alaskan residents during 2023. According to Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Fisheries Biologist, Parker Bradley, with 10 days of opportunity — if harvest levels were similar to 2022 perhaps as many as 30,000 sockeye salmon may have been harvested from this drainage where thousands of valley residents live.

Kevin Toothaker and Fran Seger-Boss told us about native habitation and the importance of Big Lake, Nancy Lake, and Red Shirt Lake for providing salmon for the winter. I went back in time when Kevin talked about the “rich people” (who lived at Big Lake) and always had enough to eat because of the abundant fishery resources. I can not remember a time I was really hungry for an extended period of time — how much life in the Mat-Su Valley has changed over a relatively short period of time. They told of native leader Shem Pete mentioning that Deshka River and its tremendous salmon resource had supported habitation by 4,000 people.

While not at this site tour, I was reminded of Larry Engel mentioning the time, effort, and often money involved in maintaining or rehabilitating salmon habitat. I agree with his assertion that people who have maintained a direct connection to the salmon resource, through fishing, may be more willing to make some of those commitments.

The Mat-Su Salmon Habitat Partnership will be hosting its annual Salmon Symposium at the Community Depot in Palmer on November 13 and 14. Online registration is now available.

Fish On!