Combat zone

Valley Life editor

At the mouth of Willow Creek this week, hundreds of people are standing shoulder to shoulder, as if playing a highly competitive game of Red Rover, with a few king salmon trying to break through to the other side.

They call it combat fishing for a reason -- sometimes, half the battle is just getting a fishing spot at the mouths of the road-accessible Susitna River tributaries that support a large chinook run. There are cut lines, some nights there are drunken fights and there is always a crowd. So why do they do it? There are thousands of reasons, and they are all in the 20- to 50-pound weight class.

"There's fish. Big fish. That's the only reason," said Marty Hans, who said he hits the mouth of Willow Creek a few times each king season. "I've been going down there so long that you just learn to put up with the people."

There are plenty of people who make combat fishing a religion of sorts each summer. During the peak of the chinook season, the Willow Creek Campground reaches capacity early Friday evening (starting Monday it is a weekend-only fishery). The parking lot often turns into a party as the daylight stretches into forever it seems. Whether it be 1 a.m. or 1 p.m., it's light outside, and the fish are running, and that always causes commotion.

"Sometimes it gets a little out of control, but people are usually pretty good about everything," said Freddy Caxton, who said his family makes it a Father's Day weekend tradition to bring their RV from their home in Anchorage to Willow Creek and fish. "We've seen a few really ugly incidents in the campground, but for the most part, people are here to have fun and catch a king."

Where the silty waters of the Susitna mix with the clear water of Willow Creek, an almost rhythmic pace develops. One guy casts, the woman next to him then casts, then the next guy, the next guy and so on.

Shiny Corkies and Spin-N-Glos are heaved out into the silty water, so on the drift and retrieve they'll be in the strike zone, where the giant chinook hold before entering the creek. The casting continues in perpetuity it seems, until the shout of "Fish On!" interrupts the routine and the excitement begins.

On a good day, anglers around the lucky person fighting the fish will retrieve their line and help net the king. On a bad day, they'll cast over the line and create chaos. After all, it is combat fishing.

"That's when people start cutting other guys' lines and things get ugly," Caxton said. "That's where the bad reputation comes from. It happens, though."

On Sunday night, the RVs leave and anglers create a steady procession on Willow Creek Parkway, headed home for the week. The following Friday, the circus begins again, with many of the same characters and same acts.

"Everyone would like to be out there alone, with no other person around for miles, but it's Willow Creek. It's not some magazine cover," Hans said.