Dip netting a welcome sight in Mat-Su

It’s too early to say things are getting better in the Mat-Su Valley fishing world.

But forgive us for a moment, while we cheer the opening of the Fish Creek Personal Use Dip Net Fishery this year.

This fishery is only opened by special order from the state if enough fish have passed through the fish counters in the stream that the state Department of Fish and Game feels confident in opening it.

According to Fish and Game statistics, the last time that happened was 2011, and then anglers only manage to pull 5,236 fish out of the creek before it closed.

The year before that, the number was 23,705 and, in 2009, 9,898 fish were caught. The fishery didn’t open at all from 2002 to 2008.

As we said, it’s too early to say if this is a sign of things returning to normal around here. New regulations designed to let more fish move from Cook Inlet into Mat-Su waters went into effect just this year.

But we do want to say we were very happy to see friendly groups of our neighbors — and even some folks from other Alaska communities — standing along the banks of Fish Creek when we went out there Sunday night, working to add fish to their freezers.

We also are fans of this kind of fishery specifically: Alaskans catching fish for their own dinner tables. These fish aren’t headed to Arizona in a waterproofed cardboard box in the luggage compartment of a commercial jet. Nor are these fish headed to a processing plant where the proceeds from their sale will benefit a permit holder who is a resident of Seattle.

These types of harvest have their place, but we view fish as a resource that should go toward feeding Alaskans ahead of any profit motive. Fish are food.

Given the stories we watched and read about the rowdy personal use fisheries on the Kenai River, we also proud of the people who participated here. Mostly what we heard along the shores of Fish Creek Sunday was kids laughing and adults engaged in friendly conversations. Granted, ours is a smaller personal use fishery, about a tenth the size of the Kenai dip-net haul of 347,222 fish in 2013. Still, we prefer the jovial, neighborly atmosphere we witnessed Sunday to the more concentrated, elbow-to-elbow fisheries in the state.

So, neighbors, you’ve got two days left. This thing closes Thursday night. Get your waders out, get your fishing license and your dip net permit. There’s 25 fish waiting out there for you and 10 for each of your kids. A winter’s worth of fish dinners awaits, all you have to do is get lucky enough to net them as they swim by.