Emergency order opens Fish Creek fishery for third straight year

FISH CREEK — The views are amazing. The mud is ubiquitous. And the fish are jumping this weekend at the personal use dip net fishery in Fish Creek.

While some Mat-Su Valley residents already have filled their freezers with salmon dipped from the Kenai or Chitina personal use fisheries, folks who haven’t caught the 25 fish allowed for the head of household and 10 for each additional person in the household can take a fishing license, nets and luck to the mouth of Fish Creek from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

After being closed for several years, Sam Ivey, Fish and Game area management biologist for Northern Cook Inlet, said this is the third consecutive year the fishery has opened.

“We expect 90 to 95 percent of what enters the river to be harvested,” he said. “It’s a very efficient tool.”

Fish and Game issued the emergency order opening the fisher Wednesday. The fishery opens at 6 a.m., Friday, July 29, and close at 11 p.m., Sunday, July 31. All salmon species may be retained, except king salmon, Ivey said.

People can access the fishery off Mile 17 of Knik-Goose Bay Road through land owned by the Alaska Mental Health Trust, but the rest of the land surrounding the fishery is privately owned property, he said. Signs are posted to mark the boundaries of the fishery and private property lines, Ivey said.

Mark Braaten and a couple of friends were there last year at 5:45 a.m., a few minutes before the fishery opened. By that time, he said vehicles were already parked on either side of the road for a half-mile on either side of Fish Creek.

“It was a good crowd down there last year,” Braaten said.

He works in the fishing department at Sportsman’s Warehouse and said he’s seen a lot of people come in buy dip-net gear and their 2011 Upper Cook Inlet Personal Use Permits, which is required to legally use the fishery this weekend.

“I think tonight we will probably have a big run or people coming in,” he said Thursday afternoon.

Braaten said he filled his freezer dipping on the Kenai, but if he hadn’t he’d be headed back to Fish Creek this weekend, this time with his canoe.

Ivey said dip netting is allowed from a boat or from the shore in the area, and again cautioned people to stay off of private property or they could be fined.

The fishery is only open this weekend to Alaska residents holding valid sport fishing licenses, or Alaska Department of Fish and Game Permanent Identification Cards, or Disabled Veteran’s licenses, according to the news release.

Ivey said the permit required is the same one used in the Kenai and Kasilof dip net fisheries and households that have already received and used a personal use permit in another fishery will not be issued new permits.

According to Fish and Game regulations, participants in the fishery must carry their permits while dip netting, clip off both tips of the tail fin of every fish harvested and record their harvests on their dip net permits before concealing the salmon from view or transporting the salmon from the fishing site.

Ivey said wildlife troopers will be on patrol in the vicinity this weekend and issuing citations along Fish Creek to fishers who fail to comply.

Regulatory markers designate the fishery along a quarter-mile of Fish Creek, upstream from Knik-Goose Bay Road, he said. And he said Fish and Game brought in some chemical toilets for people to use over the weekend.

According to a Fish and Game press release, the fishery was opened by emergency order Wednesday because the department projects that the escapement of sockeye salmon into Fish Creek will exceed 50,000 fish. As of July 26, more than 32,500 sockeye salmon had passed through the Fish Creek weir.

Ivey said it is important to note that all-terrain vehicles are not allowed in creeks or adjacent creekside property without a permit.

“We ask people to walk or boat in,” he said.

Boating in is one way to stay out of the slippery tidal mud along the stream bank, Ivey said.

For safety reasons, people are also asked to park as far off the roadway as possible and to not stand or stop vehicles on the Fish Creek Bridge, he said.

Neighbors who live near the fishery also urge people to use caution and respect.

“Maybe you could remind the many dip netters that people actually live out here and drive on KGB, so parking on the road, wandering out into the roadway without looking, not keeping track of your kids and dogs, and otherwise endangering and impeding traffic out this way are dangerous, sometimes illegal, and always rude,” Joan Hope says in a comment on a Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman Facebook status announcing the emergency opening. “Last year was a zoo.”

People still looking for dip-net gear may have a hard time finding it, though, said Lora Reed of Three-Rivers Fly and Tackle Shop in Wasilla.

Since the emergency opening, lots of people have stopped by to buy gear, licenses or just ask questions about where the fishery is located or about this weekend’s tides.

“Lots of people shopping for dip-nets, waders, permits — that’s what we’ve been hit with ever since the emergency opening came out,” Reed said. “We’re getting low on dip-netting poles and nets.”

Reed is the office manager, but she checked her facts with the rest of the crew and they confirmed: The best time to fish is when the tides are coming in.

“I imagine it’s going to be pretty busy out there,” she said.

The high tides Friday are at 6:40 a.m. and 7:43 p.m., Saturday is 7:19 a.m. and 8:17 p.m. and Sunday is 7:59 a.m. and 8:50 p.m.

For more information, contact the Division of Sport Fish office in Palmer at 746-6300.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.