Fish Creek open to dipnetting

Effective today at 6 a.m., personal-use dipnetters began sweeping their nets on Fish Creek in the only personal-use fishery in the Valley. Fish and Game issued an emergency order Wednesday afternoon announcing the opening. The fishery will run from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day from today through July 31.

The fishery in Fish Creek is between ADF&G markers located a quarter-mile upstream from Knik-Goose Bay Road and extends downstream to ADF&G markers located at the terminus of Fish Creek. You can fish either from shore or out of a boat. If you fish from shore near the mouth, be cautious of the mud and slippery conditions there. Every year I have observed this fishery, folks have come back from that area covered from head to toe with mud. They usually have fish and had fun, but there was a long hose down process involved when they got home!

All species of salmon except king salmon can be retained in this dipnet fishery.

All the same rules apply to this fishery as would apply if you were going to the Kenai or the Kasilof to dipnet. I’m sure wildlife troopers will be in attendance, so you might want to know what is expected of you. All the information is contained in the current Southcentral sport fishing regulations booklet, available where you buy your resident sport fishing license and pick your 2014 Upper Cook Inlet Personal Use permit.

There’s a lot of private property along Fish Creek and trespassing is illegal without permission of the landowner. You could be fined if you are caught. If you fish the mouth of Fish Creek, legal access is restricted to below the mean high tide line. The creek is shallow enough that a lot of people simply walk downstream in the creek. But be careful. The rocky bottom and current can make for slippery conditions.

The weir counts for sockeye upstream from the dipnet fishery area show that Fish Creek has just made minimum escapement earlier this week. Fish and Game estimates the final count of sockeye will fall somewhere around 50,000 fish. This number is slightly over the midpoint of the escapement goal of 20,000 to 70,000 fish.

I’m happy to see the projected return be greater than the minimum escapement number. So many of our Northern District drainages seem to just barely pass minimum escapement numbers, if they even reach that level, over the years. Fish and Game seems content to say everything is fine in the world with minimum numbers. I’d like to see the department manage so that mid-range escapement goal numbers become the norm rather than just barely making the cut!

That could be happening this year with the revised commercial fisheries management plans that were adopted during this past spring’s Board of Fisheries meeting. It’s still too early to tell for sure, but my sense is that things are looking up for the numbers of salmon making their way north through the Central District commercial fishery.

According to the Commercial Fisheries Division website, about 2 million sockeye have been harvested to date in the Central District. A little less than 2,000 kings have been harvested also. This suggests to me that: 1) the drift management plan is working to move northern bound fish through the Central District while allowing the commercial harvest of a strong sockeye return down on the Kenai Peninsula; and 2) the use of shortened nets is having an impact on passing kings while harvesting sockeye in the setnet fishery.

I’m looking forward to the post-season analysis of information to see how everything works out, hopefully for the benefit of both the resource and the user groups.

If you’re more content to catch your salmon with a rod and reel than a personal-use net, Fish and Game is forecasting a strong run of even-year pinks in the Northern District. They have already counted more than 40,000 pinks through the Deshka weir. Chum salmon are also making a strong appearance this year in valley drainages. Silvers are starting to show up as well.

Personally, I prefer my pink salmon dime-bright, however some color is still okay for smoking or canning. I’ve found chums to still be good as long as they have not developed medium to dark coloration and they can be one of the best fighting salmon on rod and reel.

However, it is tough to beat a good silver salmon!

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.