Fish Creek personal use opens

On Monday July 21 the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) issued an emergency order opening this popular road accessible personal use dip net fishery for Alaska residents. The fishery opened on Wednesday July 23 at 6 a.m. — 11 p.m. daily through 11 p.m. on July 31, 2025. The fishery will be open a total of 8 days in 2025. A household Upper Cook Inlet Personal Use Permit is required to participate, and they are available on ADF&G’s website. More information about the fishery can be found in the emergency orders and advisory announcements section of the same website. After the Fish Creek Personal Use Fishery ends on July 31, the Fish Creek sport salmon fishery will resume with the youth only fishery on the first Saturday and Sunday in August.

The lower Susitna River Personal Use Dip Net Fishery will have two days of legal fishing remaining during the 2025 season, after this column goes to print (Saturday July 26 and Wednesday July 30). I participated in this fishery last Saturday with some extended family members, and everyone in my boat caught some salmon, and while no one harvested the annual limit, each took home they amount of salmon they had decided to harvest at the start of the trip. Processing and storing a significant amount of salmon provides plenty of work long after the fish have been harvested, so it is a good idea to consider how many fish one wants to take, before the excitement of fishing and catching salmon may influence folks to take more than they need — or may want to use.

While not a Mat-Su Fishery, the Kenai River Personal Use Dip Net Fishery and the Kenai River sport fishery for sockeye salmon have been headline material for the past week with sonar salmon counts in the lower river near Soldotna exceeding 100,000 fish for 6 days in a row from Wednesday July 16 — Monday July 21. Any daily sonar count over 40,000 salmon is considered to provide good sockeye salmon fishing in the lower Kenai River. Several people have mentioned to me how good the Kenai river dip netting and sportfishing for sockeye salmons been in the past week. Expect excellent sockeye salmon dip netting and sport fishing to continue through the end of July. Anglers need to go soon if they want to participate in the personal use harvest opportune its on the Kenai River, however, as July 31 is the last day for this personal use fishery as well.

Back in the Mat-Su Valley sport salmon fisheries in freshwater drainages continue to build as more salmon arrive inriver. Little Susitna River had been providing good catching opportunities for chum salmon, with considerably smaller catches of pink and coho salmon also being made on a daily basis. While most of the Little Su salmon are being caught in the lower portion of the river near the Little Susitna River Public Use Facility Campground and Boat Launch, Jim Paugher with Sportsman’s Warehouse I. Wasilla told me on Tuesday that some of the fast moving chum salmon had already made it to the Houston area, and were being caught by salmon anglers downstream of the Parks Highway Bridge.

Mike Hudson with 3 Rivers Fly and Tackle in Wasilla told me anglers were catching primarily pinks and chums in the Parks Highway tributary streams draining into Susitna River, but also getting a few coho in the mix as well. I stopped by the Deshka River/Susitna confluence on Saturday afternoon July 19, but did not see any salmon surfacing, while we were there, and there were only two boatloads of anglers actively fishing. Another indication that there were not many salmon available at that time.

This may be a bit of an abbreviated fishing column this week, however, I’m getting up extra early tomorrow for a fishing trip of my own, so Goodnight, and Good Luck.

Andy Couch guides Mat-Su salmon fishing charters https://fish4salmon.com, is a member of the Matanuska Valley Fish & Game Advisory Committee, and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission, however, statements/opinions in this column are his own, unless expressed otherwise.