Fishing for coho on the Little Su

I am definitely not used to getting up at 4 a.m.!

However, that was the necessary wake up time to meet Andy Couch at the Little Susitna Public Use Facility for a coho fishing trip. Let me start at the beginning.

Andy called the evening before to let me know he had an open seat for the next morning’s fishing trip and wondered if I was interested in going. Even with the weather forecast calling for 100 percent certain rain, I said yes! I had plenty of warm clothes and a good rain suit, so I figured the worst that could happen was a little rain in my face on the boat ride to our fishing destination.

I arrived at the LSPUF about 15 minutes early, paid the day use fee at the “iron ranger” and drove down to the boat launch area to meet Andy. He was already there getting his boat ready and rounding up the other anglers scheduled to make the morning trip. It was raining!

There were five of us, besides Andy, making the trip: a mom with three of her teenaged kids and me. The teenagers were all avid fishers, along with Mom, and as it turned out, all four limited out with their coho. For the record, I caught the first keeper coho and was the second person to fill a limit!

Andy worked his usual magic and had us on fish fairly quickly. While the fishing was not what I would call “hot,” it was steady. A couple of times, we had two folks with fish hooked and being played at the same time.

We had left the LSPUF shortly after 6 a.m. and got back around 10:30 being limited for the day. Since bait is not currently allowed on the Little Su, we all fished with spinners Andy had assembled during the off-season. I was fishing a silver-colored lure while everybody else used either a solid pink or partially pink lure. Either color seemed to work just fine in attracting a bite.

The trick was using the current to sweep the lure across the river and retrieving it just fast enough to stay off the bottom yet keep the flasher twirling. I haven’t fished that much with lures for coho since my wife and I usually fish where bait is legal, but I did alright on this trip!

I’ve known Andy for a long time. He is the most ethical and hardest working guide I’ve fished with in trying to put his clients on fish. Andy spends well over 100 days per year out on the rivers he fishes so he knows the waters quite well and where to go to catch fish, if there are fish to be caught.

If you’re thinking about a late season coho charter on either the Little Susitna, the Deshka, or the Kashwitna Rivers, give Andy a call at 746-2199. You’ll probably end up talking with the real boss of Fishtale Charters, Frede. She can explain times available, what you might need to bring and generally answer any questions you might have. As school gets underway, the onset of hunting season, and the state fair set to begin shortly, competition for that best fishing hole is dwindling. I spoke with one guy at the LSPUF who stated this was his favorite time of year, simply because the angling ranks are thinner.

While we’re talking fishing, I’ll mention an upcoming meeting you might be interested in attending.

On Aug. 22, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Mat-Su Borough Assembly Chamber, ADF&G Commissioner Sam Cotten and his biologists from both the Commercial Fisheries and Sport Fish Divisions involved with the management of our Cook Inlet salmon stocks will be available to explain how they manage salmon destined for our northern district.

While there are now some coho entering our northern district systems, for quite a while earlier this season, there was some question whether any significant numbers of coho would be available for the inriver users. With back-to-back commercial drift net openers earlier this month where nearly 90,000 coho were caught, followed by a Sport Fish emergency order the next day restricting use of bait in the Little Susitna River, a lot of folks wondered if there was a significant bias in the department’s management strategies.

The management plan calls for “minimal” commercial harvest of northern coho and for “reasonable opportunity” for inriver users to harvest Coho through the entire season. Neither of these happened!