Fishing for those early-season opportunities

At the start of April with snow piled along our driveway and a blanket of the white stuff covering our yard I was convinced a late spring breakup and corresponding delayed start for Mat-Su Valley open water fishing opportunities was a certainty. After two weeks of unusually warm weather that saw daily highs creeping into the 50’s and nightly lows remaining at, or slightly above freezing, snow, ice, and winter are in rapid retreat.

On Wednesday I drove to Eklutna Tailrace with a fellow fishing guide to cast spinners in open water and test out several rods I had built this winter. While at the tailrace we saw a local resident with a mask, snorkel, wet suit, and rake diving for lost fishing lures. While driving past Kepler-Bradley Lakes park we saw an individual fishing off the bridge in the small amount of open water joining the two lakes.

The craziness of summer fishing in the Mat-Su Valley is just getting started.

Although most streams in the Palmer-Wasilla core area are currently closed to fishing (as a protective measure for spawning rainbow trout) when I talked with A.J. at 3 Rivers Fly and Tackle in Wasilla on Wednesday he mentioned some local anglers had already travelled north on the Parks Highway to fish open-water leads along the Susitna River drainage. A. J. mentioned that most stretches of the Susitna River and steams north of Willow were still ice-covered, but small areas of open running water were becoming available.

So far, he had not heard of anyone actually catching fish from these sections of open flowing water, but that will happen before long. Many streams north of Willow are open year round, although starting from mid-April through mid-June wild rainbow trout caught in these streams must be released. Some of these steams have areas where other special regulations apply, so it is always a good idea to read and become familiar with current regulations before fishing. Don’t forget to purchase and bring your fishing license.

Early season prospecting

In my Mat-Su fishing experience, fishing open water this time of year is mostly just a celebration of spring and enjoying a chance to get outdoors. Making some casts on open water should likely be viewed as a worthy goal — catching may come a few trips later. At this point one has to find open water — and the amount of open water (where it is also legal to fish) is limited.

Eklutna Tailrace provides one of the earliest opportunities to fish open water — although it is certainly a place where extremely limited catching occurs during April. Palmer-Wasilla core area lakes such as Kepler-Bradley, Canoe, Finger, Wasilla, and Lucille are some of the first ones that provide public access to open water early in the season. Up the Parks Highway, Willow Creek, Kashwitna River, Sheep Creek, Montana Creek, and the Talkeetna River / Clear Creek provide some of the more popular and productive spring fisheries for rainbow trout, Arctic Grayling, and or Dolly Varden / Arctic Char. Most catching in late April occurs near tributary steam confluence areas with the Susitna River. Even though I have not heard of any catches yet this spring, two of the better early season producers can be the Talkeetna River right near the town of Talkeetna and Willow Creek. These two locations in particular can have both good stretches of open water and catchable numbers of fish. If fishing these locations in the next week I would suggest wearing at least knee high rubber boots. I’ve found that wading through a bit of snow to get to the fishing areas is more of a necessity than wading in water while fishing — I prefer not to wade in the water this time of year — it is too cold! Fishing later in the day gives both air and water temperatures opportunity to warm up and may provide better catches.

Because open water is at a premium you could easily spend more time driving around than fishing open water. I suggest starting any trip during the coming week with that expectation. Current river conditions can be viewed on video at both Deshka Landing http://www.deshkalanding.com/weather-cam/ and Susitna Landing http://www.susitnalanding.net/weather-cam/ keep in mind, however, that open water conditions at these two locations often lags behind other locations.

Soon after more open water starts appearing on local lakes the Alaska Department of Fish and Game usually starts planting catchable-sized rainbow trout in some of the more popular core area lakes near Palmer and Wasilla. These hatchery fish may be harvested year round. The department posts stocking information on there website.

Mat-Su fishing information sources

Sources of information I would consider contacting before making a trip include: Sportsman’s Warehouse has extensive bulletin board postings of Mat-Su Valley locations, 3 Rivers Fly and Tackle 373-5434, Phantom Tri River Charters in Talkeetna 733-2400, Susitna Landing 495-7700, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (Palmer) 746-6300.

I’ve already been making some limited posts on my online fishing reports — although my first post about open- water is fishing at Eklutna Tailrace and we did not see or hook any fish at that location. Other guide services and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game will be start making regular fishing reports as the season progresses.

Good Luck and fish on!

Andy Couch has fished in the Mat-Su Valley since 1971 and owns a local salmon fishing guide service. You may visit his FIshtale River Guides website at http://www.fish4salmon.com