Fishing meetings and comment opportunities

Now that nearly all Mat-Su Valley open water fishing has been weathered to a halt, and with the lull before ice conditions are safe enough for most people to venture on to the lakes and later the rivers/streams, meetings dealing with the management of Alaska fishing and hunting opportunities will be filling many of my days and evenings.

Matanuska Valley Fish and Game Advisory Committee

On Wednesday November 6 this advisory committee (AC) will be considering re-authorizations for antler-less moose permit hunts and some proposals for out-of-the valley fisheries utilized by many Mat-Su residents. There are only a few moose re-authorizations to deal with, and then the committee will be commenting on fisheries proposals for Prince William Sound / Upper Copper River. There are a considerable number of fishing proposals, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game sport fishing biologist from Glennallen and the commercial drift gillnet fisheries management biologist from Cordova may be joining the AC online to provide biological and harvest data to help committee members consider proposal options that may better provide for users from the Mat-Su who may participate in Prince William Sound saltwater or Upper Copper River fisheries. The AC may be meeting again, later in November to develop further comments on this same group of proposals to submit to the Board of Fisheries. Meeting information may be found at the Matanuska Valley Advisory Committee page on the ADF&G website.

With downturns in both king salmon and coho salmon fishing opportunities in Northern Cook Inlet/Mat-Su Valley, many local residents have been traveling to either the Prince William Sound / Copper River or the Kenai Peninsula in order to access a more reasonable opportunity to harvest salmon. Several years ago now, my wife and I harvested all the salmon we would use for the entire year by sport fishing on Mat-Su Valley rivers. This year I harvested one coho salmon and my wife harvested one chum salmon, both from Little Susitna River. We gave those two salmon away, and if not for dip netting opportunities on the Copper River and the lower Susitna River we might not have many fish to get us through an entire year until next June. Fortunately we were able to harvest a good number of prime salmon in 3 days of dip netting on the lower Susitna River and another 3 days of dip netting on the Copper River. We still worked at getting fish, but we harvested enough for ourselves, along with enough to share with some friends who did not get as much.

Frontiersman readers may remember that aside from the Eklutna Tailrace/Knik River fishery, king salmon fishing was closed from May 1 - July 13 (practically the entire season) in the Mat-Su Valley. While king salmon harvests in subsistence, sport and personal use fisheries was allowed in the Upper Copper River drainage in 2024, each of those harvest opportunities was closed early, by inseason emergency order regulations, starting in mid-to-late June. Sockeye fishing opportunities remained open for all users throughout the drainage, but the salmon sport fishing effort and harvest was seriously impacted by the shortage of king salmon and the king salmon fishing closure. Several of the fishing proposals listed in the 2024 / 2025 Board of Fisheries Proposal Book could either directly or indirectly impact upriver king salmon spawning escapements and king salmon sport, personal use, and subsistence fishing opportunities in the Copper River drainage. There is a pdf file link to the proposal book, part way down the Board of Fisheries page on the ADF&G website.

The Alaska Board of Fisheries regulation development is a public process accomplished using input from all individuals and organizations willing to participate.

If you have never participated in the process, but fish in Prince William Sound, the Copper River drainage, or other Alaska locations, I would encourage you to look through the 2024 / 2025 proposals (Prince William Sound / Copper River proposals are listed in the front of the book). No need to comment on every proposal, but if you see one, two or three priority proposals/issues that you believe would make a positive change. Consider submitting your comment(s) to the board. There is an online comment portal on the same webpage as the proposal book — simply fill out the form, include your comments, and submit. The deadline for submitting on time comments to the Board of Fisheries for Prince William Sound / Copper River fisheries proposals is 11:59 November 26, 2024.

The Prince William Sound/Upper Copper River Board of Fisheries meeting is scheduled for December 10 - 16 at the Cordova Center in Cordova. During the meeting there will be an additional opportunity for public testimony for those at the meeting, and additional opportunity to provide public comments/suggestions through the submission of record copies (RCs). RCs may be submitted online from the Board of Fisheries Cordova Meeting page on the ADF&G website, even if you can not attend, once the meeting starts.