Freshwater species kick off Mat-Su open water fishing

On Saturday, April 23 Ben Allen, owner of Miller’s Riverboat Service, and I traveled north from Wasilla along the Parks Highway in search of open water and some fish we could catch from such water.

Our first destination was the mouth of Willow Creek, which is accessible by turning west at approximately Mile 70.5 onto Willow Creek Parkway and proceeding to the end of the road.

Willow Creek Parkway had just been plowed a couple days before the weekend — clearing most of what remained of the winter’s snow accumulation from the road. The driving was still a bit rough, but doable all the way in two-wheel drive. At the end of the road, the parking lot was covered about knee-deep in snow, so we parked at the end of the road and started hiking. It was a cool cloudy morning when we started hiking through the crusted snow, so I decided to wear an extra jacket layer to stay warm. By the time we reached where the outflowing waters of Willow Creek met the Susitna River, I’d long since warmed up, and was sweating profusely.

There was only a narrow shallow channel of open water, which Ben fished down river with a fly, and I covered upstream casting a spinner. The channel was so narrow that one had to be careful to keep the lure in the water, and then presentations in a cross current fashion were short-lived by ice on the near side. It did not take us long to cover all of the best looking water, and we saw no sign of a fish.

We did, however, get another heart-pounding workout wading through the snow back to our vehicle. Proceeding further north on the Parks Highway, we noticed driving over Willow Creek, at this location, there was considerably more open fishable looking water both upstream and downstream of the highway. But having already spent some time prospecting the lower creek, we decided to head on and look at new water. A few miles north, crossing the bridge over Little Willow Creek, we could see the ice cover was starting to break up, but there was very little open fishable water, so we kept traveling.

Susitna Landing on the lower Kashwitna River was our next stop — not because we expected to find much open water, but more to talk with new landing operator, Jeff Boatright. Jeff told us he’d seen a silver-colored fish in an open area near the river’s confluence with the Susitna River, and so encouraged, Ben and I had to try our luck. The only luck we had here was having Jeff photograph us in action as the first “open water,” fishermen of the season. Most of our action involved breaking through crusted snow up to our thighs as we worked to reach the small pockets of open water. Once again, it was a warming, sweat-producing adventure. It did not take us long to fish all the open water, where we saw no sign of any fish.

After finding nothing but small stretches of shallow water at our first two stops, Ben and I decided to proceed all the way to Talkeetna before stopping again. Both of us had heard through Steve Runyan at 3 Rivers Fly and Tackle in Wasilla that there was good open water to fish along the lower Talkeetna River near town, and additionally, anglers had already caught fish there this spring. Even before turning down the Talkeetna Spur Road, we noticed long stretches of water both upstream and downstream of the highway crossing at Montana Creek. Nonetheless, we continued motoring toward Talkeetna.

When we reach the town, people were out hiking in warm mid-day sunshine, and we talked to one angler returning from the river as we arrived. When we asked how he did, his only comment was that he was too early.

At Talkeetna there was more soft snow to navigate, however, once we got down near the river, walking along the bank was much easier than at the other two streams we had tried earlier. In addition, there was more open water than we could possibly fish. Ben walked upriver fishing below the Alaska Railroad bridge and working his way back down stream, while I started immediately working down the Talkeetna to the confluence and then continued working open water down the Susitna River main stem.

It was extremely pleasant fishing — except we hooked no fish. I did have one very aggressive strike at my No. 3 silver and black Flashtrap Spinner, but was not able to hook up. Ben continued fishing flies with similar luck — no hook ups. While fishing the Talkeetna, however, we met Alaska State Trooper, Dan Valentine, who checked our 2011 fishing licenses, and confirmed what we had heard about fish being caught in the area, telling us that a friend of his had caught four rainbow trout on a fly in the very waters we were fishing. The only fish we saw were small salmon finning in a shallow side channel. After fishing a considerable amount of water, it was getting late in the day, and we decided to fish Montana Creek on our way back toward Wasilla.

While there were long stretches of open water at Montana Creek, it was quite shallow, and near the stream’s confluence with the Susitna River, there seemed to be very little flow coming down the Susitna itself — perhaps an ice dam upriver was jamming things up. Anyway, we did not manage to hook any fish at this location either, but like Willow and Talkeetna, there were tracks in the snow from an earlier angler preceding us.

Additional waters

As of April 27, other ice-free legal fishing waters near Palmer and Wasilla include small stretches of open water in Lucille, Wasilla, Finger, and Kepler and Bradley Lakes and Eklutna Tailrace. Note that most Mat-Su Valley flowing waters south of Willow Creek are currently closed to all fishing to provide additional protection of spawning rainbow trout, and that in flowing waters from Willow Creek north, fishing for rainbow trout is on a strictly catch and release regulation basis. For anglers like the one I saw fishing the sliver of open water between Kepler and Bradley Lakes today, small open water opportunities are available and expanding daily with our warmer spring weather. Anglers willing to prospect, seemingly unlikely, small areas will undoubted make some of the first spectacular catches of the Mat-Su Valley open water fishing season.

Check back next week for an interview with Mat-Su Angler’s Club President, Julie Busch, concerning angling and social benefits from membership in this organization.

E-mail this column at sports@frontiersman.com if you have Mat-Su fishing questions or information readers may find useful.

Andy Couch owns and operates Fishtale River Guides fish4salmon.com is a Mat-Su Anglers Club member matsuanglers.org and member of the Matanuska - Susitna Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Sportsmen’s Committee.