Heavyweight rainbows due to arrive

“The good old days of excellent rainbow trout fishing in the Mat-Su Valley are only days to weeks away in some of our more popular lakes,” according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game Fisheries Biologist Samantha Oslund.

“For the past several years, the largest catchable-sized rainbow trout raised in the Anchorage fish hatchery measured about 8 inches in length. Those were the big ones. They weighed about 40 grams on average,” she said. “This spring, the catchable trout produced by the state’s new warm water hatchery facility in Anchorage is producing catchable rainbow trout that average approximately 100 grams in weight.”

Oslund said those trout will measure about 10 to 12 inches in length when released, but are nice, fat fish that weigh on average about 2.5 times as much as the rainbows produced for the last several years in cooler water. Trout anglers can expect more opportunity to catch the larger trout as soon as they are delivered from the hatchery.

When I talked with Oslund late last week, she had already been out scouting for open water to see which lakes might be some of the first to get batches of the catchable-size trout. In addition to lakes with early ice break up, the department puts all, or most, catchable-sized fish in popular lakes that receive a high volume of angler use. I tried to stay away from questions about individual lakes; however, Oslund mentioned that Kepler, Bradley and Echo lakes would likely be some of the earliest stocked because of heavy angler us, particularly around Memorial Day weekend.

She mentioned that the state’s plan calls for the lakes to be stocked by May 31, but was hopeful that some of the stocking could be accomplished earlier to provide as much fish-catching opportunity as possible.

Multiple stockings during summer

Another stocking concept Oslund hopes to see used in heavier-fished Mat-Su lakes during the coming summer fishing season is providing a second stocking of fish sometime near mid-summer (July). This would not be more fish; rather, fish that were held to a later date before release to provide more reliable fish-catching opportunities later in the summer.

Better char and grayling as well

Olsund expects the biggest impact species for summer fishing in the Valley to be rainbow trout, but trout are not the only species providing good news. She also mentioned that catchable-sized Dolly Varden/arctic char should also be larger this year, and the state’s stocking program for arctic grayling may start planting larger fish with a higher survival rate, perhaps as early as next year.

Don’t forget hatchery salmon

While not as large as the robust salmon smolt raised this year, Olsund was encouraged nonetheless by the size of both coho and chinook salmon smolt released to run to the ocean from Mat-Su Valley locations last year. She expects some of those coho to return to the Eklutna Tailrace this year, and additional small young chinook salmon should result at the same location in 2013. The more robust-sized salmon smolt scheduled to be released in 2012 should produce even larger returns of both coho and chinook salmon in future years.

Mat-Su Angler’s meeting

The club’s monthly meeting from 7 to 9 p.m., May 10 has been relocated to Sportsman’s Warehouse in Wasilla in the store’s back meeting room. Howard Delo is scheduled to speak about 2012 Mat-Su salmon fishing regulation changes, and Katherine Inman will also solicit support to help with an educational effort to improve water quality in Big Lake. The effort will be focused around the Memorial Day Weekend.

Contact Mat-Su Angler’s Club’s new president, Steve Totten, at 354-4141 for additional meeting questions or information. Club members and the public are invited to attend.

Andy Couch owns and operates Fishtale River Guides (fish4salmon.com), is a Mat-Su Anglers Club member (matsuanglers.org) and member of the Mat-Su Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Sportsmen’s Committee. Email this column at sports@frontiersman.com if you have Mat-Su fishing questions or information readers may find useful.