King salmon and hooligan running in the Susitna River

The ink of last week’s fishing column had not even dried before I started hearing about king salmon getting caught near the confluence of the Susitna and Deshka Rivers. On the day the article was printed my friend, Ben Allen, boated down the Susitna in search of hooligan. He found them at the confluence of the Yentna River and then found even more as he boated up the Yentna. Ben scooped up a container of hooligan in a hurry with a small fish net, so if one proceeds down the Susitna River far enough and keeps a look out for abundances of birds along the edge of the river the hooligan catching should produce far better harvests than king salmon fishing.

While anglers seem to be catching a few king salmon nearly every day from the Deshka River mouth, the king salmon are few and scattered, and it may take a considerable amount of fishing before an angler gets a king salmon to bite. Ben and I boated over to the Deshka on Tuesday in search of king salmon, and while we saw about 5 king salmon break the surface, and also saw two anglers in a nearby boat land a nice fish, we were unable to draw a strike ourselves. Perhaps we were just too impatient, as we boated off upriver to try other spots. When we returned a few hours later we talked to anglers who had stayed near the Deshka River mouth and caught a king salmon while we were off adventuring upriver.

I’ll be guiding king salmon charters over the coming weekend, and expect some guest(s) on some of those trips should hook into and land a king salmon or two, but it is still only about the middle of May. Both the hooligan and kings are earlier than normal showing up, but while the king salmon have already reached the Deshka River mouth, I have not yet heard of any hooligan in the same area. Before long (within a week, if not this weekend) hooligan should be arriving on the Susitna at and upstream of the Deshka River mouth. Many people like to wait for the hooligan to swim upriver rather than boating all the way down to the Yentna River to catch them. Once hooligan arrive upstream of the Deshka the run seems to only last about a week or 10 days, on most years, before the fish are gone for another season. So if one wants to catch hooligan, it pays to keep up with the availability of the fish, then harvest what you want quickly before the run is over. Alaskan residents are allowed to catch as many as they can use for their personal use, however, if you have not eaten hooligan before I would advise trying just a few before harvesting a whole cooler full or more. My experience has been that there are a lot of other fish I would rather eat than hooligan.

As mentioned previously in this column mid-May is quite early for catching king salmon at any Mat-Su Valley location, however, it is likely the first few king salmon of the season may be taken from other Mat- Su locations in the coming week. Although I have not heard of any king salmon showing up at Eklutna Tailrace, I learned that annual maintenance on the power plant was finished a few days early, and increased water volume is once again flowing through the power plant and down the tailrace channel.The chances of catching an Eklutna Tailrace king salmon may still be very low, but having more water volume in the tailrace increases the odds an early king salmon may swim up to check things out.

I have not talked with anyone who has fished Little Susitna River this year, but I’m sure someone has been out trying it. I called the Alaska Fish and Game Department a couple times seeking information about when the Little Susitna River salmon counting weir might be installed, but received no positive answer. It will likely be soon, as the Department is busy getting its summer king salmon projects operational. Little Susitna does not seem to have as many early season salmon as it once did, but it should provide an opportunity for a few lucky anglers to land a king salmon soon — if it hasn’t already happened.

The four main river boat launches at Deshka Landing, Susitna Landing, Talkeetna River, and Little Susitna River are now all seeing a few boats launching on a continual basis. Water levels are lower than normal, but certainly high enough for jet boat operation.

Mike Hudson at 3 Rivers Fly and Tackle in Wasilla told me that the spring rainbow trout fishing seems to be slowing down, as the trout move to spawning areas. Mike said this same pattern is occurring in some of the stocked lakes, however, not all rainbow trout spawn every year, and there are other species to target like grayling, arctic char, and landlocked salmon. Mike also mentioned that northern pike fishing has been good lately in Big Lake, and that he recently measured a 42-inch pike an angler landed from that location.

Joe Rouswell at Susitna Landing told me anglers have still been catching grayling in front of the campground, and with continually warming weather, they are seeing more people out camping and enjoying the weather. Joe also mentioned that several bear hunters have been boating out of Susitna Landing, and he recently saw the first hunter come back with a black bear.

Have a great weekend and I hope you take the opportunity to get out and enjoy the Alaska outdoors!

Andy Couch has been guiding Mat-Su Valley fishing trips for more than 30 years. You may read his 12 years of archived fishing reports on his business website at http://www.fish4salmon.com/