King, silver fanciers enjoyed splendid year in Mat-Su

Don't get ahead of yourself -- it wasn't your tremendous luck or skill as an angler that helped you have a great summer on the river this year. Runs of both kings and silvers were the best in years, and that could have had a little something to do with the full freezer.

According to the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, the runs of king salmon and silver salmon were tremendous, and while it shatters the stories of some fishermen, it is a great sign of things to come for future runs as well.

"The king run was one of the top in the last five or six years, and the coho run, depending on the stream, of course, was one of the best in the last 15-20 years," said ADF&G biologist Dave Rutz, of the Palmer field office. "We saw great numbers for those two runs here."

The good return and escapement numbers didn't come as a big surprise to ADF&G, either. Part of the reason the big runs returned this year are actions that were taken six years ago.

"In '95, we eliminated the use of bait in the king fisheries, and that has had a big impact on the runs," Rutz said. "There are a myriad of reasons why we have seen the runs pick up. There has been a lot of in-stream and marine survival of these fish."

Last year's silver run had anglers jumping for joy, as fish were prevalent in Valley streams. This year, it was even better.

"A lot of people were happy with how big the run of silvers was last year, and this year the run was a little bigger," Rutz said.

One of the five Pacific salmon species left anglers a little disappointed, however, and not just here in the Valley.

"The sockeyes [reds] in the Northern Cook Inlet area just didn't show up," Rutz said. "We didn't see them at all."

It was hardly a local issue, however. The Kenai and Russian rivers both had closures in effect this summer, because escapement numbers were not being met.

"With the closures down in Kenai, and the lack of sockeye here, it wasn't that great of a year all around," Rutz said.

As most avid fishermen know, the fishing season starts and ends with rainbow trout. From the time the ice leaves the streams and until the ice returns, rainbow fishing occupies many an angler's weekend. This year, people noticed a big increase as well.

"It seems like it has been a good year for 'bows," said Jack Reming, an Anchorage man who owns a cabin along a Parks Highway stream. "I've been up here almost every weekend, and I've seen a lot of nice 'bows. I think people are starting to realize how precious the rainbow fishery is up here. You can't be pulling 10, 15 fish out of the creek and throwing them in the frying pan. It just can't support that."

Rutz said the number of rainbows is "way up," particularly in the Parks Highway streams and the western Susitna River areas. And while he agrees with Reming that ethical angling and catch-and-release practices have aided the increase in rainbow numbers, they aren't the only reasons.

"We've reduced rainbow limits from 10 to five to now two, and many of the creeks have catch-and-release or other restrictions," Rutz said. "Plus, with the salmon escapement numbers so high, it can only help the rainbows."