Labor Day weekend silver salmon fishing

With the earliest possible Labor Day weekend occurring in 2014, Mat-Su anglers will have a decent opportunity to harvest a few more of the Mat-Su Valley’s most popular sport fish over the coming weekend.

Some of the upstream locations will likely provide better silver salmon catching opportunities. For example, when I talked with Margo Nealis of Phantom Tri River Charters in Talkeetna earlier this week, she said most of their charter guests were still catching limits of silver salmon with a mixture of chrome and blushed fished. Margo affirmed there are still good numbers of silvers available in the Talkeetna River Drainage and at Clear Creek, and Talkeetna River silvers seem to be extra large this year. With the coming weekend, many of the better catches will likely occur on Saturday or Sunday — as Monday is the first day of September which also is the transition date on which many fishing locations of the Susitna River and Talkeetna River Drainages switch to single-hook artificial lures only.

There are still some chrome silver salmon available along the Parks Highway Susitna River tributary streams south of Talkeetna, as well. Farley Dean of Willow Creek Resort (907-495-6343) told me this week that they usually have some good chrome silver salmon available over Labor Day Weekend both at the mouth and upstream on Willow Creek. Farley also mentioned that rainbow trout fishing should be going strong on Willow Creek for the entire month of September.

For anglers looking to float Willow Creek and take out at the state recreation area near the creek mouth, Farley mentioned Willow Creek Resort provides a $25 shuttle service for vehicle drop off near the stream mouth before starting a float.

In addition to salmon, both rainbow trout, and Arctic grayling may be caught in Willow Creek and other Susitna River tributary streams along the Parks Highway.

Little Susitna River Silver Salmon have already topped 20,000 fish escapement through the weir according to what one of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game weir staff told me on Thursday August 28. Although hundreds of silver salmon continue to pass through the weir on almost a daily basis, the salmon are moving up quickly and at this time better catching opportunities may be present from the Parks Highway Bridge downstream to Nancy Lake Creek. Expect a high percentage of these fish to have a rosy or darker-colored blush to them, as it is getting late in the season and closer to spawning time.

Little Susitna RIver Road Rebuild / Upgrade

On the lower end of the Little Susitna River anglers may be pleased to learn contractors are currently working to upgrade / rebuild Little Susitna River Road, which provides road access to Little Susitna River Public Use Facility boat launch and campground. According to Matanuska -Susitna Borough Road Maintenance Supervisor, Scott Sanderson the work is scheduled to be completed this fall, depending upon the weather. The road will both be widened and rebuilt with better fill material in as far as the Susinta Flats State Game Refuge Boundary. This should help upgrade access to the Matanuska -Susitna Borough’s most utilized silver salmon fishery, as well as provide better access for river users, hunters, berry pickers, and hikers. The portion of the road from the Wildlife Refuge Boundary to the Public Use Facility is not scheduled to be upgraded at this time, but portion of the road should also be considered by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for an upgrade funds request as well.

Eklutna Tailrace fishery

Silver salmon should be available through nearly the entire month of September at this location as the fish return to and hold at this hatchery release site, however, newly arriving fish from the saltwater definitely tend to bite better than those that have been hanging around for any length of time. Therefore anglers hoping for a better opportunity to catch a number of chrome fish should fish earlier in September rather than later. Another season of Mat-Su salmon angling will be winding down shortly.

September trout fishing

As mentioned earlier, in the blurb about Willow Creek, after Sunday, rainbow trout fishing in Mat-Su Valley streams will be providing a significant and growing percentage of angling opportunity throughout the entire month of September and into October, depending upon the weather and stream conditions. This is partly as a result of the change in fishing regulations, and partly because most Mat-Su silver salmon fishing opportunities start tailing off rapidly during the month of September, while rainbow catching opportunities stay steady or pick up.

Good Fishing!

Andy Couch owns and operates Fishtale River Guides www.fish4salmon.com , and is a member of the Matanuska - Susitna Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission.