Mat-Su ice fishing roundup

I‘ve had a limited feel for what ice fishing has been like in various locations within the Mat-Su Valley this winter, but on Tuesday I had a more thorough than normal conversation with Mike Hudson of 3 Rivers Fly and Tackle in Wasilla, and he provided a sled full of useful ice fishing information. The first item he mentioned was that Finger Lake had been producing a lot of stocker-sized fish — which is to be expected, as Finger Lake is usually the most heavily stocked lake in the Mat-Su Valley, and particularly for catchable-sized fish ( usually about 8 - 12 inches). Like usual most of those fish this year were landlocked Chinook salmon, but Finger Lake also has some much larger rainbow trout and Arctic char that anglers catch on a less frequent basis. It sounded like Mike had heard lots of good reports from Finger Lake.

He also mentioned that many people had been fishing the Kepler - Bradley Lake system near Palmer and mentioned hearing from one individual who reported catching 65 fish from one of the lesser known lakes back from the highway a ways. When I talked with Alaska Department of FIsh and Game fisheries biologist, Samantha Oslund on Tuesday she also mentioned Finger Lake and specifically Kepler and Bradley Lake right of the Glenn Highway. Concerning Kepler and Bradley Lake she mentioned them as two of the heaviest fished lakes in the valley with people out trying their luck nearly all year — except when poor ice conditions keep folks away.

Just across the highway and with more difficult access this year is Echo Lake, according to Oslund, because of access issues with the Glenn Highway construction project Echo Lake was not stocked this year, so she did not expect the usual numbers of stocked fish available in this lake, although she also made the observation that there could be a few more larger holdover rainbow trout and Arctic Chart (as a result of more difficult access).

Both Mike and Samantha also mentioned Big Lake for native arctic char — and Mike specifically mentioned that people were catching larger char from Big Lake this winter — this would logically seem to be the result of catch and release regulations specifically for Arctic char caught form Big Lake that have been in effect for more than a year now. Big Lake has long been known for having very colorful char — including most of the largest char taken in the Mat-Su Valley on an annual basis. In addition ice anglers may also catch and harvest northern pike, burbot, and rainbow trout form Big Lake ( although anglers should read special regulations for Big Lake as it is limited to artificial lures only for a portion of the year during the ice fishing season ,and there is also a seasonal spawning closure for burbot.

Another lake, not heard about as much, is Long Lake up the Glenn Highway. Mike specifically mentioned seeing a large fat 37 inch lake trout that had been taken from Long Lake this winter, and also knew of several additional large lake trout, along with smaller lakers, rainbow trout, and arctic char caught from this lake with a pullout right along the highway. Note: it can often be windy at Long Lake and daily temperatures can also be colder this far north, so an ice fishing shelter may be more of a necessity, more of the time, and in particular at this location.

Even further North, Lake Louise is specifically known for some of the largest lake trout in the Mat-Su Area. According to Hudson, the laker catching at Lake Louise had been better earlier in the season, but slowed a bit recently — perhaps partially due to an extended period of colder weather. Once again, the area near Lake Louise is cold country, so anglers should take extra care to stay warm or plan their trip during a warmer weather period.

Northern Pike — Mike mentioned that ice anglers had been expressing interest in fishing for northern pike, however, he had only heard of limited numbers of pike being taken from local lakes including Memory and Nancy Lake —-and also mentioned that some of the better pike waters had been more inaccessible depending upon snow and ice conditions. Another individual I know who owns a cabin on Trapper Lake ( a pike hot spot) mentioned taking his family out to the cabin recently, but the temperatures had been so cold that they spent most of their time in the cabin, and no one went ice fishing.

When I specifically asked Mike if he had heard much from locations up the Parks Highway, he mentioned hearing about people catching some smaller stocked fish out of a few lakes in the Meadow Lakes area and near Deshka Landing, but he had not heard much other than that.

Mike mentioned that there had been quite a bit of fishing activity over Christmas break for school aged kids, and also that many people like to get out ice fishing during times of warmer weather, although ice fishing activity had slowed a bit when the weather turned warm enough to put standing water on top of some of the Palmer - Wasilla core area lakes.

I also asked Mike how the rod building business has been going (the shop offers rod building classes for $150 per person plus purchase of rod components). Mike mentioned that they had been running a rod building special this year — where for the normal cost of the rod building class, the shop had been including the components to build one ice fishing rod. He mentioned that most class members had been able to build an ice fishing rod in two sessions and this had been a very popular opportunity.

I hope this article provides Mat-Su anglers some good options to consider or try.