Mat-Su open water fishing is off to slow start

My first king salmon charter of the season was scheduled for May 15. It has been a long time since I last scheduled a king salmon charter so early that I had to cancel, but that is exactly what happened on Wednesday.

I talked with Alaska Fish and Game (ADF&G) biologist Dave Rutz on Tuesday. Dave runs the department’s northern pike suppression efforts on Alexander Creek and had been hoping to run a boat down the Susitna River and then up Alexander Creek to set up Fish and Game’s field camp at that location. He flew over the Sustina River drainage on Tuesday and reported that the Susitna River was still locked in ice at that time, but the Deshka River and Alexander Creek were already mostly ice-free.

I had been planning on guiding my scheduled Wednesday charter to the Deshka, but with Deshka Landing and the Susitna River still ice bound that was no longer an option. So I communicated by email with another Fish and Game biologist, Sam Ivey, about the Little Susitna River. On Tuesday, Ivey indicated that a Fish and Game crew scheduled to work on the Little Susitna River weir boated upstream to the weir site location for the first time. Water was dark and muddy at that time. The previous day a similar attempt had been made to reach the weir site, but the group had to turn around when blocked by an ice jam.

Technically, I therefore could have guided my king salmon charter on Little Susitna River; however, Little Susitna River Access road is often in poor enough condition that I’ve had guests bottom out their vehicles and scrape the mufflers off cars this time of year. In addition, such conditions are not good for my boat trailer or tow vehicle either. ADF&G staff was reportedly using four-wheel-drive vehicles to reach the river, and it looked like the potential for problems with the road was considerably higher than the likelihood of a reasonable early season king salmon fishing opportunity.

Even if I had guided the Wednesday trip to Little Susitna River, emergency ordered king salmon regulations went in to effect that very day, so any king salmon my guests may have caught could not be kept. For those who may not be familiar with the current regulations for Little Susitna River king salmon fishing, starting May 15, king salmon may only be harvested from Little Susitna River on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays of each week. King salmon caught on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays must immediately be released. Anglers are also restricted to the use of one artificial lure with one single hook, and the seasonal king salmon limit has been reduced to two fish from the Little Susitna River and Susitna River drainages combined.

On Thursday morning, I read in Tony Weaver’s fishing report for the Anchorage Daily News that ice finally broke at Deshka Landing on Wednesday, but when visiting the Deshka Landing website also Thursday morning, the message I read was, “Things are still holding tight on the Susitna River ice status. Final break up should happen anytime now.”

Even if the ice has started breaking up as reported by Weaver, it usually takes a few days for ice flows and ice jams to flush out along the Susitna River. A typical pattern soon after the ice breaks up might see boaters taking off and heading down river from Deshka Landing in the morning, but sometime later in the day — if an ice jam breaks loose upstream, those same boaters may be blocked in by an ice flow and find themselves delayed in when they can return to Deshka Landing. At any rate, many river users are chomping at the bit in anticipation of better boating conditions on the Susitna River. Deshka Landing mentions it will post that information on their website when it happens. To read the most recent posting on the Deshka Landing website use the following URL link: deshkalanding.com/index.html.

Valley lakes are still iced up at this time, and I know of zero open lake boat launches at this time. For boat users, it is always nice to check run a boat and motor before heading down river on a system like the Susitna. It is better to test or tune up a motor ahead of time than to experience a rough running motor or one that fails to start for the trip back up river.

Water /ice conditions on Valley lakes have been poor for most open water fishing situations as well; however, I’ve seen where people are starting to fish small areas of open water along the shore at the Kepler-Bradley Lake complex near Palmer, and also near the outlet of Wasilla Lake. Note: while smaller streams may now be free of ice, as reported in ADF&G’s weekly fishing report, streams located in the Palmer-Wasilla zone are closed to all fishing until June 15.

Streams north of Willow are open to fishing, but rainbow trout must be released at this time, and when I talked with Mike Hudson of 3 Rivers Fly and Tackle in Wasilla on Tuesday, he indicated that open water near the mouths of these streams was still limited, and that people at that time were catching very few fish. Conditions will improve rapidly now, but for a while expect the best fishing on Susitna River tributary streams to occur at or near their confluences with the Susinta River.

In my last column I reported that the water flow at Eklutna Tailrace had been reduced for annual maintenance. Since that time I ventured to the tailrace and found water flow back up to normal levels. My last trip to the tailrace was the first time this year that I walked up and down along the entire tailrace channel fishing from one end to the other. I have yet to see any fish, but there is enough open water to cast and move about. Snow and ice along the tailrace has melted back to where one can fish in tennis shoes without getting wet or cold. The Knik River remains low enough that it is unlikely many king salmon will venture up into the tailrace channel until sometime in June or the river level rises significantly — whichever comes first.

For those wanting to know, check back next week, when I expect to report some fish catching instead of mainly delayed icy conditions.

Andy Couch owns and operates Fishtale River Guides (fish4salmon.com) and is a member of the Mat-Su Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission.