Mat-Su Valley salmon dip net fishery opens

On Wednesday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) issued an emergency order opening the Fish Creek Personal Use Dip Net Fishery because of the projection that Fish Creek sockeye salmon escapement will exceed the top end of the Fish Creek sockeye salmon escapement goal range.

The fishery is open to Alaska residents only and single-family households will be allowed to harvest up to 25 salmon (no kings). Families with more than one household member may keep an additional 10 salmon per household member. Before fishing, a household participant must obtain a personal use fIshery permit that says “2010 Upper Cook Inlet Personal Use Salmon FIshery Permit” at the top of the permit.

Permits may be obtained free of charge to resident Alaska sportfishing license holders at the ADF&G office in Palmer. The fishery will be open for eight days only, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily from Saturday through July 31.

The fishing area is located near the mouth of FIsh Creek where the creek crosses Knik-Goose Bay Road. The fishing area is quite small and bordered by private property that should be respected by all participants. No ATVs are allowed to operate in the area of this fishery. This should be a prime opportunity for Alaskans to harvest personal use salmon in the Mat-Su area — something that has only happened very infrequently in the past decade.

For additional information, call the Palmer ADF&G office at 746-6300 or you visit sf.adfg.state.ak.us/Static/EONR/PDFs.

Kenai and Kasilof River

dip net fisheries

Additional personal use dip net fishing opportunities are available on these two large Kenai Peninsula Rivers. As those who read this column last week know, I travelled to the peninsula last weekend, and we easily netted our entire household limit of 35 sockeye salmon in about two hours of dipping from a boat on the lower Kenai River.

Dip netting was some of the best I’d experienced, even though there were lots of participants. In spite of all the Alaska residents dip netting on the Kenai River, more than 60,000 sockeye salmon swam past ADF&G’s Kenai River sonar counter on both days of the weekend, and on Monday more than 80,000 sockeye swam past the counter.

This is a tremendous opportunity to harvest plenty of salmon in a short amount of time — and as mentioned in last week’s column, harvesting enough personal use sockeye salmon from the Kenai River could help ADF&G managers allow additional salmon of all species to reach Mat-Su and Anchorage area streams. Information about these personal use fisheries is available at the Palmer, Anchorage and Soldotna ADF&G offices.

If you want to participate I would suggest picking up your permit at either the Palmer or Anchorage ADF&G office before traveling to the Peninsula — since in the past the Peninsula office has run out of permits during the season. The Kenai River personal use opportunity ends on the last day of July, so Alaskans need to get with the program if they want to participate in the personal use sockeye harvest at this location.

Mat-Su sport salmon fIshing

Our recent rainy weather has lured increasing numbers of silver salmon into both Deshka and lower Little Susitna RIver, as well as some of the Parks Highway tributaries of the Susitna River. Some guests fishing with my guide service at both Deshka and Little Susinta have limited on silver salmon in the past week.

In addition, chum salmon, sockeye salmon and a few pink salmon are also showing up. The Mat-Su pink salmon opportunities look like they should be quite poor this year, as few of the smallest salmon are being harvested in the Upper Cook inlet commercial fishery, and I’ve seen extremely few pink salmon during my recent salmon charters — where as on a normal even-numbered year the pinks should have already arrived in mass.

Look for sockeye salmon sport fishing opportunities at Talkeetna River, Lake Creek, Cottonwood Creek (weekends only) and Jim Creek. Some of the best Mat-Su salmon harvesting opportunities are happening now, and I hope you can get in on the fun. The Mat-Su Valley’s abundant sport fishing resources provide another fun option for residents and visitors to harvest plenty of prime eating salmon. Also remember that the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce’s silver salmon derby is quickly approaching and scheduled to start in a little over a week, running from Aug. 1-16. Call the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce at 376-1299 or Mat-Su Angler’s Club president Julie Busch at 892- 7543 for information.

E-mail this column at sports@frontiersman.com if you have Mat-Su fishing questions or information readers may find useful. Andy Couch owns and operates Fishtale River Guides (fish4salmon.com) is a Mat-Su Anglers Club member (matsuanglers.org) and member of the Matanuska-Susitna Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Sportsmen’s Committee.