New Upper Cook Inlet salmon regulations provide hope

The new Cook Inlet commercial salmon fishing regulations adopted in February of 2014 have provided a sense of hope for sport, subsistence and personal use anglers of the Mat-Su Valley. Until now, there was just a sense of hope that the new regulations might possibly allow Mat-Su bound salmon an opportunity to reach spawning streams in adequate numbers to meet escapement goals ranges and with enough surplus salmon to allow reasonable harvest opportunities in the Northern portion of the Inlet.

It is late July, and even though Cook Inlet commercial fishermen have already harvested more than 2.8 million salmon, some Mat-Su streams are seeing increasing salmon spawning escapements. Because of good sockeye salmon escapement through the Fish Creek weir, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game recently issued an emergency order to allow personal use dip netting on the lower portion of Fish Creek starting today at 6 a.m. This personal use fishery is only open only to Alaska residents from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily through July 31. A personal use permit is required.

Deshka River is experiencing an invasion of plentiful pink salmon, with more than 43,000 pinks having passed the Deshka River weir through July 22. A few guides have described fishing at the Dehska River mouth as a scene of constantly jumping pink salmon. Small lures have been producing good catches of pinks.

On the Little Susitna River, chum salmon are the dominant salmon species swimming through the Little Susitna River weir at this time, with a recorded escapement of 4,746 chum salmon through July 22. I can also attest from personal experience, chum salmon have been providing lots of action and harvest opportunity for Little Susitna River sport fishermen.

Talkeetna River anglers have been catching chum salmon, sockeye salmon, pink salmon and even a few early silver salmon already, according to Margo Nealis of Phantom Tri River Charters. According to Margo, sockeye salmon recently showed up in good numbers and charter boats have been coming back with sockeye limits since July 22. Eastside Susitna River tributary streams between Willow and Talkeetna have a similar mix of salmon available at this time, especially near stream confluences with the Susitna River.

Silver or coho salmon are the headline fish for many Mat-Su locations, and although some silver salmon have been showing up at locations throughout the Valley, it is still a bit early to know if Mat-Su anglers will be experiencing a bumper coho run.

The last week of July often provides some of the better silver salmon fishing for locations closer to the saltwaters of Cook Inlet and Knik Arm. While most coho typically enter Mat-Su streams in August, I’ve had guests catching large fat coho salmon since July 5, but only in sporadic situations. Within the coming week many Mat-Su anglers are hopeful for larger abundances of silvers in the rivers.

Later in August the real bumper crop of Mat-Su silver salmon should show up. Expect the new fishing regulations to provide even better numbers of in-stream silver salmon in August, after most of the season’s commercial drift net fishing has ended for the season.

With so many Mat-Su salmon species and fishing opportunities available it is impossible to go into detail on all the options, but the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s weekly fishing report mentions several of the more popular destinations for specific species.

Looking outside the Mat-Su Valley, fishing regulations seeking to conserve Kenai River king salmon are allowing additional numbers of sockeye salmon into the river and providing better personal-use dipnetting and sockeye salmon sport fishing. So now might be a good time to catch some sockeye salmon from the Kenai or Kasilof River. Good Luck on your fishing this week, and I plan to write on drifting bobbers and bait for silver salmon for next week’s column.

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