Observations from Lower Susitna River Personal Use Dip Net Fishery

On Wednesday July 22, Gary Brell, Frede (my wife), Chuck Ashmun and I boated from Deshka Landing to the Lower Susitna River Personal Use Salmon FIshery. Our boat ride down the Susitna River went smoothly, however, I have boated this stretch of river several times and am familiar with it. Three comments I would make concerning the river:

One: Wear Your PFD

I wore a life vest the entire time — both while we were traveling and while we were fishing — I removed it only while filleting fish. The lower Susitna River is a cold deceptively fast moving glacial river. If a person should fall in the river, wearing a Personal Floatation Device could easily save a life.

Two: Learn to Operate Your Boat Somewhere Else

With that thought in mind I would also say be sure you have all of your boating safety gear with you and know how to use it. It is always better to bring more than enough fuel. For my open guide boat with a 90 horse outboard jet I brought 27 gallons of fuel and had over 6 gallons in reserve after making the round trip and fishing from the boat for several hours. For an experienced boater the route is not all that difficult, however, you should know what to do if at some point you loose power.

Three: Morning fog

Morning fog can create dangerous boating conditions. Fog is most likely to occur on a cool clear morning — and especially after a rain the night before. Even for someone knowledgable with the boating route — patches of fog can quickly create an unsafe boating situation, and if encountered, the best remedy may be to pull over to a bank and wait until it clears off. On the day we fished people using airplanes to access the fishery did not show up until later in the day after the clouds had burned off a bit.

Identifying the Personal Use Area

On our dip netting trip we left Deshka Landing about 5:30 a.m. on an overcast morning with no fog and reached the personal use fishing area about 6:30 a.m. The legal dipping area is downstream of the Yenta River confluence and also downriver of Susitna Station. It could be possible for someone unfamiliar with this area to boat past the Yentna River confluence without realizing it was more than a Susitna River side-channel. The Susitna Station location, however, is unique in that it is the only location (once you get below the Deshka River confluence / Kroto Slough) where a person can see houses on both sides of the river from a boat. Downstream from Susitna Station the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has placed some large orange signs that identify the dip netting area. There is a sign on the West riverbank, near the top of an island in the middle of the river, and on the East river bank. Although these are large signs, they can look rather small from the middle of the huge river channel so a person needs to look for them. By boating close enough a person can indeed read that the legal dip netting area is downstream from the signs.

Closed Area and Lower Boundary

Within the Personal Use Area and along the west bank of the river there is a marker both above and below the confluence of Anderson Creek, identify an area closed to dip netting near Anderson Creek. Further downstream there are two additional orange signs identifying the lower bounds of the personal use area. These two signs are located on the upstream end of Bell Island just below the Alexander Creek cut off on the West, and just downstream of where the East side-channel flows bank into the main river.

Where is Everyone?

Legal fishing hours are form 6 a.m. —11 p.m. on Saturdays and Wednesday only from July 10—31. When we reached the fishing area at 6:30 am we could not see another boat or dip netter within sight. As we boated down river through the fishing area we saw one tent and a boat pulled up to an island in the fishing area. As we started fishing, we did not see anyone else fishing within sight of us for the first two hours. Even when other boats and dip netters got up, showed up, and started fishing there was lots of room between boats, and we only saw one group dip netting along the shore. If we had boated over the where the airplanes were landing I suspect we could have seen them fishing along a bank as well.

Salmon Species and Fish Quality

On Wednesday July 22 we dip netted 4 species of salmon: pinks, sockeye, chums, and coho. Most of the salmon were in very prime ocean-chrome shape — infact our group kept a couple chum salmon that were so bright we thought they were sockeye salmon until closer inspection revealed otherwise. Likewise, some of the pink salmon were extremely bright chrome, but could be identified by the large oval spots on their tails. We released all of the pink salmon, as other participants in the fishery seemed to be doing as well. During our dip netting session Frede and Gary did all the netting, while I operated the boat, and Chuck watched and kept a count. Gary harvested and recorded 13 sockeye salmon, 2 chum salmon, and 2 coho salmon. Other participants we observed or talked to seemed to be having similar success. We pulled over near an island and filleted all of the fish before leaving the fishing area.

Learning Experience

I will be participating in this fishery again, however, to make it easier to release pink salmon I will be bringing nets with 3.5 inch mesh rather than 4.5 inch mesh that is often standardly supplied when dip nets are purchased. From discussions I’ve had with other participants, the first two fishing periods in July provided extremely low salmon catches. It will be interesting to observe if this harvest pattern happens on a regular basis in future years, of if for some reason the salmon were simply late arriving in 2020. I will definitely be more careful in how and where we fish. With stream bank erosion along the west bank of the river many trees have fallen into the river and sunk to the bottom. After losing dip nets that got caught on snags I will definitely be more careful in how and where we fish. My brother-in-law and nephews had good luck catching salmon and avoiding snags by fishing their dip nets above the bottom in the same area where we lost nets. We started fishing early in the morning, and had good success to start, followed by slower fishing. My relatives started fishing later in the day and found that fishing success, for them, seemed to pick up later toward evening. We were fishing somewhat different locations within the dip netting area, however, for future reference we will want to keep a record of what time of day and locations where our better catches occurred.

Creation of the Fishery

It is not often that one has the opportunity to participate in an entirely new fishery. While inhabitants likely had subsistence harvest of salmon from this area in the past, since my parents moved to the Mat-Su Valley in 1971, this year was the first time I can recall having an opportunity to personal use dip net on the lower Susitna River. During the last Upper Cook Inlet Board of Fisheries cycle the Matanuska Valley Fish and Game Advisory Committee, the Southcentral Alaska Dipnetters Association, and 3 individuals submitted fishery proposals to establish such a personal use fishery. Alaska Board of FIsheries member Israel Payton, in particular, worked tirelessly in an effort to provide a conservative personal use fishing opportunity that all Alaska residents could participate in on the lower Susitna River. The fishery that was adopted by the Alaska Board of Fisheries back in February is more conservative than what the submitted proposals asked for, and more conservative than the Kasilof and Kenai River personal use fisheries. This fishery is providing a significant new salmon harvest opportunity for Alaskan residents specifically designed to protect Susitna River salmon stocks at the same time. It will be interesting to learn what participation and harvest patterns show up both this year and for 2021 and 2022. Alaska Board of Fisheries proposals may be submitted to modify this fishery in some way starting in 2022.

Note: The last day of personal use dip netting on the lower Susitna River is Wednesday July 29 for 2020. Only Alaska residents may participate. A fishing license and personal use fishing permit are required. These two items may be obtained through the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=residentfishing.main

Good Luck and Fish On!

Andy Couch is a local salmon fishing guide who provides Mat-Su Valley fishing reports throughout the season on his Fishtale River Guides website. See Fishing Reports at https.//www.fish4salmon.com