One last salmon charter to wrap up the 2022 Mat-Su season

In last week’s column I mentioned suspending my coho salmon reservations for the season after testing positive for Covid. While I took no new reservations, I had to contact people I could not take and offer their choice of a cancellation/refund or I would try to find them another guide to run their trip. Many thanks to Greg Acord, Dan Suprak, Corey Berg, and Ryan with Miller’s Riverboat Service — all who took on my guided fishing trips while I was recovering. After I was feeling better and symptom-free I was able to guide the final two trips I had booked for the season.

On Tuesday, Sept. 6, I drove to Little Susitna River Public Use Facility for my final trip of the season. With a 1 p.m. start time, it hardly even felt like a guided fishing trip. There were several vehicles with trailers at the boat launch, but most of those people must have been out hunting for either moose or ducks, and likely camping somewhere along the river.

I saw one group of hunters return to the landing as I was preparing my guide boat for the fishing charter, and my guests showed up a bit early as well. Aside from that, we saw no one else before starting the trip. There was a flock of ducks along the river as we drove upstream a few minutes to our first fishing spot. My 3 guests were from out of state, and ready to experience their first Alaska salmon fishing experience. I had them drifting cured salmon rue under bobbers at the first spot. It took them a few bites / lost baits before they got the hang of drifting bobbers with line running off the reels, cranking just enough to close the bail, then jerking back and setting the hook.

The first salmon was dark, and an easy choice to release, but the second salmon they caught was much cleaner with just a hint of blush so it became the first salmon harvested. They fished that first spot until the bites stopped, which was not very long, and then I drifted the boat a short ways downstream where they caught another dark fish and another one with just a hint of blush. They kept a second salmon.

We continued working our way up the river for several miles and each guest caught multiple silver salmon, but we did not judge any others good enough to keep. In addition, one guest also caught 3 colorful rainbow trout that struck the same salmon roe drifted under the bobbers.

Up the river a few miles we saw a boat approaching one of the spots we were fishing, and I suspect they were hoping to fish the same spot, however they turned back downriver and we only saw one lone cancer as we continued upriver. With less than a couple hours left in the trip we turned back downriver and started fishing our way back toward the boat launch. On our way downstream we saw one other group out fishing along the river.

We fished several spots without getting any bites, and several other spots where they got bites almost as soon as they started fishing, At a few spots they bites continued for several minutes and several fish caught, but most spots the action did not last long before the bites stopped, and we were moving on again.

I will admit, during the time I was recovering from Covid, I was definitely experiencing fishing withdrawl. It happens to me every summer, as my salmon season winds toward the end. This final charter on Tuesday, however, was a great trip with three people out enjoying themselves and catching fish. They kept the best salmon for eating, and released the rest. Once it gets to where most of the salmon are not in prime shape for keeping, I’m ready to leave them alone and let them spawn. I am now comfortable with that decision and my salmon charters are over for another season.

I hope to write another column next week, and I may go trout fishing a time or two this fall, or even make a trip in search of late-run coho on the Kenai River. For the most part, however, it has been another great summer of salmon fishing, and I am ready for a break

Good Luck and Fish On!

Andy Couch is a Mat-Su Valley fishing guide who primarily targets ocean-run salmon during summer months. You can read a daily fishing report from each of his 2022 charters on his Fishtale River Guides website: https://www.fish4salmon.com