Open water fisheries progressing at spring’s uneven pace

When I wrote my article last week, we had been experiencing an unusually long stretch of sunny and warmer than normal April weather. Since that time we’ve returned to dark cloudy weather with wind, and a bit of rain or show (depending upon which part of the Mat-Su Valley). The wind, high moisture content of the air, along with the lower level of light through the cloud layer almost feel like a return to winter, however, even with cooler temperatures snow and ice continues to disappear. The pace of ice and snow melting has simply adjusted to the weather conditions. Last week I knew of no fish that had been caught from the small areas of open water available, but offered some suggestions for places where anglers might find stretches of open water, and several sources of information for current fishing conditions.

One of those sources, Mike Hudson at 3 Rivers Fly and Tackle in Wasilla (373-5434) was able to tell me about rainbow trout being caught up the Parks Highway in one of the streams north of Willow even before last week’s article published. Since then, however, Mike has talked with several people who have been fishing the Susitna River tributary streams north of Willow who have been mostly just enjoying the opportunity to get outside and fish open water with little actual fish catching involved. While I had not driven north to try those waters yet this year, I have been tempted. I’ve been watching the weather videos at Deshka Landing and Susitna Landing, however, and both locations still look quite wintery to say the least.

Places with much more open water at this time include Willow Creek (Mike talked to one individual who floated and fished all the way from the highway bridge to the mouth of the creek), Montana Creek has been running plenty of water (Mike has talked to several people who have fished at Montana — but not heard of much catching to date), lower Talkeetna River (Mike was up to his cabin last weekend and mentioned that the Talkeetna was open and flowing near town, and his eyes could see open water as far as he could view from the Alaska Railroad bridge). Mike further reported that there was quite a bit of shelf ice along the Talkeetna, water was low, and the boat launch was not yet open.

Concerning the Talkeetna River / Clear Creek area I also talked with Margo Nealis of Phantom Tri River Charters in Talkeetna (733-2400) on Wednesday and they were still waiting for improved river / water conditions before they could start their spring rainbow trout, Dolly Varden, Arctic grayling charters up the Talkeetna. When considering an early season trip to Talkeetna I always like to give Phantom Tri River Charters a call to learn about current river and launch conditions before driving more than 60 miles to the fishery.

Stocked lakes — more catching coming soon!

Let's start by mentioning that anglers have already been catching some fish from open water in a few of Mat-Su Valley's stocked lakes. On Monday I had the opportunity to talk with the Mat-Su Valley’s stocked lakes guru, Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Samantha Oslund. She had already been driving to various locations around the valley looking for open water where the Department could start stocking. Most lakes had little open water at the time, however, she was enthusiastic about the stocking program for catchable-sized rainbow trout. These are the larger fish ( perhaps 6 - 14 inches) that the Department stocks in some of the higher used lake fisheries in the Valley. Samantha said that this year (depending upon open water conditions of course) the Department was hoping to have all or most of the catchable- sized spring fish stocked by May 15. At some locations the Department also stocks catchable fish later in the season to maintain catch raters throughout the summer. Some of the ice fishery lakes also receive stocking in the fall and or even limited stocking during winter months. The Department maintains a list of stocked lakes along with what size and number of fish have been planted on the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website. The following link will take to the webpage where you can search stocking records for Mat-Su Valley lakes or other locations throughout Alaska: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=SportStockingHatcheriesSearch.main

In my limited travels around the Mat-Su’s Palmer and Wasilla areas I’ve noticed 3 lake fishing opportunities starting to appear at Bradley Lake (largest area of open water I’ve seen to date), Loberg (Junction) Lake, Finger Lake (open water was very limited on Monday) however rainbow trout and landlocked salmon can often be caught in even a small amount of open water near the Alaska State Parks boat launch. If you go to this locations you will need to pay for daily parking, and Finger Lake boat launch is one of the most heavily used launches by boaters seeking to put their boat in the water for a spring checkup trial run before heading out to more remote locations. In other words, if fishing off the dock please be considerate and give boaters room to launch and load their boats. Even when boat traffic picks up, fish remain in the area and can be caught. A person could also fish before 10 am when power boating on the lake is limited. Although I’ve digressing to a discussion of Finger Lake, along with Bradley Lake, and Loberg Lake it is one of the locations where catchable-sized rainbow trout are stocked early in the season. Another early location to consider is Lucille Lake in Wasilla, and even Wasilla Lake (there are no public boat launches at Wasilla Lake). Lucille Lake is stocked and produces some larger-sized rainbow trout, while Wasilla Lake is know for having one of the Mat-Su Valley’s more robust populations of wild rainbow trout. In stocked lakes anglers may keep up to 5 rainbow trout daily, while in lakes with only wild populations of trout anglers may be limited to 2 rainbow trout. Check the regulations for the specific water you want to fish before you go. Most lakes are open year round to fishing, while most streams south of Willow are closed to all fishing this time of year to protect spawning populations of wild rainbow trout. In the stream north of Willow rainbow trout fishing is open, but remember that all rainbow trout must be immediately released through mid-June.

Good luck and fish on!

Andy Couch has fished in the Mat-Su Valley since 1971 and owns a local salmon fishing guide service. You may visit his FIshtale River Guides website at http://www.fish4salmon.com