Salmon are running throughout the Mat-Su

Four species of salmon are now running in streams throughout the Mat-Su, although it would be hard to call the fishing “good” anywhere I know of off the road system.

Currently, there are enough fish for limited numbers of anglers to have good catching experiences for coho salmon. Pink and chum salmon are concentrated in large numbers near the mouths of Willow Creek and Little Willow Creek, and 7,624 chum salmon have already swam past the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s (ADF&G) Little Susitna River weir as of July 22.

For the most part on the Little Su, chums seem to be scattered out along the river, but this week should likely see the peak of the chum salmon run at that location and may provide some decent catching opportunities. With the return of hotter-than-normal summer weather, many rivers and streams are now running clear and lower than normal levels with warmer water temperatures that have slowed sport salmon fishing down. Deshka River has decent numbers of silver salmon at times milling near the river mouth, but the best action may be very early in the morning and only for a very limited duration — especially on the clear sunny days.

Jeff Boatright at Susitna Landing reports more anglers fishing out of the landing over the past weekend with people reporting catches of silver salmon, chum salmon, some large steelhead-sized rainbow trout and Dolly Varden. The landing has a well-kept campground and boat launch, but fishing success at this location can be partially dependent upon water conditions that can turn muddy from glacial melt during stretches of hot weather.

For a current conditions update, give Jeff and Susitna Landing a call at (907) 495-7700.

Catching salmon during low and clear water conditions

As mentioned earlier, present water conditions can drop catch rates for sport anglers. Below are some strategies I often use to catch more salmon under such conditions.

• Use smaller and darker-colored lures.

• Plan to fish earlier and later in the day when temperatures may be lower and less direct sunlight is present.

• Specifically look for shaded and deeper water areas to fish.

• Keep presentations slow and deliberate so as not to spook fish that are already nervous in conditions that make them more vulnerable.

• Expect better success with rising water or cooling weather — even if such events occur only for a day or two. Under low and clear water conditions, some rain is almost always an angler’s friend.

According to an ADF&G weir count, only 63 sockeye salmon passed the Little Susitna River weir July 1-22 — this from a July sockeye escapement that used to run in the thousands of fish. There are still a week’s worth of counting days during July to make up some of those low numbers, but the likelihood of that occurring is slim.

On Fish Creek, ADF&G has only counted 6,042 sockeye salmon through July 22. With only about a week left in the month, the department needs to project another 44,000 sockeye as escapement or there will, once again, be no Fish Creek personal use dip net fishery for an entire year.

With the department issuing nearly daily emergency commercial fishing orders to harvest surplus sockeye salmon in the Central District of Upper Cook Inlet this week, don’t count on even a one-second Fish Creek personal use dip net fishery in 2013. Do commercial managers within the department have enough concern regarding this lack of conservation burden sharing between personal use and commercial harvesters to make any commercial harvest adjustments?

While the 2013 coho salmon sport fishery has started out better than the past couple years, there is still much that could be done commercial management-wise to improve coho salmon sport harvest opportunities for Mat-Su anglers. From all I’ve heard and experienced so far, 2013 sport coho salmon fishing should be categorized as spotty at best, but should improve over the next couple weeks.

On Monday, while fishing a huge “restricted” area in the Central District, drift gillnetters harvested 31,819 coho or silver salmon, about 80 percent of which, according to a past ADF&G study, may have been bound for Northern Cook Inlet streams. Meanwhile, ADF&G’s weir counted coho salmon escapements through the same dates of 95 fish for the Deshka River and 266 fish for the Little Susitna River.

If Mat-Su anglers and business that depend on viable sport fisheries want to see a change in this equation they need to express that desire to individuals in positions of power such as the governor, Mat-Su and Anchorage area legislators, the commissioner of Fish and Game and members of the Alaska Board of Fisheries.

Kenai River personal use dip netting

Last week I mentioned I would be traveling to the Kenai Peninsula and participating in the Kenai River personal use fishery. To say the least, last weekend was disappointing for many personal use participants; however, most still likely managed to come home with some sockeye salmon.

Here is a thought I had after my experience: If fishing this coming weekend, I would plan to focus my personal use harvest effort on Friday and early Saturday as much as possible as that was when the most fish were present in the personal use harvest area when we were fishing. The schedule of commercial harvest opportunity makes other times likely to produce less harvested fish for personal use anglers upstream from the commercial nets. There are still thousands of sockeye salmon that dip netters may have a shot at during the last part of July, but the personal use fishery is closed on the first day of August. I hope you have a good week of fishing.

Andy Couch owns and operates Fishtale River Guides (fish4salmon.com) and is a member of the Mat-Su Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission.