SHUT IT DOWN

MAT-SU — Local anglers wanting a last shot at snagging some cohos before the end of the fishing season will have to hurry — today’s your last day.

An emergency state Department of Fish and Game order is closing sportfishing for coho (silver) salmon beginning 12:01 a.m., Saturday in all waters of the Knik Arm Management Area, which includes the Little Susitna River from the Parks Highway south and smaller tributaries Wasilla Creek, Cottonwood Creek and Jim Creek.

By closing the Knik Arm waters, fishing for coho is prohibited, including catch-and-release, according to a Fish and Game press release announcing the move. Also, any silvers caught while fishing for other species can’t be removed from the water and must be released immediately.

The move is one the state has been eyeing for awhile, said Sam Ivey, area management biologist for Fish and Game. Low returns of coho prompted the department to restrict fishing for silvers with bait earlier this month. Because the numbers continue to be low, escapement projections are that coho in the Little Su and other tributaries will be below goal. As of Wednesday, only 1,447 silvers had passed the Little Su weir, which puts projections at an escapement of about 6,000 coho salmon, well below the goal of 10,100 to 17,700 fish.

“We’re coming on the down side of our coho run this season,” Ivey said. “We’ve got a little bit of season left. We’re just looking at some numbers now indicative of not making some goals, one of them being the Little Su escapement goal and the other on the Jim Creek system.”

Because coho escapement goals were met in other areas, Fish Creek and the Eklutna Tailrace, which is a stocked fishery, are excluded from the restriction, Ivey said.

Although the Knik Arm area didn’t see restrictions like the one issued this week last year, it’s coming off a couple of years where it missed escapement goals, which is a warning sign for state officials, Ivey said.

“We narrowly missed them last year, and this year we were looking at a relatively weak run of coho,” he said. “We took bait out Aug. 6 to restrict harvest by half. Now we’re toward the end of the harvest where we feel that one (restriction) wasn’t quite enough.”

He said the pattern of low escapement numbers is what his department is keeping an eye on.

“It’s not devastating to miss one goal, but as you start to accumulate missed goals in successive years, it’s a concern. Since we did miss the goal on the Little Su the last two years and Jim Creek this last year, … but really, the large part comes off the Little Su.”

With the Little Su weir count coming in low, the other streams were included as a precaution, according to Fish and Game’s order.

“Data from previous weir counts on the other Knik Arm streams indicate that when there is a weak return on the Little Susitna River, returns to these systems are weak as well,” the order says. “It is also anticipated that closure of the Little Susitna River (only) would transfer a significant amount of sportfishing effort to other Knik Arm fisheries.”

While the closure may be a disappointment for some who like to fish until the last day of the season, more than 90 percent of the fishing that was going to happen on area rivers and streams has already taken place, Ivey said.

“This is cutting off the end of that harvest on the Little Su,” he said. “By doing that, we’ll make a smaller savings than doing it earlier in the season.”

For more information on the closure or other state fishing conditions, visit adfg.alaska.gov.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.