Silvers can be hand for the patient

While some folks are concentrating on hunting, many are still chasing silvers here in the Valley. My wife and I, while starting to prepare for an upcoming moose hunt, have been out three times since last week looking for coho salmon. Our experience has been a little different than what you’ll read about in Andy Couch’s column.

Our first trip was to Miller’s Reach along the Little Susitna River. I figured there would be fish there, even though the location was well upriver from the weir. We arrived shortly after sunrise to find one person already fishing on the river bend we had planned to check out. This guy had one silver on the beach. He invited us to get our lines wet.

The water along this stretch of the river was clear, so I began casting a Pixie lure to the various holes I could reach from where I was standing. My wife cast a bait rig with weight in an eddy where fish hold after traversing the rapids just downriver. The man was fishing with bait under a bobber he worked around in the current. The three of us fished for about 90 minutes without even a nibble.

A fourth man showed up maybe 45 minutes after our arrival and joined us. He also was using a baited rig. The first guy left because the fishing was slow, to say the least, and the other guy moved closer to where my wife and I were fishing. He said he had stopped by the evening before and saw fish jumping all over the river. Of course, he didn’t bring his fishing gear on that evening visit, so he figured to try the next morning. Here he was.

After another half-hour of absolutely no action whatsoever, my wife and I packed up and left. So much for that trip.

We took our riverboat up to Susitna Landing the next day and fished for about four hours on the opposite side of the river from the launch. I had a bite, but failed to get a solid hook-set before the fish threw the hook. I was using bait. The fish felt like a nice-sized coho. A short time later, I hooked a small coho and we landed it. Even though it almost didn’t count against the two-fish limit (the fish was only 17.5 inches long), I figured it would make a nice dinner, and it did.

My wife hooked a six-pound male coho a bit later and we landed it. Things were slow and it wasn’t until early afternoon that my wife had another solid bite from what she said felt like a big fish. Unfortunately, when she went to set the hook, the line snapped just above the swivel where the terminal tackle was attached. We decided to call it a day and head home. We had had two opportunities and only one fish each when we could have limited out if everything had gone as planned.

Fish and Game’s emergency order opening Fish, Cottonwood and Wasilla creeks to Monday fishing seemed like a good chance to catch a silver closer to home. We arrived at Fish Creek about 6 a.m., Monday morning right at high tide.

I am not a big fan of playing in the mud down near the mouth of Fish Creek, so we opted to stay above the bridge on Knik-Goose Bay Road. That section of water is clear, so I tried the popular Pixie lure once again. My wife used her favorite bait rig. We each managed to foul-hook some nasty looking humpies, which we immediately released unharmed.

A couple of other guys within sight weren’t doing any better than we were. I never did see a coho anywhere along the stretch of creek we fished. We gave up after a couple of hours, just as the skies opened up and the rain poured down. The warmth of the motorhome was much appreciated.

So what am I saying here? Either I’m a poorer fisherman than average, or we managed to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, or the fishing wasn’t as great as Fish and Game was saying. I’m not a bad coho fisherman and we did catch some fish on a couple of trips. If I was asked to describe the fishing, I would say: first, there are fish out there and second, the fishing is slow. Put in the time and you’ll probably bring home some silvers.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.