Stirring the pot on Mat-Su king salmon management

I was guiding king salmon trips on the Deshka River on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the river was busy with king salmon migrating upstream and also busy with boat anglers attempting to catch them. Through Tuesday evening a season total of more than 8,500 king salmon had already swum past the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s (ADF&G) salmon counting weir, and Thursday ADF&G issued an order allowing the use of bait and multiple hooks in the Deshka beginning Saturday at 6 a.m. The order runs through July 13.

Plenty of anglers must have been watching the Deshka River weir counts rise, as a full flotilla of boat anglers appeared in pursuit of Deshka River king salmon, especially on Wednesday. In the several miles of river below the weir on Wednesday, I believe decent king salmon fishing lasted for about half an hour, after which all of the salmon had been driven over or casted to so many times that they were mainly looking for a place to hide for most of the remainder of the day.

A big part of the Deshka River congestion problem — as I see it — is that for three days per week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, Deshka River is the only Mat-Su salmon stream where predominately wild king salmon may be harvested. In other words it is nearly the only game in town (Eklutna Tailrace has been providing opportunity for harvest of predominately hatchery run king salmon in a very limited area on a seven-day per week basis).

Catch and release king salmon fishing: Part of Mat-Su conservation problem?

Yes, I understand that several Mat-Su Valley king salmon streams have had trouble achieving minimum king salmon escapement levels over the past seven years, but still I questions why absolutely no king salmon harvest is allowed for even a single day on some of Mat-Su Valley’s better king salmon producing streams, while at the same time catch and release sport king salmon fishing is allowed every day through out the entire season. The catch and release king salmon fisheries often have considerably lower angler participation, but can have extremely high angler catch rates. For example I’ve heard of some anglers catch and releasing from 10 - 30 king salmon in a single day on a certain Mat-Su stream this year. In my mind, such high catch rates could have a large impact that may exacerbate Mat-Su Valley king salmon conservation problems. It has been my belief that high catch rates in a low participation catch and release fishery could have as much impact as a harvest allowed fishery. Partly for that reason I have not been guiding charters to locations where catch and release king salmon fishing is the only option.

When my guests’ fish in a harvest allowed Mat-Su king salmon fishery, they are required to quit fishing for king salmon for the remainder of the day if they keep a king salmon. Most of my guests are happy to keep the first king salmon they catch — even if it is a small one — so they usually catch a maximum of one king salmon on a harvest allowed fishery. If I were to provide charters on a Mat-Su catch and release king salmon fishery there are no regulations limiting the number of king salmon guests could catch on a single charter. Rather than harvesting a single king salmon, angler objectives on a catch and release fishery are often to fish the entire duration of the trip, and catch as many king salmon as possible.

Inevitably some king salmon will suffer mortality in a catch and release fishery, but if an angler accidently kills one or even ten king salmon on a single day of catch and release king salmon fishing, there is no regulation requiring that angler to quit fishing or quit killing. For these reasons I believe that some king salmon harvest opportunity should be allowed on at lease some of the Parks Highway streams between Willow and Talkeetna — and including the Talkeetna River system.

Emergency two king salmon seasonal limit

Another management strategy that I wonder about is the reduction of the seasonal limit from five to two king salmon on Mat-Su wild king salmon fisheries. Without a doubt some highly skilled king salmon anglers who fish a lot will release considerably more fish (some which may already be dead) under the lower seasonal limit.

In addition, other anglers simply sidestep the issue by get proxy harvest opportunities for older or disabled Alaskans. While waiting to start a charter from the Deshka Boat Launch this week, I heard one angler state that a lot of Deshka anglers were already doing predominately catch and release fishing (because of the lower seasonal limit) he also mockingly said that some of his friends were working on their fourth or fifth proxy limit already. If such is the case, what is gained by the two fish seasonal limit? Aside from more unnecessary proxy paperwork for ADF&G staff members to sign off on.

Should Deshka king numbers trigger regular commercial set net harvests?

In 2014 when ADF&G opened bait fishing for Deshka River king salmon by emergency order, the Department also removed all emergency king salmon fishing restrictions from the Northern District set net fishery. This occurred even though the Deshka River sport fishery remained restricted by the two king salmon seasonal limit emergency regulation and even through all other Mat-Su king salmon sport fisheries remained restricted by emergency regulations and many of those fisheries allowed no sport harvest for the entire season.

Will such ADF&G management occur again in 2015? Find out in next week’s column.

This week’s column shares several insights that are solely the views of author, Andy Couch, owner of Fishtale RIver Guides.