Stronger Susitna River king salmon numbers at lower river

On Monday, I asked Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Sam Ivey about the number of king salmon being caught at the department’s Susitna River fish wheel project, and he mentioned the crew had caught 80 king salmon that day alone.

Sam also said that was more king salmon than the crew had caught on any date during the 2012 season. I also heard that on Tuesday, an additional 90 king salmon were caught by the ADF&G crew, and that those fish were mostly in the 15- to 35-pound range — mostly larger fish than what was caught during a large part of the 2012 season.

With this being only the second year of data collection from that project, it is rather difficult to know what all this means. I would like to hope that it means significant numbers of adult king salmon may be arriving further upstream at the Deshka River any day now. Since that is the only tributary off the Susitna stem of the drainage where king salmon may legally be harvested by sport anglers during the 2013 season.

Over the past week now, increasing numbers of king salmon have been arriving at the Deshka River confluence with the Susitna River, and boat anglers have been flocking into that area for several days now. But while specific boats may be catching a few king salmon limits, fishing for the most part has been rather slow, especially considering the number of kings rolling in the cleaner Deshka River water just upstream from the mix line with the silty Susitna River.

Hot sunny weather may be part of the problem, as the Deshka River water level is dropping and warming considerably and the kings for the most part are avoiding artificial lures. Just watching the Deshka confluence fishery for a while should leave little doubt as to the significant reduction in king salmon catching and harvest as a result of the emergency order Deshka River bait fishing ban during the 2013 king salmon season.

While charter guests in my boat have managed to catch a few Deshka River king salmon, I have yet to limit all guests on any of my charters this year. I am hopeful that a large enough surge of Deshka River salmon may allow my guests to accomplish that feat soon. But at present, if the fish my guests are catching are a fair representation of the run timing, then king salmon run timing remains later than normal. I say this based on the fact that most of the king salmon we are harvesting are males and peak of run abundance should be accompanied by harvests of mostly female king salmon.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game was finally able to install the Deshka River salmon counting weir at 8 p.m., June 7. Weir installation normally occurs between May 20 and 25, but was delayed this year because of larger-than-normal Deshka River water flow volume during that time. Likely a few king salmon escaped above the weir site uncounted before the weir was installed, but a lack of sport angler king salmon harvests from the Deshka during May indicate that numbers of king salmon passing the weir before installation were likely very small. Later-than-normal king salmon run timing throws off the normal approach of using average run timing to project the final king salmon spawning escapement, so having the extra data provided by ADF&G’s Susitna River Fish Wheel project may help provide part of the answer and allow for more precise management of Upper Cook Inlet sport and commercial king salmon fisheries.

While king salmon catching and harvest success on the Deshka River is largely driven by the use of bait in the sport fishery, ADF&G’s conservative management by emergency order during the 2013 season is providing weeklong sport fishing harvest opportunity with a lower harvest and mortality impact on fragile Deshka River and upriver Susitna king salmon stocks.

Little Susitna River kings

A similar situation exists on Little Susitna River with the run numbers seeming to arrive late even though ADF&G’s Little Susitna salmon counting weir was installed on May 19.

A problem plaguing the Little Su weir this year has been high water volumes caused by later-than-normal snowmelt in the headwaters. High water volumes have already flooded over the top of the weir for several days this year, raising concerns that king salmon may have and may be escaping upstream without being counted. As of Tuesday, ADF&G staff had only counted 25 king salmon past Little Susitna River Weir, and an additional emergency order was issued effective today that will close all fishing 1,500 feet downstream of the Little Susitna River Weir.

Hopefully, this will allow better escapements of both king and coho salmon to happen on the Little Susitna River during the 2013 season and a full season of sport fishing opportunity.

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