Susitna River bait opens

The Susitna River drainage opens to bait fishing Friday. In addition, lower portions of the most popular Susitna River tributary streams from Willow to Talkeetna open for the first time after being closed for 10 days since July 3.

Before fishing anglers should still check regulations for the specific waters they intend to fish as portions of the Susitna drainage have special regulations, but even waters that had been earlier closed to king salmon fishing by emergency order will now be open to fishing. When I talked with Marilynn Rouswell at Susitna Landing earlier this week, the most important news she wanted anglers to know was that fishing will be open at Susitna Landing and anglers may use bait.

Marilynn was hopeful that coho, chum, or pink salmon could be caught at that landing on Friday.

Expect the best salmon fishing in the Susitna River drainage to occur near stream and slough confluence ares with the Susitna River in the coming week. This early in the season most salmon simply have not had enough time to migrate further up the tributaries.

Note: As of Tuesday July 11 zero coho have passed the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Deshka River weir,yet some coho will likely be available at the Deshka/Susitna confluence on July 14.

Talkeetna River drainage hard hit by king closure

Further upstream in Talkeetna, Margo Nealis of Phantom Tri River Charters, was still feeling the sting of emergency king salmon closures. Guide operations and fishing related businesses in Talkeetna were hit unusually hard by the July 3 Susitna River drainage emergency king salmon closure.

Because of later run timing, the king salmon closure cut off king salmon fishing at the season’s peak on the Talkeetna River and popular Clear Creek fishery, whereas, fisheries lower in the drainage experienced considerable more king salmon catching opportunity before the closure. King salmon fishing in the Talkeetna drainage had already been restricted to single hook only catch and release fishing with no harvest allowed. Even with the Susitna River drainage bait opener on July 14, Margo mentioned that there were simply few salmon for anglers to catch in the Talkeetna area until sockeye, pinks, and chums arrive in later July.

Mat-Su sockeye

Although only modest numbers of sockeye are available for sport anglers in the Mat-Su Valley, Greg Acord of Acord Guide Service told me anglers were already catching salmon at Cottonwood Creek this past weekend. Because of the timing I have to think that most, if not all of those fish, were sockeye. This is a small fishery located mostly in the tidal area near the stream mouth, and only open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

Before long, anglers should be catching sockeye migrating past the Eklutna Tailrace fishery and at Jim Creek (further up the Knik River drainage).

Lake Creek draining into the Yentna River provides one of the Mat-Su’s largest sport sockeye salmon fisheries, and limited numbers of sockeye should be available this weekend.

Note: While Fish Creek sockeye salmon do not open for sport fishing until August, 3,072 sockeye have already migrated past ADF&G’s Fish Creek weir through Wednesday July 12. When ADF&G projects an escapement of 35,000 sockeye past the weir the Fish Creek personal use fishery may be opened by emergency order. If the Department allows adequate sockeye to migrate through Upper Cook Inlet’s commercial fisheries the Fish Creek personal use fishery could open around July 20.

Will July tigers roar?

Because of their distinctive striped color pattern and the ferocious battle ocean-fresh chum salmon make when hooked, I prefer to call this species, “Tiger Fish.” Over the past couple years chum salmon have far outnumber the combined totals of both king salmon and silver salmon in the Little Susitna River. In addition peak Little Susitna River chum salmon abundance occurs later than peak king salmon abundance, but earlier than peak silver salmon abundance, so they play a significant role in providing Little Susitna salmon catching and harvesting opportunities especially during mid-July. With only 38 Chum salmon passing through Little Susitna River weir as of July 12, early numbers are considerably lower than what occurred last year at this time, however, the chum run is building and chum salmon should be the most abundant salmon species available in the lower Little Susitna River over the next two weeks.

Chum salmon provide significant sport opportunity on Susitna River drainage streams as well, and even more so during odd-numbered years (like 2017) when pink salmon return numbers tend to be lower.

Silver (coho) salmon

I’d hoped to report positive news about Mat-Su silver salmon in this week’s column, but despite recent higher stream flows that should have spurred upstream migration, zero coho have migrated past Deshka River, Little Susitna River, and Fish Creek weirs through Wednesday July 12.

The Department’s Jim Creek weir is not yet in operation. I expect one of my charter guests to catch our first coho of the season any day, but so far we have yet to hook one of these prized Mat-Su sport fish.

Fish On!

Andy Couch is the owner of Fishtale River Guides and guides Mat-Su Valley salmon fishing trips. You may read his daily fishing reports at http://www.fish4salmon.com