Time for Mat-Su coho salmon fisheries jump to higher level

On July 27, coho salmon were the most abundant salmon species harvested in the Northern District Commercial set net fishery. As coho salmon numbers increase in the commercial fishery and harvests of sockeye and other salmon species start tailing off, sport fisheries in Mat-Su Valley streams will soon see the coho salmon rush that provides the most important sport fishery in the Valley. Some streams have already seen decent coho salmon fishing — in particular the Little Susitna River, Deshka River, and Little Willow Creek have been producing limit catches for lucky anglers over the past couple weeks.

Expect the good fishing to spread into many other Valley locations as larger numbers of coho salmon start arriving further up the Susitna River and Knik Arm drainages.

Coho salmon passage through the Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s Little Susitna River weir is ahead of last year’s rate as of July 28 with 2,573 coho past the weir this year compared to “only,” 1,681 through the weir in 2014 by the same date. When I called the Palmer ADF&G office and mentioned this year’s high coho salmon weir count and the possibility of an emergency order to start bait fishing early and/or jump to a three-fish coho salmon limit, ADF&G Assistant Management Biologist, Samantha Oslund said, “It is on our radar.”

I took that to mean ADF&G was fully aware of how high the Little Susinta River coho count is in relation to staying within the escapement goal range of 10,100-17,700 coho salmon past the weir.

In 2014 the fishery was liberalized to allow a three-fish coho salmon bag limit starting in mid-August, but the final coho salmon weir count was still over 24,000 coho salmon. If the 2015 higher cumulative weir count continues to show a large harvestable coho salmon surplus that should trigger earlier liberalization of the sport fishery. In my mind the most significant liberalization would be to allow the use of bait earlier in the fishery. Bait normally becomes legal by standard regulation on the Little Susinta River below the Parks Highway bridge on

August 6.

Fish Creek Youth Fishery and sockeye salmon numbers

Saturday and Sunday are set aside to provide a youth fishing opportunity on Fish Creek off of Knik-Goose Bay Road. The fishery will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days only for anglers age 15 and younger. Fishing is only allowed downstream of a marker a quarter-mile above Knik-Goose Bay Road, and the daily bag limit is three salmon, only two of which may be coho salmon.

With both coho salmon and far larger numbers of sockeye salmon available in Fish Creek this should provide young anglers a significant opportunity to harvest salmon.

Mom and Dad may want to drive the kids to this one.

While on the subject of Fish Creek sockeye salmon, it should be noted that 10,578 sockeye salmon swam past ADF&G’s Fish Creek weir on Monday July 27, and the 2015 cumulative sockeye count as of July 28 was 43,314 fish past the weir. It would seem that such a high and rising sockeye salmon escapement number could be justification for providing an expanded opportunity to harvest sockeye salmon in the Fish Creek sport fishery during the month of August.

The Fish Creek coho salmon escapement has been much smaller to date in relation to last year’s banner coho salmon escapement. Therefore any expanded opportunity to harvest Fish Creek sockeye salmon needs to be weighed in consideration of the impact it might have on Fish Creek coho salmon escapement.

Eklutna Tailrace coho salmon fishery

Expect more coho salmon to return to this fishery as a result of the release of larger sized coho salmon smolt that produce higher return rates of adult salmon. This is an easy to access fishery that supports lots of bank anglers. For better success rates figure out a time to fish when the fishery is less crowded and try it at that time. Eklutna has a three-salmon bag limit (all of which may be coho salmon), bait is allowed, the fishery is open 24 hours per day and seven days per week. Hit this one right and you could be taking some prime salmon home with you. In addition to coho salmon, a significant number of sockeye salmon are also available at this location in late July and into early August.

Deshka River coho salmon

With the opportunity to fish bait and a three-fish bag limit (all of which may be coho salmon) there is definitely some incentive to fish this productive silver salmon stream. I’ve heard from multiple sources that coho salmon fishing has provided mixed success on the Deshka this year, with some good success trips mixed with other trips and days where it was difficult to get silver salmon to bite at the Deshka. Low water conditions also tend to hinder coho salmon migration upstream from the mouth area of this stream. To date only 539 coho salmon have passed ADF&G’s Deshka River weir as of July 28 compared to 1,853 that had passed the weir through the same date last year. With rain and cooler water temperatures the Deshka River fishery can shift to larger catches and more consistent fishing in a hurry. As a tributary stream lower in the Susitna Drainage there is often an abundant supply of coho salmon milling near the confluence of this stream with the Susitna River. Many Deshka River anglers only fish the 1 1/2 mile long mouth area on this stream.

Highway Accessible Susitna River Tributary Streams

Earlier this week Mike Hudson of 3 Rivers Fly and Tackle told me some anglers had been having decent to good luck catching silver salmon at some of the Parks Highway streams between Willow and Talkeetna. Mike mentioned in particular Little Willow Creek (one of the lower tributaries) but it is only logical that coho salmon are already becoming more abundant in the tributaries further upstream as well. I would expect somewhat spotty silver salmon fishing on the more upstream drainages this week, but within the coming week I expect those same streams to start experiencing more consistent and better fishing. Jeff Boatright at Susitna Landing told me that a large number of pink salmon and some chum salmon were available at that location with lower numbers of silver salmon being caught as well.

There are simply too many good coho salmon fishing spots in the Mat-Su Valley to mention them all.

Fish On!

Andy Couch has guided sport fishing trips in the Mat-Su Valley for over 30 years. Visit his Fishtale River Guides website at www.fish4salmon.com