Warm spring turns anglers’ thoughts to fish

Warm winter weather continuing into April has Mat-Su lakes and streams losing their icy cover and opening up earlier than I’ve recorded in any of my 13 years of online fishing reports.

Often Finger, Wasilla, and Lucille lakes may be ice covered into early May, and ice usually does not start flowing on the Susitna River until very late April or early May. Compare that to this year where last Friday (April 15) I drove up to Willow and found Willow Creek and Little Creek open and flowing with hardly any ice along their banks near the Parks Highway. At Deshka Landing ice was already starting to flow on the Susitna River on April 15. My friend, Ben Allen, was breaking in a new boat and motor on Finger Lake the same day. Ice was already starting to clear off lakes in the Kepler-Bradley Lake system near Palmer back on April 12.

If you have been driving by Kepler and Bradley Lakes very often, you’ve likely already spotted eager anglers out fishing for stocked trout. According to Mike Hudson, owner of 3 Rivers Fly and Tackle in Wasilla, Mat-Su Valley lakes stocked by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have been producing good catches of fish this spring from the Palmer-Wasilla core area up the Parks Highway to about the Meadow Lakes area. Mike says that lakes in the Big Lake area and further north are still thawing out. On Wednesday of this week, Mike mentioned hearing a couple of good reports from anglers fishing along the Talkeetna River up towards Clear Creek. Rainbow trout, Dolly Varden, and arctic grayling may all be caught in the waters around clear creek. Conditions are extremely difficult for getting a boat into the Talkeetna River at this time with mostly ice in the Talkeetna Boat Launch area. Margo Nealis of Tri River Charters in Talkeetna (495-7700) told me they did not have a boat in the water, yet, but were planning to launch their first boat after the weekend in hopes of providing charter fishing trip or drop off opportunities during the last week of April.

Parks Highway streams

Susitna River tributary streams crossing the Parks Highway between Willow and Talkeetna often provide some of the better early trout and grayling fishing for anglers looking for wild fish. Willow Creek, Little Willow Creek and Montana Creek provide some of the earliest fisheries along the highway, while catches at Goose Creek, Sheep Creek and Kashwitna River often start a bit later due to later ice break up.

Joe and Marilyn Rouswell at Susitna Landing (485-7700) told me on Wednesday that they had guests up camping last weekend and one person fishing. They also had another group out fishing as we discussed what was happening. They had not heard of any fish being caught, yet, but the ice along the river is mostly gone, and the campground is in great shape for folks looking to enjoy the outdoors this weekend. The Susitna Landing boat launch is not open yet.

Often times some of the earliest fish get caught near tributary confluence areas with the Susinta River. Two of the better early confluence fisheries are Willow Creek and Montana Creek for a couple of reasons. First the hike to these steam confluences with the Susitna River is shorter than some of the other streams, and then they also tend to open up earlier. Mike Hudson told me that the best reported fishing along the Parks Highway that he had heard of this week was from Willow Creek. The campground is already open here, and the Parks Service fee booth is in place, so remember to bring a few dollars for parking or camping if you choose to visit the Willow Creek Recreation Area campground and access.

Little Susitna River

Little Susitna River Public Use Facility park ranger Damon Hampel told me there was snow on the road and some soft muddy spots that he 4-wheeled through as he went in to checkout the campground and river last weekend. Once he got to the river he said there was shelf ice along both banks with a shallow clear channel of water running down the middle of the river. Even for an eager beaver like myself, I’m planning to wait a while for the road to dry out and firm up before venturing to the Little Su. Even if I could get a boat to the river this weekend without getting stuck on the road, shelf ice presents a problem of itself. The first trip up or down stream can be rather uneventful, but then when you turn the boat around and head the other direction you may find that your boat wake has broken much of the shelf ice loose. It is a lot more challenging to navigate a low shallow river while dodging floating ice chunks. I know, I was dodging ice and scraping my motor along the bottom at this location last year — just a little later in the month.

Eklutna Tailrace

The Eklunta Tailrace parking area has been opened up early this spring for anyone interested in getting out and casting some flowing water. I’ve been out there a half dozen times or more already this spring, and have had plenty of casting and retrieving with not a salmon in sight. Still I’ve been enjoying the opportunity even if I am ready for the salmon migration considerably earlier than the salmon.

Best bets for the coming weekend

As mentioned earlier in the column, like usual, spring has progressed more quickly in the core area of the Mat-Su Valley up to about the Meadow Lakes area along the Parks Highway. For boaters I would suggest taking a check out cruise/fishing trip on one of the core area stocked lakes. For bank anglers these lakes provide some of the better fish catching opportunities this weekend, but there is also opportunity to enjoy bank fishing and campgrounds along the streams up the Parks Highway.

Have a great weekend and fish on!

This is Andy Couch’s first fishing column of 2016. Visit his Fishtale River Guides website www.fish4salmon.com for daily fishing report updates since April 12 of this spring.