Wrapping up another king salmon season

Last week I wrote some of my thoughts about the early closure of king salmon fishing for the second year in a row on Little Sustina River and the Eastside Susitna River tributary streams between Willow and Talkeetna. This is in addition to the inseason restriction in yearly king salmon bag limit on the Talkeetna River and Chulitna River drainages.

For those of us involved in the fisheries or dependent upon revenue generated by people fishing in the Mat-Su Valley, it is tough seeing ongoing problems with Mat-Su king salmon fisheries. I’d estimate that more than one third of all money spent fishing in the Mat=Su area is spent on king salmon. I figure silver salmon fishing may provide even more of an economic punch, since silver salmon are usually readily available in many more streams than king salmon and in much more catchable numbers for most folks as well. Other stream fishing and lake fishing, including ice fishing, likely produces less than a third of the activity and money generated from the Mat-Su Valley.

I talked with Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) area management biologist Dave Rutz, and it sounds like the low numbers of king salmon that caused ADF&G to make king salmon closures and restrictions are continuing on the Eastside Susitna River tributary streams even after the first weekend’s closure. Let’s hope ADF&G can find a solution to help reverse this trend and share any good ideas with the department we, as anglers, may come up with.

I’m thankful for a season where the Deshka RIver king salmon fishery will once again remain open for the entire season with only a week-long restriction to bait fishing, which is now a thing of the past. While not experiencing some of the huge numbers of fish returning as has happened in the past, Deshka River is already considerably over the minimum spawning escapement goal for king salmon, and in addition, because of the cool weather conditions (and timely rain) during the past week or 10 days, the Deshka has produced some of the best late season fishing action I’ve seen on the river in several years. There are still some chrome kings with sea lice available at the Deshka, as my clients have caught one on each of the past two days; however, most of the fish now seem to be developing their darker color patterns as they mature toward the spawning process.

Silvers are coming

As the king salmon fisheries wind down, I’ve heard or read several positive things about silver salmon starting to show up in Cook Inlet. Out in the commercial fishery, silvers are already being harvested in both the central and northern fishing districts.

I also read some fishing reports on the Alaska Outdoor Journal website that mention the first few silver salmon being taken in several freshwater locations. A friend of mine even had one caught from his boat last week, and I talked with a Department of Fish and Game employee who mentioned that the first silver salmon was recently caught in one of the department’s Susitna River fish wheels.

While I have not personally seen any silver salmon yet, each time one of my guests hooks a small, bright-colored salmon while king fishing I’ve been hoping for the past week or so that it might be a bonus silver salmon. No such luck yet, but it should happen any day now.

Also of interest, sockeye salmon and chum salmon are both traveling through the lower Susitna River at this time and being caught in considerably higher numbers than silver salmon. Expect to see some fish available as soon as the Eastside tributary streams of the Susinta River reopen to fishing on Wednesday. Isn’t it great to live in an area with such an abundance of large fish to angle for?

E-mail this column at sports@frontiersman.com if you have Mat-Su fishing questions or information readers may find useful. Andy Couch owns and operates Fishtale River Guides (fish4salmon.com), is a Mat-Su Anglers Club member (matsuanglers.org) and member of the Matanuska-Susitna Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Sportsmen’s Committee.