Fishing Report: Exploring opportunities in the Mat-Su

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The fishing opportunities in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough are expected to increase as the season heats up.

Thousands of sockeyes — and some cohos — are expected to pass through a new weir installed earlier this week at Fish Creek.

“Usually by the end of the month, these fish hit hard and come in really fast all at once. It’s impressive,” Samantha Oslund of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said. “This way, we can have better control of the fishing pressure. If we have really low numbers, we may leave the fishery closed or restricted, but if we see really high numbers we are able to liberalize ... we move as fast as we can so we can open this quickly because we know how important it is to people.”

Meanwhile, Summit Lake, in the heart of Hatcher Pass, was stocked with 500 rainbow trout on Thursday.

“[We stock lakes] to provide opportunity and to pull pressure off the wild fisheries,” Oslund added. “When we stock lakes we expect people to harvest the fish, so every year keeping that in mind, we watch harvest, we watch effort and that is how we get our stocking numbers, to provide people with an opportunity to take a fish home ... so fishing is about to get really good.”

If an angler wants to try their luck catching a king, the Eklutna Tailrace is the go-to location.

“That’s a really good early morning fishery from like 4 to 6 in the morning, and it’s a good place to take kids. A great place to learn how to fish,” Oslund said of Eklutna Tailrace.

There is an emphasis on luck.

“The fishing has been pretty slow, like every other King Salmon fishery in the state, but it is still the last place in the Mat-Su to fish for kings,” she added.

From the salt waters of Cook Inlet to the fresh waters of the Susitna, there are fish to be caught in the Valley.

“You can drive in almost any direction in the Mat-Su, from here to the park and up the Glenn Highway there are some really pretty stocked lakes,” Oslund said. “You can always contact our front office, we’re happy to talk to anglers all day long, that’s what we do.”

The Susitna personal use dipnet fishery is now open on the lower Susitna River and runs from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays through July 31. Some chums and pinks are making their way up the river, where Fish and Game suggests trying the mouth of the Deshka River for pinks.

The first coho on the lower Little Su is expected to be caught sometime this coming week, where chum, sockeye, and some pinks are beginning to show.

The sport fishery of Fish Creek is closed by regulation starting July 15, where the personal use fishery may open by emergency order if the department projects more than 35,000 sockeye, which is expected.

Willow, Montana, Kashwitna, Little Willow, and Goose Creek are all swimming with rainbows, while other stocked lakes outside of Summit include Long Lake, Ravine, and Knob Lake.

Copyright 2024 KTUU. All rights reserved.