Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Anglers can't use bait for the next month on the Deshka River.

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The ban starts 6 a.m. Saturday and runs through 11 p.m. July 13, from the mouth of the Deshka upstream to a state Department of Fish and Game marker at about mile 17 near Chijuk Creek. It also includes the Susitna River within a half-mile radius of the Deshka.

The king salmon season in one of the most popular fishing stream in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough is off to one of its worst starts ever.

The number of returning fish is so low on the Deshka, a state fisheries biologist Wednesday recommended banning the use of bait by anglers. The commissioner of the state Department of Fish and Game then imposed that ban today.

Unless the return improves, Fish and Game may consider further restrictions, including limiting anglers to one fish per season on the river, said Dave Rutz, Mat-Su area state fisheries biologist.

An iron-colored tributary to the glacial Susitna River about 50 miles northwest of Anchorage, the Deshka supports one of the region's pre-eminent king salmon fisheries. The small, winding stream not far off the road system attracts tens of thousands of anglers each year. They flock to it by floatplane and boat via the Deshka Landing boat ramp on the Susitna.

The bait ban could put a serious dent in what has already been a slow start to the season. Cured salmon eggs are the bait of choice on the Deshka, because they are the most efficient means of catching kings. That is exactly why Fish and Game imposed the ban.

Also, summer has come late to Southcentral. Cold ocean waters have slowed the return of salmon.

Biologists say they know kings are returning late this year. King runs from Chignik to Kodiak to the Anchor River on the Kenai Peninsula are all behind schedule, Rutz said.

What biologists don't know, and what worries them, is the possibility the year's runs are not just late but poor.

"We know it's going to be late. If it's this late, it might also be below average," Rutz said. Banning the use of bait is a precautionary step.

Looking at the numbers, it's easy to understand his concern.

As of Tuesday, only 221 kings had been counted passing through the Deshka weir, where state fisheries technicians do a daily count of fish heading upstream. Just 18 fish passed in the last three days.

That is only a handful of fish compared to the average of 6,000 by this time most years.

Extrapolated out through the rest of the run, that projects to total return of only 1,200 salmon for the season, Rutz said. The minimum spawning goal to ensure good future returns is 13,000 kings, he said.

The Deshka saw some bad years in the 1990s when the number of spawners fell to around 2,500.

In 1994, king fishing in the river closed on June 17.

A year later, just 49 fish had passed the Deshka weir by June 10 for an eventual return of 10,048 fish. And for several years in the early 1990s, the Deshka fell short of its spawning goal. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, overfishing contributed to a collapse of the Cook Inlet fisheries regionwide.

This year, the problem doesn't seem to be limited to the Deshka.

Reports for the Little Susitna River, another popular king salmon fishing stream in the Mat-Su area, have also been poor, with a total reported catch of 240 kings, lowest since Fish and Game started surveying anglers seven years ago as they depart the Little Susitna River Public Use Facility. The average count for the catch this time of year is about 360 kings, Rutz said.

On the Kenai Peninsula, the Anchor River has seen just 2,833 kings. Since 2003, the worst return on the Anchor through June 10 was 4,582. Last year, it was more than 7,700.

On the other hand, the Kenai River king return is normal, and Tuesday saw the biggest single-day return of the season.

Rutz said biologists think this year's runs are late because of the unusually cold water temperatures and low flows in many streams. Hopefully, he said, the fish are simply holding in the ocean or lower parts of the Susitna River waiting for the waters to rise and warm up, he said. Anglers would be wise to keep their rods handy, says one experienced local, who's betting the run is late and not weak.

Mike Hudson, owner of Three Rivers Fly & Tackle in Wasilla, said he's seen lots of indications runs are late. Hooligan were still thick in the Susitna this weekend. Usually those small, anadromous fish are long gone before the king salmon season gets going, he said. Hudson also said the fishing seemed to be picking up.

And consider that the parents of this year's Deshka king run were all part of strong runs. Kings spawn as 6-, 5-, and 4-year-olds, and in those years, 2002-04, between 29,000 and 58,000 kings passed the Deshka weir.

Find S.J. Komarnitsky at adn.com/contact/skomarnitsky or call her in Wasilla at 907-352-6714. Daily News reporters Craig Medred and Mike Campbell contributed to this report.

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