Bird Creek opens, welcoming back silver salmon

Cohos are the last salmon species to hit freshwater, and their arrival in Anchorage-area waterways signals that Bird Creek, the lovely stream that empties into Turnagain Arm, is back in business.

Salmon-seeking anglers were out to welcome the early arrivals on Thursday when Bird Creek opened to the taking of all species except kings for the first time this year.

"It's supper — the first silver of the year," said angler Jonathan Weaver, who kept one silver and released a handful of pinks.

Fish and Game's stocking of coho smolt has ramped up from 110,000 in 2011 to 130,000 last year, growth made possible by the opening of the $98 million William Jack Hernandez Hatchery, a 141,000 square-foot facility in Anchorage, five years ago.

Typically, biologists are happy if 10 percent of the released smolt survive myriad perils at sea to return to the streams where they were born or deposited.

"Last year was a good year for Bird Creek, and our hope is this year will be even better," said Ryan Ragan, a public information officer at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

[It's dipnetting nirvana at Kasilof, Kenai rivers]

The life of a silver salmon is short: two years in freshwater, one year in saltwater. As hatchery fry become smolt, they outgrow their tanks and get pumped into larger tanks where they spend a year and a half. Once their weight reaches nearly an ounce, Fish and Game officials transport the smolt aboard one of its sophisticated fish trucks to their final destination.

In Anchorage, some go to Bird Creek, others to Ship Creek and Campbell Creek. A small run of silvers even makes its way up tiny Chester Creek.

"The most popular by far in the Anchorage area is Ship Creek," Ragan said. "We stock more in Ship Creek, so the return is going to be a little bigger."

Bigger but not always the favorite. Ragan sometimes steals away to 21-mile-long Campbell Creek during his lunch break and, if he's lucky, catches a three-fish limit before returning to his desk.

"Coho fishing can be really good in Campbell Creek," Ragan said, noting that rainfall that cools the water and brings the level up can trigger a burst of coho moving upstream. "It's not uncommon to come back to work having caught a limit."

In a normal year, the silver run tends to peak the first two weeks of August, but who knows if this abnormally warm summer will affect the timing.

By any measure, it's early. Silvers were caught in Bird Creek on Thursday and Ragan has heard reports of success at Ship Creek too. But as of Wednesday, only 20 silvers had been counted at the Deshka River weir, and only 67 at the Little Susitna River.