Alaska Fishing

Anchorage and Mat-Su dipnetters hoping to scoop up red salmon closer to home got their prayers answered Friday when the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced it would open Fish Creek for a week beginning this morning.

It's the first time the creek, across Knik Arm from Chugiak, has been open to dipnetting since the mid-1990s. Thousands of area anglers descended upon it then.

The open area is from markers where the creek flows into Knik Arm to markers a quarter-mile upstream of Knik-Goose Bay Road. Dipnetters can work from shore or from a boat.

A late surge of reds to the creek this week pushed the number past a fish-counting weir to 56,000. With the creek's escapement goal ranging between 20,000 and 70,000 fish, biologists believe they "may exceed" the upper end of the goal.

Fish Creek, which drains from Big Lake to Knik Arm, supports a relatively small red run compared with some Kenai-area streams -- and one that can fluctuate wildly. When flush with fish, the road-accessible creek can be one of Southcentral's most popular dipnet fisheries.

But weak returns have kept the creek off limits to personal-use dipnetters for years as biologists struggled to hit the escapement goals.

"I think it's a great idea," said Bruce Knowles, a member of the Mat-Su Mayor's Sportsmen's Committee. "I've been trying for the last three (state fish) board meetings to have them offer some dipnetting up here."

He expects a crowd.

"Right now, a lot of people are hurting. They need the fish. But it can get crowded in a hurry. You can't put a whole lot of people in that area.

"You used to see people down there in canoes, dragging a net with their canoes to get their fish."

Fish and Game is warning dipnetters to make sure they avoid taking silver salmon, which also run up the creek. Red salmon lack spots on their back and dorsal fin, while silver have small spots there.

Some dipnetters working the Kenai and Kasilof rivers on the Kenai Peninsula may already have exhausted the limits of their Upper Cook Inlet Personal Use permit -- 25 reds for the head of household, with an additional 10 fish for each household member.

Only Alaskans can dipnet and they must also have a sport fishing license, permanent identification card (for seniors) or disabled veteran's license.

Knowles attributes Fish Creek's surge of reds to Fish and Game's commercial fishing closure in Northern Cook Inlet.

"We've had almost two weeks to let fish come through unscathed, and that's why there's suddenly fish here," he said.

The fishery will be open 6 a.m.-11 p.m. through Friday.

Reach reporter Mike Campbell at 257-4329 or mcampbell@adn.com.

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