Anchorage Daily News

BIRD CREEK -- After a summer of combat fishing along the mud-caked banks of Ship Creek, with Anchorage high-rises as the backdrop, this stream 25 miles south of town offers something different for urban anglers.

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OK, there's still plenty of mud. But turn the right direction -- away from Seward Highway traffic -- and the pretty, meandering clear-water creek offers green conifers, the occasional eagle overhead and rocky outcroppings for some visual relief from the slick mud at its gut.

About two dozen anglers worked the banks of Bird Creek on Monday morning, but they weren't there for scenery. Silver salmon were the attraction, and before the run is through as many as 6,000 could enter the creek.

For the fifth consecutive year, the state has seeded Bird Creek with more than 100,000 silver salmon, making the stream Anchorage's second-favorite urban salmon fishery.

Downtown Ship Creek, with more than double the number of stocked fish, lures more urban anglers. But crowds still flow to Bird Creek, particularly on weekends.

Eagle River angler Bob Wallick said it was so crowded on Sunday that cars spilled into the overflow area.

"I've fished it four or five times this year," he said. "It's better than last year but still not very good for silvers.

"When it's been good you'll see three or four people on the bank onto fish. I've not seen a whole lot of that this year."

Fish and Game put nearly 105,000 hatchery silvers into the creek in 2006 and '07 and 113,000 this year. Biologists look for a 5 percent return, realizing the actual number can range between 3 and 12 percent; that translates to roughly 3,000 to 12,000 fish.

There are also plenty of pink salmon and a waning run of chum salmon at Bird Creek. But silvers are the target.

"If fishing is really good," said Fish and Game area biologist Chuck Brazil, "word gets out really fast. You're gonna be there. I'm gonna be there. Your neighbor's gonna be there."

Clemente Roblesh of Anchorage has fished there three times this year and brought silvers home each time.

"I think it's a little better this year," he said Monday afternoon, heading back to his car with some silver salmon filets. "The last two years have been bad, but this is a little better."

Wallick doesn't necessarily agree. He's fished Bird Creek for years and has seen days in which he's pulling in a fish every 10 minutes or so for a brief spell; the limit is three fish per day. Look down the creek on such days, and three or four anglers may be playing a fish simultaneously.

"I've not seen a whole lot of fish this year," said Wallick, who's fished the creek four or five times this year. "I thought there would be a decent run of silvers this year, but maybe I didn't get there at exactly the right time either."

Wallick typically uses a No. 4 Vibrax spinner with an orange bell and brass blade. On a recent day when that wasn't yielding anything but casting practice, he switched to eggs that he cures himself.

"I caught one right away, and then for the next hour, not another touch."

He thinks this year's run has peaked.

"I think it's about done," he said. "I don't hold out a lot of hope of it getting better."

Brazil thinks last week may have been the peak, but he's caught fresh Bird Creek silvers well into September.

The best times typically run from an hour before high tide to an hour after. Beware of the slick mud. Cleat-bottomed or lug-soled boots can save anglers frustration and embarrassing falls.

Even if this season hasn't brought a silver bonanza, at least anglers haven't had much competition for the fish.

Two years ago, encounters with salmon-hunting bears were fairly common and tourists began visiting Bird Creek hoping to see bears in the wild.

But this year has been different. Brazil said a Fish and Game crew spotted a sow and three cubs a couple of miles upstream, past where it's legal to fish. He hasn't heard of any bears closer to the highway.

Perhaps the message emphasized by Fish and Game is sinking in with anglers.

"What we're telling people is 'Don't feed the bears,' " Fish and Game spokesman Bruce Bartley said. "That means don't give them fish, don't make it easy for them to get fish, don't leave coolers around or backpacks with lunch in it.

"Give them room to do their fishing. It's amazing to me that we can combat fish shoulder to shoulder, but we can't let bears get in there to have their turn to fish."

Find Daily News reporter Mike Campbell online at mcampbell@adn.com or call 257-4329.

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