Anchorage creeks stay closed to king salmon as coho fishing picks up

Ship Creek and Campbell Creek King Salmon Restrictions

Anglers working Anchorage's urban creeks for coho this weekend still cannot keep a king, and on Ship Creek they cannot even lift one out of the water. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game's July 31 Anchorage fishing report states that under emergency order, "any king salmon that is caught may not be removed from the water and must be released immediately."

The Ship Creek release requirement comes from its own emergency order, and the department cites two more covering nearby waters. Emergency Order 2-KS-2-2-26, effective May 1, closes sport fishing for king salmon in the entire Eagle River drainage and limits gear there to one unbaited, single-hook artificial lure with a hook gap of half an inch or less. Emergency Order 2-KS-2-1-26 holds Campbell Creek anglers to one unbaited, single-hook artificial lure from June 15 through July 31; bait becomes legal again Aug. 1.

Ship Creek reopened July 14 to all salmon except kings, and the department reports that coho fishing improved significantly this week as water conditions settled. Campbell Creek coho fishing has been very slow in flood-like water, with improvement expected as levels drop.

The department asks anglers to review the emergency orders, advisory announcements and the 2026 Southcentral Alaska Sport Fishing Regulations Summary booklet for the area they plan to fish before heading out.

A Statewide Pattern

An earlier Alaska News article noted that three emergency orders closed king fishing across the Susitna drainage, the Little Susitna River and the West Cook Inlet Management Area, and that the Kenai River is closed to kings through Aug. 15. State managers have justified those actions as conservation measures for depleted king salmon stocks, which places Anchorage's creek-by-creek rules inside a broader regional pattern of restrictions on weak Chinook runs.

The report is a regulatory and conditions update, and it did not include reaction from Anchorage anglers, who lose the ability to retain kings in the city's urban fisheries and must work around the gear rules while fishing for other species. For a second summer, king salmon remains largely off the table for Anchorage anglers, even as coho fishing improves and rainbow trout, Dolly Varden, Arctic char, Arctic grayling and stocked-lake fishing remain open across the area's creeks and lakes.

Area Management Biologist Brittany Blain-Roth's office can be reached at 907-267-2186.