Fish Creek sport fishery opens Aug. 3 with six-salmon daily limit

Anglers at Fish Creek can keep six salmon a day starting at 5 a.m. Monday, Aug. 3, under an Alaska Department of Fish and Game emergency order that opens the sport fishery early because the sockeye return has run past the top of the creek's escapement goal.

The liberalized limit is six salmon per day and six in possession, of which only two may be coho salmon. Fishing for king salmon remains closed. The order runs through 10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15. Beginning Sunday, Aug. 16, the fishery stays open for the rest of the year, but the limit returns to three salmon over 16 inches per day and in possession, again with no more than two coho.

"This year's sockeye run to Fish Creek is exceptional and has exceeded the escapement goal of 15,000-45,000 fish," Assistant Area Management Biologist Oliver Querin said. The general opening follows a youth-only fishery on Aug. 1 and 2.

Where and how to fish

The open water runs from a quarter-mile radius of the creek's confluence with Knik Arm upstream to a department marker a quarter mile above Knik-Goose Bay Road. Fishing hours are 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Once an angler takes a bag limit, that person may not sport fish for salmon anywhere else that day. Bait is allowed, along with up to two single or two treble hooks per line.

What this order does not cover

Alaska News earlier covered the July 15 regulatory closure of this sport fishery and the possibility of a personal use dipnet opening if counts held. The emergency order applies only to Fish Creek. Other Knik Arm waters, including the Little Susitna River, Eklutna Tailrace, and Jim, Wasilla and Cottonwood creeks, are unaffected.

The opening is one of a series of in-season adjustments the department makes across Upper Cook Inlet, where weir counts and escapement goals determine when short-duration fisheries open or limits are liberalized. At Fish Creek, the same numbers govern personal use dipnetters, whose fishery may be opened by emergency order between July 15 and July 31 only when the department projects sockeye escapement above 35,000 fish.