Ship Creek coho run winds down with six-fish limit still in place

Anchorage anglers can still keep six salmon a day at Ship Creek, but the coho run that prompted the higher limit is winding down, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said in its Friday, Aug. 28 fishing report. Silver fishing has slowed, a few late fish are still entering, and the department told anglers to expect to put in some effort, for minimal company on the bank.

Emergency Order 2-SS-2-45-26 raised the bag and possession limit for salmon other than king salmon, 16 inches or greater, to six fish from Aug. 7 through Dec. 31, from Ship Creek's mouth upstream to a cable 100 feet downstream of the Chugach Power Plant dam. All six may be coho. Any king salmon hooked may not be removed from the water and must be released immediately. ADF&G raised the limit after surveys counted more than 1,100 coho past the sport fishery at the hatchery section, enough, the department said, to cover broodstock and natural spawning and leave a surplus to harvest.

An earlier order, 2-KS-2-38-26, closed Ship Creek to all sport fishing from July 3 through July 13 and closed king retention for the remainder of 2026, over king returns falling short of broodstock goals at the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery. Area Management Biologist Brittany Blain-Roth said in the July announcement, "Recent stream surveys indicate that king salmon returns are tracking below levels needed to confidently meet hatchery broodstock goals." Blain-Roth added that ADF&G had enough broodstock for Ship Creek but not for the other Southcentral terminal fisheries the creek's hatchery run supports.

The department suggests drifting roe or a shrimp-tipped jig under a slip bobber on the incoming tide. Questions go to the Anchorage office at 907-267-2218.