Monday 8/25/14
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| Silver Salmon (Cohoe) |
Still raining! Hiked back down to confluence of Susitna River and Montana Creek to fish. Not as crowded since it wasn't a weekend. Mike caught silver salmon and chum salmon. (The Alaska Fishing Regulations are so confusing , reading the syllabus and understanding it is the equivalent of passing the Bar Exam to be a lawyer. The regs are different in different areas...and different if you are fishing on one side of the Parks Highway than on the other side on the same river or creek... and certain times of the year it's catch and release and others not..and different tackle at different times, and some places you can only fish on weekends or Mondays if its a holiday. )
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| Chum Salmon (Dog Salmon) |
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| Fish on! |
The salmon are headed upstream at this point from the ocean to their spawning grounds to lay eggs at the same place they were born (hatched). After they spawn, they die. When they are in their spawning stage, they turn color (usually red) There were loads of dead fish everywhere (king salmon from an earlier run..the different salmon species "run" or head upstream at different times) The silvers that Mike caught had not changed color so are still feeding (biting) and would be still good to eat. Once they have changed color, they will be hard to catch as they are not feeding, and they would not be good eating either. The chum salmon was a little farther ahead in the spawning stage as you can see by the colors. They are sometimes called a dog salmon as they are used for feeding sled dogs.
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| Mike "walking on water" |
You did need waders to fish...it was shallow in many places with deep holes and channels that the fish were navigating and you needed to get out far enough to cast into those spots!
Later that afternoon, we hiked on the opposite side of the Parks Highway further up the Montana Creek to the the salmon spawning grounds...we saw lot's of fish "stacked up" . The fish are swimming upstream and are fighting a heavy current..they stop to rest in large groups. There was a sign at the beginning of the trail that said bears had been sighted in the area. There are usually bears around salmon spawning grounds as the fish are plentiful and easy picking for them. We didn't see any bears but I did whistle and sing the whole way to make our presence known ! :)
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| Susitina Landing |
We decided to head down the line about 30 miles to try our luck at fishing at Susitna Landing Campground and Boat Launch. We had a beautiful campsite right on the Kashwitna River where it flows into the Susitna River ( a confluence..the fishing is usually good in this type area because you have fish who are headed upstream to both rivers!) Definitely getting towards the off season..we were the only ones in the campground! It is a state owned campground with a private concessionaire running it. There were trailers parked in some sites who probably rent for the season but maybe come in on the weekends from Wasilla (app 35 miles away) or Anchorage (app 75 miles away) or points in between! There were also a lot of jet boats parked...people who live or have second homes in the surrounding areas use the boat launch. The rivers are so shallow and rocky in spots and at certain times of the year that you need a jet boat to navigate rather than regular boats at least in this area. Campsite was $12. and $5 for a shower.
No fish but the scenery
was pretty darn nice!
The sun came out and we were
treated to a rainbow!
(Mom and Dad's journal from 1986 shows " Still raining" as an entry for 8/25 also)
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