Elijah Howlett and his older brother, Zach, untangled a thrashing salmon from a dipnet at Fish Creek near Wasilla. When they freed it from the netting, they snipped the tail to mark it, then laid it out on top of a cooler.
“Elijah, are you gutting this, or am I gutting it for you?” Zach called out.
“I'll gut it,” Elijah responded. “Zach, the weird part is I didn’t feel it, and then I was like, ‘Oh wait, I got something!’ This is my second fish I’ve ever caught, like ever.”
Zach used his finger to trace a line from the salmon’s head to its tail, showing his 11-year-old brother where to cut. He stood behind Elijah, demonstrating how to move the knife in little saw-like motions all the way down the belly of the fish.
The brothers fished alongside their whole family last week — their mom, dad and sister, plus their brother-in-law, the brother-in-law’s brother and some friends. They come to Fish Creek every summer.
“I like it because it's like a family tradition,” Elijah said. “We just keep our nets in the water. We talk and stuff, and we sometimes bring friends like Garrett.”
The Howletts were among many other families lining up to dipnet on the banks of Fish Creek on Thursday evening. Fish Creek is the only personal-use fishery on the road system in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and it opens for only a few days every summer by emergency order, depending on salmon numbers. This year, it’s open for eight days, from July 23 to July 31.
And the fishing is good. Many Anchorage and Mat-Su residents travel to the Kenai Peninsula for dipnetting — especially this summer, as hotspots like Kenai and Kasilof experience a record-breaking salmon run. But Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Oliver Querin said numbers are also high right here in Fish Creek.
“We knew it was going to be a banner year, and that's pretty much what we're seeing, if not a little more than what we were expecting,” he said.
Querin said dipnetting at Fish Creek is a completely different experience from being down in Kenai. It’s quieter, and less crowded. There’s a sense of community at Fish Creek, too.
“I always have called Fish Creek our happy fishery,” Querin said. “Anytime we're able to open this fishery to dipnetting, hundreds and hundreds of people go down there, and everybody's always in a good mood.”
Fish Creek is more family-oriented, too, Querin said. Instead of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other dipnetters, families spread out on the banks of the creek, and kids can be a part of the action.
“Overall, these personal fisheries are a really good chance to slow down,” Querin said. “I mean, you’ll catch a bunch of fish, but you can pull the net back and slow down and kind of teach the children stuff. So it’s a really good learning environment for kids as well.”
At the far end of the fishing boundary, Jessica Russell pulled in a salmon. As she hauled it up the muddy bank, other dipnetters cheered her on.
She was fishing with three generations of her family. Her parents grew up dipnetting in Fish Creek, and now her kids are, too. Her husband, Justin, said that’s part of what makes Fish Creek special — it really feels like a neighborhood fishery.
“We talk with people that we talked with last year, and then we'll have friends from work and yeah, you see familiar faces for sure,” he said.
And at Fish Creek, anything goes. People floated by on paddleboards, canoes and kayaks. Someone said they once saw a dipnetter on an air mattress. Other people wear dry suits, flippers and snorkel gear and float the creek with their dipnet hooked to their hip. Jessica watched a group paddle by in a makeshift float, with coolers and nets piled high.
“You see some interesting ways that people get out there to the mouth,” she said, laughing.
Further downstream, Lonnie Horn Jr. waited patiently on the bank, holding his net steady in the water. It was his first time dipnetting at Fish Creek — usually, he goes down to Kasilof, but he said this was much easier. He lives just a few minutes away.
“I mean, you don't have to drive four hours away to get fish when it's literally right here in your own backyard,” Horn said. “If you don't catch your limit today, you can come back tomorrow and catch some more.”
He was still waiting on his first catch of the night, but he said he was happy sitting by the edge of the creek and watching the people around him.
“What I'm seeing is a bunch of people with coolers, families,” he said. “Their children are playing, there was a mud wrestling contest over there a minute ago between two kids, literally covered in mud head to toe. They're just enjoying a pleasant evening with a few of their closest friends. It's what we end up being. It's what we all really are.”
Fish Creek will remain open for dipnetting every day, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. through Thursday, July 31. It will open again for a youth-only rod and reel fishery this weekend.
