Fish and Game emergency order opens Fish Creek to dipnetting

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game as issued an emergency order to open Fish Creek in the Big Lake drainage to personal use dipnetting.

The opening starts at 6 a.m. on Friday July 29^th and runs thru Sunday July 31^st at 11 pm.  King salmon can not be retained.  All other salmon species are legal.  Fishing is allowed all three days from 6 a.m. to 11 pm.  Participants have to have a 2011 Cook Inlet personal use permit and a resident sport fishing license.

As of July 26^th, more than 32,500 sockeye passed through the Fish Creek weir.  The department is projecting a total escapement of 50,000 sockeye.  A sustainable goal is between 20 and 70 thousand sockeye measured at the weir upstream of the fishery.

The area open to dipnetting includes regulatory markers on both sides of the terminus of Fish Creek to one quarter mile upstream from Knik Goose Bay Road.

Fish and Game asks that people respect private property.  The majority of property adjacent to Fish Creek DOWNSTREAM of Knik Goose Bay Road bridge is privately owned.  ATVs are not allowed in streams and creeks without a permit.