Alaska Closes Montana Creek and Peterson Creek Areas to Coho Fishing

Alaska is shutting down coho fishing in a pair of Juneau-area waters, and the reason is not complicated: not enough fish are making it back. When escapement keeps missing the mark, managers either act now or everyone pays later.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says that beginning at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1, coho salmon fishing will be closed in Montana Creek, including McGinnis Creek, and in Peterson Creek and Peterson Lagoon north of Juneau. The closures run through 11:59 p.m. Dec. 31, 2026.

In those waters, coho may not be targeted, retained or possessed. For Peterson Creek, the closure includes Peterson Lagoon from intertidal saltwaters within a 200-yard radius of the creek mouth up to the falls roughly 1.5 miles upstream.

The numbers explain the move. Survey counts show Montana Creek coho returns have failed to meet the escapement goal in six of the last seven years. Peterson Creek coho have missed the goal in four of the last seven years. That is not a one-year dip you shrug off. That is a pattern.

Nobody likes losing fishing water, especially in salmon country. But conservation is not just something we say when the fish are thick. If a run is short, responsible anglers give it room to rebuild, follow the closure and put pressure on managers to keep using real counts instead of politics. The goal should always be healthy runs and future opportunity, not squeezing the last chance out of a struggling creek.