Hatchery opens cautiously SHIP CREEK: Biologists won't stock catchable-size fish this spring.

For urban anglers, this summer may be the worst of times.

But the silver lining is that better days are ahead.

As the Alaska Department of Fish and Game prepares for the opening of its new $96 million Jack Hernandez State Fish Hatchery on the banks of Ship Creek this spring, state biologists have decided not to stock catchable-size fish this year and extend bag-limit restrictions first enacted last year.

That will leave a big hole for local anglers.

The 26 stocked lakes in the Anchorage area offer what the Fish and Game Department estimates are 40,000 angler days -- 10,000 anglers fishing four full days, for instance -- of fishing enjoyment. Stocked fish include 108,650 rainbow trout and 4,600 Arctic char of catchable size, or at least 8 inches long.

"To conserve the catchable-size fish and help ensure angler opportunity throughout the fishing season, it is necessary to reduce the bag and possession limit," said area management biologist Dan Bosch in a press release.

Like last year, the limit has been reduced from five fish of each species to two; only one of each species can exceed 12 inches.

Instead of transferring fish from the old facility to the new one, biologists will start with eggs at the new hatchery to minimize any prospect of disease.

Rainbow eggs will start incubating in the new hatchery this spring and are expected to reach catchable size next spring. The state-of-the-art facility has 105 circular fish tanks ranging up to 26 feet in diameter.

Eventually, Jeff Milton, hatchery program supervisor for the Department of Fish and Game, expects to be stocking 50 percent more fish than before the new hatchery opened.

"What anglers are going to notice, I think, is that we're going to get back to bigger fish," he said.

Warm water is the catalyst. In warm water, hatchery biologists can grow 9-inch rainbows in 11 months. Without it, the same fish can take two years to reach 4 inches.

And since the heat-generating power plants on Elmendorf Air Force Base and Fort Richardson closed in 2004 and 2005, the Ship Creek water temperature could dip as low as 31.5 degrees, according to Moser.

The ideal for fast-growing rainbows is 58 degrees.

"We'll be able to drive growth quickly and with much more control," Milton said. "If you have warm water, they'll grow an inch per month. With cold water, they might shrink."

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