Over the last two years, Ship Creek has had murky water conditions, which can present challenges for king salmon counting for survey teams with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
"I've only done two restrictions since 2000 and that was because of the high water conditions that we've had both last spring and this spring," Dan Bosch, a biologists for ADF&G, said. "It's been not only high, but really muddy to where we couldn't even see any fish."
On Tuesday, the state dealt with clear and calm waters at the popular downtown fishing spot - ideal conditions for a survey.
"What I'm seeing right now leads me to believe that we're doing fine with our brood stock this year," Bosch said.
Ship Creek was closed to sport fishing for two weeks to protect the kings until they had a better idea of how many fish were in the water.
The closure ended on Saturday.
"What we see in the reach between Reeve Boulevard and the upper dam is looking really good," Bosch said. "We've got about 300 kings there [as of Tuesday]".
Last fall's windstorms also hampered surveys due to the debris by fallen trees.
"Between Reeve Blvd and the dam up at Elmendorf it put down over 100 trees in the creek and during the high water, that made it quite dangerous," Bosch said.
The wait for good conditions to count the fish has proven to be worth it.
ADF&G counted 468 fish on Tuesday and 288 will be for the brood stock at William Jack Hernandez Sport Fishery. With the fish count looking healthy, the state says it can also boost the city's economy.
"People won't have to go down to the Kenai to try to fish down there and they won't have to go to the Susitna River or Willow or places like that because the more fish we can provide here they can come here and fish for them," Bosch said. "Ship Creek provides an annual average of about $7.2 million a year back to the economy of Anchorage."