Alaska Fishing Guide
Alaska has more coastline than the rest of the country combined, and its fishing runs on salmon. Five Pacific species come back to its rivers from late May into September, and the runs are the season: kings first, sockeye through early summer, pink and chum in the middle of it, and silvers in August and September. Bristol Bay's rivers carry the largest sockeye run in the world, and the Kenai, south of Anchorage, is the state's most fished river.
On salt water the fish are Pacific halibut, lingcod and rockfish, out of Homer, Seward, Whittier, Kodiak and the Southeast ports of Sitka, Ketchikan and Juneau, and king salmon trolled in Southeast's inside waters, where a winter king fishery runs while the rest of the state is frozen. Charter anglers fish for halibut under federal limits that differ from the unguided ones and change most years.
Away from the salmon, wild rainbow trout follow the sockeye upstream to eat their eggs in the Bristol Bay drainages and on the Kenai, Arctic grayling and Dolly Varden fill the clear streams, northern pike and lake trout hold in the Interior lakes, and the Department of Fish and Game stocks rainbows and landlocked salmon in lakes near Anchorage and Fairbanks for ice fishing through the long winter. Much of the state is reached by float plane or boat, not road, and salmon seasons open, close and change in season by emergency order as the counts come in.
Top Species
Chinook Salmon
The king, and the fish Alaska's seasons are built around. Runs reach the Southeast and Copper River in May and peak in Southcentral rivers in June and July. Several Southcentral runs, the Kenai's among them, have been weak enough in recent years to be closed or restricted by emergency order, so read the current orders before planning a king trip. The 97-pound all-tackle world record came from the Kenai in 1985.
Coho Salmon
Silvers, the late-summer fish: August and September on the Kenai Peninsula, in Seward's Resurrection Bay, around Kodiak and in the Southeast streams. They take a lure or a fly readily, which makes them the most popular salmon for a first Alaska trip.
Pacific Halibut
Fished on the bottom in deep water from late spring into September, out of Homer, Seward, Whittier, Kodiak and the Southeast ports. Charter and unguided anglers fish under different federal limits, and both change most years.
Rainbow Trout
Wild, and fed by salmon. In the Bristol Bay drainages and on the Kenai, rainbows follow the sockeye upstream to eat their eggs and then the flesh of spawned fish, which is why the best trout fishing comes in late summer and fall.
Lingcod
On the rocky reefs from Southeast Alaska to Kodiak, often on the same trip as halibut and rockfish.
Northern Pike
Native north and west of the Alaska Range, in the Interior lakes and sloughs, and introduced and spreading in the Mat-Su Valley and on the Kenai Peninsula, where they are an invasive the state wants removed.
Key Waterbodies
Kenai River
The glacial river of the Kenai Peninsula, south of Anchorage. Sockeye in July, with the Russian River confluence the busiest stretch, silvers in August and September, wild rainbows and Dolly Varden behind the salmon, and the king runs that produced the all-tackle record and have since been restricted in weak years.
Bristol Bay rivers
The Naknek, the Kvichak, the Alagnak and the Nushagak drainages of southwest Alaska, reached by float plane from fly-in lodges. The largest sockeye run in the world, kings on the Nushagak, and some of the best wild rainbow trout fishing anywhere in late summer.
Homer and Kachemak Bay
The halibut port at the end of the road on the Kenai Peninsula, with charters running out of the Homer Spit, rockfish and lingcod on the reefs, and the Spit's lagoon stocked with king and silver salmon for shore anglers.
Kodiak Island
Salmon streams like the Karluk and the Ayakulik, reached mostly by plane, and halibut, rockfish and lingcod around the island, with every salmon species and steelhead in its rivers.
Seward and Prince William Sound
Resurrection Bay's August silvers, and halibut, rockfish and lingcod out of Seward and Whittier on the edge of the Sound.
Copper River basin
The early kings and sockeye of the Copper River, the Gulkana and the Klutina for sport anglers, and Chitina's personal-use dipnet fishery, which is for Alaska residents only.
Southeast Alaska
The inside waters of Sitka, Ketchikan and Juneau, with king salmon trolling in summer and through a winter season, halibut and rockfish, and spring steelhead and fall silvers in streams like the Situk near Yakutat.
Mat-Su Valley
The Susitna's tributaries north of Anchorage, the Deshka and the Little Susitna among them, for kings and silvers, and stocked lakes fished through the ice all winter.
Month-by-Month Calendar
Ice fishing on the stocked lakes of Southcentral and the Interior for rainbows, landlocked salmon and Arctic char, with burbot on set lines. Daylight is short. In Southeast Alaska the winter king fishery runs on the inside waters.
More ice fishing, with longer days and the thickest ice of the season. Burbot in the Interior lakes and the winter king trolling in Southeast carry on.
The best month for ice fishing, with real daylight back and the ice still thick. Spring king trolling picks up near Ketchikan and Sitka.
Steelhead start running the Southeast Alaska streams late in the month. Ice begins to go out in the south of the state, and the first halibut charters run on calm days.
Ice-out on most Southcentral lakes, the first kings in Southeast and the Copper River, and the halibut season under way. Stocked lakes open up for shore fishing.
Kings peak in the Southcentral rivers that are open to them, and the first sockeye run reaches the Russian River in mid-June. Halibut fishing is in its prime, and daylight runs almost around the clock.
The sockeye peak: Bristol Bay early in the month and the Kenai later, with the residents-only personal-use dipnet fisheries on the Kenai, the Kasilof and the Copper. Halibut and rockfish out of every port, and pink salmon in the even years.
Silvers arrive, with Seward's derby in Resurrection Bay, and rainbows feed on salmon eggs in the Bristol Bay rivers and on the Kenai. Grayling are on dry flies in the Interior.
Silvers peak, and the best trophy rainbow trout fishing of the year comes on the Kenai and in Bristol Bay as the spawned salmon break up. Dolly Varden follow the salmon, and fall halibut trips run when the weather allows.
Rainbows on the Kenai into the month, the last silvers in Southeast, and the winter king season opening on Southeast's inside waters. Lakes start freezing in the Interior.
First safe ice on the lakes of Southcentral and the Interior, burbot fishing begins, and winter kings in Southeast.
Ice fishing for stocked rainbows and landlocked salmon near Anchorage and Fairbanks, and the winter king fishery in Southeast, in a few hours of daylight.
Typical Conditions
Several climates in one state: mild, wet temperate rain forest in Southeast, a cool maritime coast around Kodiak, Prince William Sound and the Kenai, and a continental Interior that can reach the 80s in summer and fall far below zero in winter. Summer daylight runs nearly around the clock in June and winter days are a few hours long. Rain raises and colors the rivers, the glacial rivers run high and silty in late summer heat, and wind and sea state can cancel a saltwater trip on any day.
Regional Tips
- •Read the Department of Fish and Game's emergency orders before the trip and again the day you fish. Alaska manages salmon in season, and a river can open, close or change its bait rules within days as the counts come in.
- •In bear country, fish in company, carry bear spray, make noise in thick cover, and never leave fish or bait on the bank.
- •Know which fisheries are for residents only. The personal-use dipnet fisheries on the Kenai, the Kasilof and the Copper are closed to visitors, who fish the same runs with rod and reel.
- •When a glacial river runs high and silty, fish the mouths of its clear tributaries, where the salmon and the trout behind them hold.
Nearby Regions
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