Alaska Salmon Fishing 5 species to choose from

 King Salmon Facts

 General Description:  The largest of the Pacific Salmon the King Salmon is Alaska’s state fish.  Adults have black irregular spotting on the back and dorsal fins and both sides of tail.  Kings can also be distinguished from other salmon by looking for a black pigment along the gums.  When Kings come upriver to spawn they loose their grey sides and turn red to copper, develop a hump on their backs, and a hooked mouth or kype.

 Average Size: 18-30 pounds, Trophy 40-60lbs

Average Catch per day: 3-5 with the possibility for more.  Catch depends upon whether you are an aggressive fly fisherman chucking big flies on the upper river. Or fishing on tidewater on the lower river swinging Spey flies. 

Fly Fishing Tactics: Fly fishing for kings is mostly done by casting brightly colored streamers or by drifting giant egg patterns like a King Caviar on heavy sink tips.  Kings demand heavy duty gear, strong lines, and a determined angler to land them.  The fly fishing gear is often abandoned for tackle and the use of large flashy plugs, WiggleWarts, and spinning artificial baits to attached their attention and get the big boys to bite.  All the work that it takes to catching one King is well worth it though. 

 Sockeye Salmon Facts

 General Description: Also know as Reds the Sockeye is a great fish to catch and bag up to take home to eat.  Bright silver sides and dark green backs these salmon run upriver first and come through fast and fresh running June 26 through July 24th, after this they head up to the lakes and tributaries where they turn red and spawn.

 Average Size: 7-10 pounds

 Average Caught per day: as many as you can hook, and fight to bank.  Limit is 5 killed per angler but our fly fishing clients catch as many as 50-100 fish if they put the time in.

 Fly Fishing Tactics:  Dead drifting small colorful attractor patterns, Orange and Red #10 estez scud patterns are a favorite fished on a 7wt floating line with12lb tippet and 3/0 split shot at 30 inches.

Chum Salmon Facts

 General Description: The Chum or Dog Salmon has dark metallic blue top with silver sides when coming fresh off the ocean and its spawning colors are a deep red with dark green bars and purple blotches.  We often call the Chum the Tiger Salmon because of its stripes.  Nicknamed “Dog Salmon” because the natives use to feed them to their dogs.

 Average Size: 11-18 pounds, 25-35 inches

 Average Caught per day: Often an unexpected by product of fishing for Silver Salmon or other species anglers can catch 10-30 Chums in one day. They put up a great fight and fly fishermen often target them on spey rods coming in right off the ocean tides.  

Fly Fishing Tactics: Chums will readily strike just about anything that gets close to them.especially if its bright pink and flashy.  We also catch a lot of them while drifting egg patterns for rainbows because like Kings, they will pick up the eggs in there mouths instinctively to carry them back to their redd or nest. 

 Pink Salmon Facts

 General Description: The smallest of the salmon the Pink Salmon are often referred to as “Humpies” due to a large hunchback that occurs during spawning.  They run up the Alagnak River every other year on even years due to their strict 2 year cycle at sea.  In the ocean they are blue to green on back and silver sides but when they come upriver to spawn they are red with blotchy brownish green patches. 

 Average Size: 4-7 pounds, 18-28 inches

 Average Caught per day: Again the are not the most sought after sportfish but many anglers have a lot of fun catching Pinks while going for other species.  They fill in the day and when they are in the river anglers rods are always bent with either another salmon, trout, or a Humpy. 

 Fly Fishing Tactics: Good old cast and retrieve with flies, drifting egg patterns, and they have also been known to hit pollywogs or mice on the surface however slow and lazy a strike it may be. 

Silver Salmon Facts

General Description: The Silver Salmon is a great sportfish because they bite and chase flies readily and are known as the most acrobatic of Pacific salmon when they are hooked.  They have silver sides, white belly and dark metallic blue/green colors on back. After they ripen in the lower river they head upriver to spawn and start to get red and darker.

 Average Size: 8-15 pounds and up to 30 inches.  Some larger fish of 20 pounds. 

 Average Caught per day: 5-15

 Fly Fishing Tactics: Running up the Alagnak in the fall we love fishing for Silvers in cold, rainy, overcast days because that is often when they hit the most.  Fly fishing for Silver Salmon with top water Pollywogs in Alaska is very popular and rightfully so.  To see the big ferocious surface strikes of a Silver are something every fly fishing enthusiast should experience once in their lives.  Silvers also like pink articulated leaches.