22 Jul Alaska Fishing Report, July 22, 2013
Peak season brings a flood of reds, giant rainbows, a trickle of kings and the first silvers of the season.
I will begin this fishing report by saying this is by far the most favorable weather season we have ever experienced here in Alaska. We have had week after week of beautiful bluebird skies accompanied by warm comfortable temperatures and little to no rain. I keep expecting to see the forecast make a change toward the more normal weather like rain and clouds but as of today they are predicting another week of absolutely beautiful weather.
Fishing this week was outstanding for sockeye as we saw close 750,000 sockeye enter the river over the past 5-6 days. On a couple days, the daily count was over 200,000 fish per day and this made for some pretty unbelievable fishing for these tasty salmon. Their numbers have since fallen back down to less than 50,000 fish per day but this still makes for some great fishing and limits have been very common. On Saturday the limit was raised from three fish per person to six fish per person, per day. This run should continue to enter the river in decent numbers well into the first week of August so there will be plenty of sockeye action yet to come.
King fishing remains open as the run is seeing just enough fish entering the river daily for ADF&G to project the minimum escapement goal will be met. This remains to be seen but again, the river is still open for fishing for kings with a single hook, no bait restriction in place. Success rates have been just okay as most boats are averaging 1 to 2 fish per trip. Many of the fish have been very nice size with a number well over 40lbs!
On a number of our sockeye trips, we have been trout fishing after catching our limits and this has produced some really nice trophy rainbows. The fish are getting heavier and heavier from all the sockeye carcass meat floating down the river and they should just continue to fatten up well into the fall when trout fishing really turns on.
Fly Out fishing for sockeye and bear viewing at Big River Lake remains excellent and we are also starting to see very good numbers and limit catches of silver salmon at the Kustatan. Silver fishing should just get better and better at all the West Cook Inlet locations as we move toward the seasonal peak of this fishery in the first ten days of August.
Halibut fishing in Cook Inlet was tough for a few days due to excessive wind and the boats not being able to leave the beach but when they have gotten out and their catches have been phenomenal. Seward has also been very good and the silvers are showing up there as well.
