JD,
When is the best time to go fishing in AK. I want to fly into Anchorage and make my way to Homer.
Thanks,
Brian
Brian,
Well, that’s a bit of a broad question….depends on what type of fishing you want to do. Driving down from Anchorage, there’s not a ton of stuff to do off the bank (unless you count combat fisheries like Bird and Ship creeks) until you get down to Cooper Landing down on the Kenai River. Of course, you have Soldotna just past that.
In that area you are in the epicenter of the Kenai’s giant king salmon fishing (May-July), though you’ll need to get on a guide boat to have much of a chance. Also, the reds come in thick in the Kenai and Russian rivers in July and then there are the jumbo rainbows, dollies, silvers, chums and humpies (mainly on even years).
Heading towards Homer, you will encounter the Kasilof River, where you can catch some kings below the Crooked Creek Hatchery off the bank or try Deep Creek, Ninilchik River and Anchor River, which have a mix of salmon and trout.
Homer, of course, is the self-proclaimed “Halibut Capitol of the World” and you can find countless charters down on the Spit that will take you out into Kachemak Bay for flatties. There’s also a fish pond on the spit that salmon return to, though it’s not really the nicest place to fish…
JD, I am heading to Juneau, AK at the end of June and looking for a place to fish but I am not interested in the fly or party boat
scene.
I am a simple man with wants and thought I would look around
for (A) true person that has some experience in the area and
see what I could read, this brings me here.
From my experienceit is easy to get advise from people
selling a service but my experience with those trips and information is considered tainted at best.
If you know a place to fish, a local hole or just a stream,
lake scant of people to drop a line in please know that
I would think kind thought of you and send positive vibes
in your direction.
– Bill A.
Bill, I’ll take all the positive vibes you can send! Here are some of the spots in the Juneau road system you can hit with a rental car. Good luck!
MONTANA CREEK
Close to town and it’s got a nice variety of species, from dollies to cutthroats to most of the salmon.
You can hike into the mouth of the creek via the paved Mendenhall Glacier trail or fish up or downstream of the bridge off Back Loop Road. You can also hit the upper reaches by following Montana Creek Road until it dead-ends in a cul-de-sac. There’s a trailhead at the end of the road that will lead you to the creek.
PETERSON CREEK
Peterson is located at Mile 24.5 on the Glacier Highway and can be accessed near the highway bridge. From the salt to the first falls, there’s about 2 ½ miles of stream to explore, and it harbors a decent steelhead run.
WINDFALL CREEK
Windfall Creek (a bit past Mile 27 on the highway) is a small stream that gives anglers a rare shot in local waters to catch sockeye salmon. The stream has a large run of reds but is subject to tight regulations to ensure the fishery remains viable.
There are a couple of holes were the sockeye stack up by the thousands and you can walk right up to them…just check the regs first.
FISH CREEK
Fish Creek’s a beautiful rushing stream on Douglas Island off North Douglas Highway that gives anglers a shot at king salmon in fresh water. Cutthroat and dollies also venture into Fish Creek and it gets loaded with chums and pinks mid-summer.
It’s show season again and that means I’ll be doing seminars at the upcoming International Sportsmen’s Expos in both San Mateo and Sacramento over the next couple weeks.
For those of you looking for a place to get off your feet and take a cat nap, my seminars are just the ticket! Here’s the upcoming schedule:
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by JD on December 12, 2008
Here’s the final installment in the JD & Khev’s Epic Alaskan Float Trip Video collection. In this one, we pick up the action on Day 5…
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