Alaska Fishing Spots

This trib­u­tary of the Kenai Riv­er flows along­side the Ster­ling High­way, just north of Coop­er Land­ing (from mile­post 40 – 45). There are plen­ty of des­ig­nat­ed pull-offs along the high­way — like Quartz Creek Road, which leads to Kenai Lake, as well as the pop­u­lar access point at the Quartz Creek Bridge.

Each head of house­hold is allowed to keep 25 sock­eye salmon per year, and every addi­tion­al mem­ber of the fam­i­ly is enti­tled to 10 fish.

Locat­ed down Beaver Loop Road, just out­side of Kenai, Cun­ning­ham Park is a great, easy-access loca­tion for sock­eye and sil­ver salmon. The shore­line here is a mix of grav­el and mud, with the mud being more preva­lent below the tidal zone. That said, this spot is very tidal depen­dent, so you’ll have to con­tin­u­al­ly adjust your bait set­up as the water ris­es or falls.

This spot is par­tic­u­lar­ly good for any­one who’s mobil­i­ty impaired, since you access the riv­er by a flat, met­al board­walk — and the actu­al fish­ing area is also from the board­walk. This makes Moose Mead­ows one of a very few places where anglers can fish for sock­eye with­out hav­ing to be in the water — you can do excel­lent even from a wheel chair.

Crys­tal-clear Willi­waw Creek and its bank-side trail sys­tem in Portage Val­ley at the head of Tur­na­gain Arm offers excep­tion­al­ly good con­di­tions for watch­ing spawn­ing in action. Coho, sock­eye and chum salmon con­verge on the creek as it winds through the brushy flats begin­ning in mid-August, with some late-arriv­ing fish still present after first frost in the fall.

This is one of the few spots along the road sys­tem where you might catch hal­ibut from the shore. Check out the beach, which sur­rounds the Land’s End Hotel, on the Homer Spit. Here, you’ll find a small park­ing lot, and the water’s only about 100 feet away.

Alaska’s most pro­duc­tive king salmon sport­fish­ery is locat­ed right in down­town Anchor­age! Fish for salmon at Ship Creek even if you have only two hours. Dur­ing the sum­mer­time der­bies, spe­cial­ly tagged fish bring in $100-$10,000. Buy your tick­ets ($7 – 35) from the Der­by Cab­in next to Com­fort Inn at Ship Creek and warm up your mus­cles-in 2002, a 41-pounder took grand prize! Want to fish Ship Creek? 6^th Avenue Out­fit­ters (907−276−0233) sells…  ...more

Thou­sands of pink salmon con­verge on Indi­an Creek each July and August, just about fill­ing this shal­low, easy-flow­ing stream south of Anchor­age along Tur­na­gain Arm from bank-to-bank. This amaz­ing nat­ur­al spec­ta­cle occurs in one of the eas­i­est places to view spawn­ing salmon in the region: No steep banks, crys­tal clear water and fish so close they could almost be touched.

Sol­dot­na Park, in down­town Sol­dot­na, offers all Kenai Riv­er species — but most peo­ple are here for the sock­eye. That means it can get crowd­ed dur­ing peak sock­eye sea­son, but it’s also a good place to learn how to fish for sock­eye. The com­bi­na­tion of easy acces­si­bil­i­ty, hard-packed grav­el and a shal­low grade make the fish­ing enjoyable.

This spot in Ster­ling — at mile­post 82.3 at the Isaak Wal­ton Camp­ground — is where the Moose Riv­er meets the Kenai Riv­er, and the two rivers’ dif­fer­ing paces are dras­tic. The Moose Riv­er is very slow and wide, with almost no cur­rent — so much so that it feels more like a lake. The Kenai Riv­er, on the oth­er hand, flows fair­ly swift­ly in com­par­i­son, and the con­flu­ence can play strange tricks on your tackle.

This spot, just north of Ster­ling, is pri­mar­i­ly a boat launch, but it also offers excel­lent sock­eye fish­ing. It’s locat­ed at the end of Bing’s Land­ing Road: There’s a park­ing lot, but when the fish­ing is hot, you can expect to park along­side the road, up to half a mile away from the boat launch site. (Anoth­er rea­son you might park on the road: The lot near the boat launch has a fee.)

This unique fish­ery, about 25 miles north of Anchor­age, is com­prised of a small, arti­fi­cial eddy of water that comes down from a pow­er plant and con­nects to the main stem, Knik Riv­er. The glacial-fed water looks murky and blue-gray, and there’s very lit­tle cur­rent. While you won’t find much soli­tude here, you can usu­al­ly find a spot to set up a lawn chair for some lazy fish­ing. There’s abun­dant park­ing, too, as well as restrooms.

King salmon enter Deep Creek dur­ing late May and ear­ly June and con­tin­ue to spawn into ear­ly July. Watch for their dark red bod­ies in the rif­fles and deep­er holes. A very lim­it­ed fish­ing sea­son is pro­vid­ed dur­ing the ear­ly sum­mer for kings and steelheads.

Park­ing Spot on the North side of the high­way. Fol­low the cat track 2 miles North. 

King salmon enter dur­ing late-May and ear­ly-June and there are always some fish spawn­ing in areas near the high­way dur­ing ear­ly-July. Wear polar­ized glass­es if you have them and watch for dark red kings in the rif­fles and deep­er holes. A very lim­it­ed fish­ing sea­son is avail­able on these streams dur­ing the ear­ly sum­mer for both salmon and steelhead.

Spring fish­ery.

ATV Trail from Tanana Lp Rd

On the north side of the bridge is a turn out with good access to Cari­bou Creek Bridge. It’s a good spot to stretch your legs, let the kids skip rocks, or con­tem­plate flow. As Thore­au said ​“He who hears the rip­pling of rivers utter­ly despairs of noth­ing!” If you’re a riv­er run­ner, this is the launch for the Lion’s Head white­wa­ter run. Class III and Class IV water awaits, and you can run this with Nova Guides.

W on D st, right on Loop Rd, st on Route Bravo

.5 miles north of road

This is the largest lake you will see on the Demp­ster High­way. It was named for Ernest Chap­man, a trad­er, trap­per and prospec­tor. There are many oth­er small­er lakes in the vicin­i­ty and togeth­er they sup­port a vari­ety of water­fowl and shorebirds.

Walk in pub­lic fish­ing access to Sil­ver Lake and Van Lake; you’ll find won­der­ful scenery and good rain­bow trout fish­ing in both lakes.

When sil­ver salmon are run­ning up Mon­tana Creek by the thou­sands, fish­er­men are run­ning up the Parks High­way by the hun­dreds to go ​“com­bat fish­ing.” They stand elbow to elbow along the creek, cast­ing their lines and catch­ing every­thing from fish to coat sleeves. Up and down the creek, you can hear peo­ple holler ​“Fish on!”

The Susit­na Riv­er is a major drainage sys­tem in the Denali region. The riv­er flows south from the Susit­na Glac­i­er and the Alas­ka Range and even­tu­al­ly turns west to flow through the Tal­keet­na Moun­tains and then south to Cook Inlet. The Susit­na is not float­able because of Devil’s Canyon down­stream. Access to the his­toric Valdez Creek Mine is on the east side of the Susit­na Riv­er. The mine is now closed and the land is being reclaimed.

The Nick Dudi­ak Fish­ing Lagoon (aka The Fish­ing Hole) is a pop­u­lar park with both locals and vis­i­tors. The lagoon is stocked with fry that grow up to pro­vide sport fish­ing. The fish­ing hole has a hand­i­capped acces­si­ble plat­form and ramp. King salmon return mid-May to ear­ly July fol­lowed by an ear­ly run of sil­vers mid-July to ear­ly August and a late run ear­ly August to mid-September.

A great place for a pic­nic, and an excel­lent place to fish for arc­tic grayling and arc­tic char. Don’t for­get your bug dope!

A two-hour kayak ride up Mitchell Bay toward Has­sel­borg Lake takes you through a serene, pris­tine wilder­ness. You’ll share the area with water birds, eagles, salmon and of course, brown bear. Portage at a U.S. For­est Ser­vice cab­ins to stay awhile and take in more of the incred­i­ble Ton­gass Nation­al Forest.

A good dirt road, with plen­ty of pull-outs, leaves the main high­way on the south side of the road. The ​“Alas­com Road” runs four miles across the val­ley floor. There are sev­er­al lakes, stocked with trout and grayling, for fish­er­men, and plen­ty of camp­ing spots. It’s qui­et, and there’s great canoe­ing and bird watch­ing on the lakes. It’s a pop­u­lar week­end des­ti­na­tion for Anchor­age folks, so you might not be alone. And in the fall, you’ll see…  ...more

Whether you’re look­ing for a camp­site or fish­ing hole, glass­ing for birds, watch­ing for bears, or beach­comb­ing, this recre­ation site is a great spot to expe­ri­ence the won­ders of Kodi­ak Island with­out trav­el­ing too far.

Avoid the crowds and explore a local favorite. This 6.2‑mile out-and-back trail, locat­ed in Wil­low, Alas­ka, takes trav­el­ers on a wind­ing jour­ney along bore­al for­est floor. The pay­off is at the turn­around point, which fea­tures views of Red Shirt Lake’s shore­line. At the lake, fish for north­ern pike and keep an ear out for loons, which fre­quent the area.

A beau­ti­ful, 2‑mile-long lake that’s a pop­u­lar place to come for activ­i­ties year-round. In sum­mer, you’ll find kayak­ers, canoers, and pad­dle board­ers, as well as the Kenai Cruis­ers Row­ing Club, which uses the lake for dai­ly prac­tices and a year­ly row­ing regatta.

Kincaid/​Pt. Cam­bell Park

Stop at Long Lake, at mile 45.2, to see a pop­u­lar spot for sock­eye salmon to spawn. Every year, 18,000 sock­eye salmon swim up the Chiti­na and Cop­per Rivers to spawn in Long Lake. This is a very unique run, salmon begin enter­ing the lake as late as Sep­tem­ber and spawn until April. 

W on D st., right on Loop Rd, left on Otter Lake Rd

This is a great spot to fish for Dol­ly Var­den begin­ning in August.

Mile­post 17.7, Seward High­wayKe­nai Lake offered a flat tree­less path to trav­el in win­ter. This trail was one of two over­land routes to Sun­rise and Hope. (The oth­er over­land route was through Portage Pass.) Min­ers trav­eled by dogsled from Seward to Snow Riv­er and on to Kenai Lake. At the oth­er end of the 17 mile lake, trav­el­ers would fol­low Quartz Creek north through Tur­na­gain Pass along Canyon Creek to the gold rush towns of Sun­rise and Hope.  ...more

Small pull-off, short hike down to out­let; sum­mer fishery

The trail is half a mile long and takes you through a mature birch for­est that is car­pet­ed with dev­il’s club and water­mel­on berry plants. It’s an easy walk­ing, ide­al for small chil­dren, and ends at a small camp­ing area on a slight bluff that over­looks Bish­op’s Beach and Bish­op Creek.

³⁄₄ miles south of the highway.

Anoth­er qui­et lit­tle way­side sport­ing toi­lets and great fish­ing for Arc­tic char.

Stretch your legs at this pic­turesque stream and per­haps drop in a line. At Dav­es Creek you’ll find good fish­ing for dol­ly var­den and rain­bow trout. Salmon can be seen spawn­ing here in mid-July through September.

Locat­ed towards the head of Tut­ka Bay on the north side is Tut­ka Bay Falls. The beach in front of the falls is a good spot for clam dig­ging, pink salmon fish­ing and just loung­ing around. Explore along the trail that par­al­lels the water­fall and take a back­coun­try show­er in one of the pools. Be cour­te­ous of pri­vate prop­er­ty in this area.

Lake Clark boasts some incred­i­ble fish­ing — whether fight­ing Dol­ly Var­den on a fly rod in the Chi­likadrot­na Riv­er or toss­ing a line into Upper Twin Lake in search of Grayling, Lake Clark’s boun­ti­ful lakes and many rivers mean you are nev­er far from excel­lent fish­ing. Guid­ing fish­ing is avail­able at sev­er­al of the lodges in Lake Clark.

Creek Par­al­lels road & offers excel­lent fishing.

North Side of Road, Lake & out­let excel­lent for large grayling.

Cast your line for some rain­bow trout, or maybe a sil­ver salmon. Here you’ll find pub­lic fish­ing access. A short walk on the .3 mile trail north to Strel­na Lake puts you in the right sport for some angling.

This is one spot you don’t want to miss. July through Sep­tem­ber you’ll wit­ness a spec­tac­u­lar run of Sil­ver Salmon. Fish­er­men from all over the world come into Alas­ka to cast a line here. There will be hun­dreds of peo­ple com­ing and going from Bird Creek on any giv­en day. In their hands will be the days boun­ty; a nice big sil­ver salmon that is deli­cious when smoked and even bet­ter when grilled and coat­ed with lemon and a hon­ey mus­tard glaze.…  ...more

Although this can be a busy spot, it is a lot less con­gest­ed than the Homer Spit. Things to do here include: tak­ing small day hikes, pad­dling in the lagoon, camp­ing, stay­ing at one of the three near­by pub­lic use cab­ins, and the most pop­u­lar, fish­ing for Kings dur­ing the month of June.

These pop­u­lar trails lead to two beau­ti­ful, pris­tine lakes. Even bet­ter, they’re both easy hikes, which makes them per­fect for peo­ple of all ages. Bring a fish­ing pole and angle for stocked trout in Merid­i­an Lake or grayling in Grayling Lake.

A favorite local spot for fish­ing on the Pasagshak River.

Ever gone ice fish­ing? Cari­bou lake is a great place to enjoy this cold and unique expe­ri­ence. You can spend a qui­et day to your­self, fish­ing for Dol­ly Var­den and Koka­nee. Or if you’re feel­ing more com­pet­i­tive, you can par­tic­i­pate in the Sno­mad’s (Home­r’s snow machine club) annu­al ice fish­ing con­test. (Either way, dress in warm lay­ers and be pre­pared to sit or stand in the cold!)

This riv­er flows past a prim­i­tive camp­site (first-come basis, free) and emp­ties into the bay. Only three miles long, the riv­er is fed by Lake Rose Tead, which is a prime spawn­ing area for sock­eye salmon. The riv­er also has runs of pink, chum, and sil­ver salmon, as well as Dol­ly Var­den. Fly fish­er­men love the chal­lenge of fish­ing in the tidal­ly-influ­enced low­er stretch of the riv­er; but spin­ner or fly cast­er, you’ll find good game in this…  ...more

W on D st., right on Loop Rd, left on Otter Lake Rd

If you like to fish for Sil­vers and Kings with a bob­ber and eggs, Ship Creek’s mouth is a great option. Though you may have to deal with a lit­tle bit more mud along the banks, bring a pack­able chair, and once you’re about 100 meters north of the road, you can claim a grassy area to set­tle in.

Pull-off present. ¹⁄₄ mile trail

Pull-off’s present; best fish­ing at outlet.

This fish-filled creek rush­es out from Far North Bicen­ten­ni­al Park and through the cen­ter of town. Cast for rain­bow trout, Dol­ly Var­den, or sil­ver salmon-all with­in walk­ing dis­tance of your car. Throw on a pair of hip-waders and head up the creek or angle from the shore­line trail. Direc­tions: Park at one of the lots on Camp­bell Airstrip Rd. to access the creek from Far North Bicen­ten­ni­al Park, or head west on 76^th off of Old Seward to King…  ...more

This hand­i­cap acces­si­ble dock is a per­fect spot to spend time cast­ing for local species.

This qui­et lit­tle pull­out is next to a small bab­bling brook filled with Dol­ly Var­den and Arc­tic Grayling. Dur­ing win­ter, the thick cov­er of wil­low along the riv­er is an impor­tant con­cen­tra­tion and feed­ing area for wil­low ptarmigan.

Short hike down steep hill to South; Sum­mer Fishery.

The trail along Hamil­ton Creek is busiest around 5 in the morn­ing, as savvy anglers know that’s when the fish are bit­ing! The trail is about 2 miles round-trip, but you can fol­low the creek for miles, fish­ing and pic­nick­ing along the way. You will be shar­ing the expe­ri­ence with bears, so secure your snacks, and any fish you catch.

Good fish­ing site. Kodi­ak Island Sports­men Asso­ci­a­tion Fir­ing Range.

SE on N Eagle Riv­er, SE on Eagle

Spring fish­ery & BLM Campground.

¹⁄₄ mile west of the highway.

Enjoy the beau­ty and scenery of the turquoise Kenai Riv­er by strolling one of the 10 (or all!) board­walks along the banks. If you’re here to fish, you can do that from the ele­vat­ed fish plat­forms, or bring hip waders and use one of the 53 stair­ways to walk down to the riv­er and cast your line while stand­ing in the water.

This easy trail winds along the banks of three lakes. There is a camp­ing area on the side of the trail. The trail climbs a sad­dle and drops down into the val­ley. It can be dan­ger­ous to cross the rivers, as they are glac­i­er-fed and you can­not see the bot­tom. The rivers are low­er dur­ing the begin­ning of the year, but they are also colder.

Look for sub­sis­tence fish­ing camps on the north side of the Macken­zie Riv­er. Many of the local indige­nous peo­ple tra­di­tion­al­ly move into fish camps dur­ing the sum­mer to har­vest the boun­ti­ful runs of fish to feed them­selves and their dog teams through the winter.

At mile 10.7 McCarthy Road, there is foot access to Sil­ver Lake where you can enjoy a relax­ing after­noon fish­ing for trout.

The Lake is .5 miles south.

This Alas­ka State Fish and Game stocked lake pro­vides a qui­et and pic­turesque lit­tle stop for the fish­er­man or camper. There’s a good chance you’ll have the lake to yourself.

This is a pop­u­lar boat launch for drift boaters fish­ing for king salmon. The Kasilof Riv­er red salmon dip­net fish­ery is here, but only open to Alas­ka res­i­dents. It’s worth a look if you’ve nev­er seen dip­net­ters in action before. There are 16 camp­sites, water, tables, toi­lets, hik­ing trails, a boat launch and fishing.

This con­flu­ence is one of the most pop­u­lar fish­eries in South Cen­tral Alas­ka. Locat­ed about 60 miles north of Anchor­age on the Parks High­way, it offers excel­lent fish­ing for four of the major salmon species: kings, sil­vers, chums and pinks. It also fea­tures big rain­bows (up to 30 inch­es) and Dol­ly Var­den, as well as Arc­tic Grayling. You’ll also find, in small num­bers, bur­bot and whitefish.

One of the eas­i­est beach­es to access from town, this park has a nice over­look and excel­lent water­front with pic­nic sites. In late July through Sep­tem­ber, you can fish from the beach for sil­ver and pink salmon. Bird­ing is good year round, but it’s espe­cial­ly great dur­ing the winter.