Alaska Rainbow Trout Fishing Spots

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.

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.

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

ATV Trail from Tanana Lp Rd

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.

Mir­ror Lake is a beau­ti­ful spot to relax, play, and pad­dle. Just off the Glenn High­way in the town of Chugiak, about 25 miles north of Anchorage.

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 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 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.

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.

There are rain­bow trout and dol­ly var­den in Eklut­na Lake. Check with Alas­ka Depart­ment of Fish and Game for regulations.

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

Beach Lake is a local gem locat­ed in the Eagle River/​Chugiak area, 20 miles north of Anchor­age. Enjoy a qui­et, uncrowd­ed view of the Chugach Mountains.

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.

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.

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

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

Good spot to fish for rain­bow trout.

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

Kincaid/​Pt. Cam­bell Park

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

SE on N Eagle Riv­er, SE on Eagle

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

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.

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!”

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