The Top 5 Places to Go Fishing in Alaska

The sheer size and varying landscape of Alaska offers many different places to schedule your Alaskan Fishing Trip. You can try your luck fishing the high seas for Halibut, fly-in to a remote location for fly-fishing, or even just bait fish at a fishing hole outside of Anchorage. The one thing all of these places have in common, however, is that you will never get another experience like it anywhere else in the world. The size and amount of fish, coupled with a spectacular landscape teeming with wildlife makes fishing in Alaska a once in a lifetime experience. These are five of the best destinations to consider when planning your Alaskan fishing trip.

Bristol bay is 250 miles long and 180 miles wide, sandwiched between mainland Alaska and the Alaskan Peninsula.  This place, with several rivers and streams entering into it, is home to the largest salmon run in the world.  You can catch chum, silver, and king salmon, but most everyone comes to Bristol Bay for the legendary sockeye salmon fishing.  Bristol Bay is the largest fishery for the tasty sockeye in the world.  If your arms end up getting tired from fighting enormous salmon all day, try fishing the many streams in the area for rainbows, arctic char, and grayling.

The size and amount of fish in the Kenai river is simply outstanding. The river is on the Kenai Peninsula and runs 132 miles from Kenai Lake before it empties into the Cook Inlet. There are two runs of king, silver, silver, and red salmon each summer and a run of pink salmon every other year. This is one of the only places where you can guarantee that the river is going to be full of running salmon itching for a fight. There aren’t just a lot of fish, there’s big fish too. The world record king salmon, weighing in at 97 pounds, was caught in the Kenai River in 1985 right next to the Soldonta visitor's center. However, all these fish also attract lots of other fisherman and you might end up bumping elbows with some of them. Luckily, there's a lot of fishing lodges in Kenai. If you want a more isolated experience, come here in the fall when you can stalk the river by yourself for monster rainbow trout.

Kodiak Island, home to the legendary bear, is 100 miles long and between 10 and 60 miles wide.  The Karluk River, as well as several other streams on the island, has great fishing for both trout and salmon.  However, the main attraction of Kodiak Island is the road system, which allows people to navigate the backcountry for the perfect secluded fishing hole, which in most cases is only a few feet from the main road.

The 300 miles of the Copper River makes for some of the best salmon fishing in Alaska. During the summer months, over 2 million salmon navigate these waters to find their spawning grounds.  There are also many other species of fish in the river.  Fishing for pike is particularly good in the Copper River area.

Sitka, Alaska is home to some of the best saltwater fishing in the world.  The king salmon in the ocean just outside of Sitka have an average weight of 20 to 70 pounds, making it a great location for anyone looking for saltwater salmon fishing.  Hard fighting silver salmon are also here in large numbers.  Many anglers come here exclusively for the silver salmon because of their fighting abilities and the bigger bag limits.  Halibut are also abundant and average 50 to 70 pounds in size.

Sitka is more than just fishing however.  The town is in southern Alaska, giving it a much more mild climate than the rest of the state.  The area around the town is also spotted with thousands of islands, streams, and bays, ensuring you never fish the same area twice. Wildlife is also abundant in the area, and if you’re lucky you might be able to see whales, eagles, otters, porpoises, and many other animals.