Chrome Bright Salmon "Tidewater"

Katmai Lodge is situated less then a mile from tidewater. All of our salmon fishing is done within 2 or 3 miles of the lodge both up and down the river. 75% of our salmon have been in the river 48 hours or less, which makes spectacular chrome bright salmon fishing. The Alagnak is by far one of the best rivers for Salmon fishing in the state of Alaska due to our huge runs of all five species of Pacific Salmon. Currently we have the largest Sockeye Salmon runs in the Bristol Bay Region. The Alagnak is very shallow in comparison to most rivers, its average depth is 3 to 8 feet, this makes it very conducive to fly fishing and very easy to present your fly or lure to the Salmon unlike other rivers.

King/Chinook Salmon

The last week of June, large schools of King Salmon start to arrive in the river. These salmon average 30 to 40 pounds with monsters in the 70's caught each season. Once again, the fierce battle between man and beast test the limits of anglers muscles and equipment. An angler using a fly rod or gear rod can catch between 10 and 20 chrome bright Chinook each day throughout the Alagnak system. Four of the five salmon species that come into the Alagnak spawn within two miles below and forty-five miles above the lodge.

Whether you use a fly rod or a gear rod, fishing for the Kings is Superb! These very aggressive fish readily attack big streamer flies or bright colored plugs. Most days gear fishermen are able to land twice as many of these huge fish as the fly fishermen. Your guide will make sure you are well prepared to do battle with these fish using any technique you desire.

Silver/Coho Salmon

Silver salmon come in the Alagnak in August. These aggressive chrome bright bullets are fresh out of the ocean and looking for a fight. They are very willing players in the fly or spinning world.

The Coho of the Alagnak run from ten to fifteen pounds, even up to twenty. Once hooked, hang on! They spend half of the battle out of the water tail-walking and jumping and that’s only the first thirty seconds! These fish are the most acrobatic of all the species of pacific salmon.

 

 

 

 

Chum Salmon

Hang on, the beast has arrived! Weighing in up to twenty-five pounds and as mean as a junk yard dog! If you haven't tried fishing for this salmon with a dry fly (wog), you haven't fished Chums yet. They will follow a wog for thirty, forty, fifty feet or more, looking like an alligator mouth opening and closing behind the fly as you wake it across the surface. Just as you begin to relax a little at seeing this, the tug of war begins.

We have two runs of Chum in the Alagnak. The first run comes in the first of July and the second run comes in the first of August. The size of our Chum run seems to be increasing every year. Anglers can catch thirty to fifty fish a day on flies or spinning gear.

Sockeye/Red Salmon

Sockeye salmon start in the Alagnak the last week of June. These fish average from five to ten pounds and each angler can catch fifty to seventy-five per day, they are a great fly rod fish. The Alagnak gets between one and a half to two million of these chrome bright rockets each season. These fish hug the gravel bars in a foot and a half to three feet of water as they march their way up stream.

Having to endure hundreds of fish a minute swimming past you in crystal clear water is a sight and experience to behold! These fish are a very intricate part of the Bristol Bay ecosystem. They are the major food source for all the resident fish populations in the rivers. Standing ankle deep in crystal clear water, making a cast and having it answered with a series of a dozen three and four foot jumps is amazing! They jump, flip and spin all at what seems to be a hundred miles an hour. It is said if you hooked a ten-pound Sockeye and a fifteen-pound Steelhead, tail to tail, the Sockeye would drag the Steelhead upstream and drown it.

Humpy/Pink Salmon

 

On even numbered years, we have an invasion of an additional two million salmon. Humpies are who anglers are talking about when you hear "I caught a fish every cast." These fish are very popular with families and young adults because there is constant action.

Humpies average 5 to 10 pounds, you can catch them on a fly or a jig. Pink is their color of choice, throw anything in that is pink and hang on, a fish will be there momentarily!

 

 

 

 

Each guide is assigned a beat which is the area he fishes his clients. Beats ensure that no one part of the river has too much pressure and allows an angler to fish all day, often without seeing another angler the entire time.

To see some of the great fish fight action at Katmai Lodge, go to the video page and watch as fish after fish is caught.