Alaska Fishing Report – Fantastic Chum, Silver & Rainbow fishing to end the season!

​The month of August got underway with hordes of bright chrome chum salmon arriving on the tides daily still with some silver salmon in the mix right on schedule but definitely not a lot of them in our first week. Many rods were broken while fighting these huge chrome Calico salmon on the fly and conditions were setting up to be perfect with very normal or average temperatures for a nice change.

At the end of our 6th week, it was becoming very apparent that we might be on the verge of a great silver salmon run. On the last day of our 6th week, I had a 12 year old and his father down in the lowest portion of the river we fish. Both were novice fly anglers at the start of the week but by weeks end, they were literally doubling up on silvers and just having the time of their lives. With rain and wind in the forecast to start our 7th week, I knew we might experience what we call a “silver tsunami”. Well, yes, we sure did get that tsunami, and with all the silvers that were coming in the river, were even more bright chum salmon, although it was apparent that they were finally starting to slow down. The silvers were everywhere and fishing drift boat style was just a blast! We were having days on the fly for silvers that were as good as this river ever gets!

We experienced a “Silver Tsunami” with guests literally doubling up on silvers and just having the time of their lives!

​The silvers continued to come through in hordes through our 9th week and even into our 10th week with double digit silvers per rod in the lower river. The only slower days during August was when we had bright sun and a brief warm up to the river temp, but even on these days, catching silvers was still not a problem. Our first week of September did show a little bit of a slow down, but in my opinion, was just right with silvers being caught during the whole day both by wading and drifting.
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Fishing the Alagnak River braids in August was just incredible. We were fishing the braids 6 out of 7 days a week drifting and wading for the ever powerful Alagnak River leopard bows. The trout cycle in the braids is just incredible right now. Our incredible chum and king salmon run in July was fueling these beasts with salmon eggs for their winter holdover as salmon were spawning in mass and the “egg drop” was on for weeks, and is still going on as I type this report in mid September! Guests of Angler's Alibi were averaging close to 100 rainbows per trip and several were in the high teens to low 20″ range, just an incredible month!

Fly-out fishing day trips to Morain Creek and Brooks later in the month of August and early September had our guests coming off the plane with big smiles. I was getting quotes like: “this is the most amazing trout fishing I have ever experienced” and “can trout fishing possibly get any better than this?” (read testimonials at our Trip Advisor page)

Yes, we literally caught hundreds of rainbows spread out over 5 fly-outs and all were amazingly strong fish. Even a smaller 16″ rainbow would break off 2X tippet immediately if it were not able to run on the drag alone. It was hard for some of the guests to break the habit of setting the hook like would in the lower 48 with a tight line under the stripping finger. These rainbows are just so strong for their size, and as one guest put it, “you have to feel their power to believe it”. Words cannot describe the hook ups on these trout as they immediately went airborne and ran off the fly line into the backing some times in seconds flat! Just an awesome month for sure!

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Beautiful Leopard Rainbow Trout Caught in Alaska

About the Author

​John Perry grew up in Michigan on an island called Grosse Ile, in the mouth of the Detroit River and Lake Erie. It was here, surrounded by great fishing and waterfowl hunting that John developed a passion for the outdoors. John moved to Colorado to chase trout in the summers and ski patrol in the winters. John had the privilege to start guiding for Angler’s Alibi with his fly fishing mentor TR Rafferty the second year it was in business. He left a head guide job in Colorado to pursue bigger and better fish.