Silver salmon run 2014, Alagnak River Alaska

The silver salmon run of 2014 on the Alagnak River in remote Bristol Bay Alaska was somehow even better than the previous season.  The Alagnak River saw a little push of silvers during the fourth week of July, but the run exploded again starting August 1st and lasted well beyond our shut down week into the month of September!

Happy Alaska fly fishing customers were greeted with huge numbers of silver salmon willing to grab flies on the strip, on the swing, and even on the topwater chug of a true Alaska wog!  What, a wog you say?  Yes, a wog.  This is a topwater pink mouse pattern or pink popper that is aggressively taken by eager silver salmon as they hold along the banks of the Alagnak River or in holding water referred to as “Frog water” by true Alaskans.  There are few sights in an Alaska fly fishing trip that can compete with a silver salmon coming unglued attacking a top water wog!  The guides at Angler’s Alibi can all agree that even though salmon are not supposed to be feeding once they enter fresh water, they sure do hit, and often take the wog deep as if they were trying to eat it for sure!  We prefer to use the popper version over the deer haired type just for this reason.  In order to withstand several strikes and landing an arm aching amount of silver salmon, anglers do not have to worry about the wog starting to sink in the popper version as they would if fishing the deer hair type.  Do not get me wrong, there were many more silvers landed on sub surface patterns that were stripped or even swung, but the enjoyment while seeing the take on top was well worth the sacrifice of sheer numbers.

At the time of writing this post, there still remains some choice spots during August, but I find it hard to believe that these spots will last much longer with the Alagnak River silver salmon run as strong as it is.  We have added another week, week 9, and it is full.  There are still some spots in our 8th week, and one spot still remains in week 7.  I hope that if anyone reading this that wants to experience Alaska fly fishing at its finest, they would consider giving Angler’s Alibi a shot in 2015!​

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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.