The first week of September is silver salmon week in Alaska. The coho are pouring into the Kenai and Kasilof, the Southeast rivers from Ketchikan to Sitka are full of bright fish, and the Prince William Sound and Kodiak runs are at or near peak. The halibut charters are still producing, and the earliest steelhead are showing in the Kodiak and Southeast streams. This is the last big push of the Alaska season, and it is a good one.
What’s Hitting
What’s hitting this week: silver salmon in the Kenai River from the mouth up to the Soldotna bridges, with the second run building and fish in the 8- to 14-pound class. The Kasilof and the Anchor River are producing too. In Southeast, the coho are in the Situk, the Naha, and the rivers around Sitka and Juneau, and the saltwater trollers are finding them off the points and kelp lines. Halibut are on the nearshore banks out of Homer, Seward, and Whittier, with the fish moving shallower as the water cools. Rainbow trout and Dolly Varden are gorging on salmon eggs behind the spawning fish on the Kenai and the Russian, and the first steelhead are in the Karluk on Kodiak and the Situk in Southeast.
Where to Find Them
Kenai silvers from the mouth up through the Soldotna area, and at the Kasilof lower river. Southeast coho off the points and in the river mouths around Sitka, Juneau, and Ketchikan. Halibut on the banks in Kachemak Bay out of Homer, on the outer Resurrection Bay grounds out of Seward, and in Prince William Sound out of Whittier. Trout and dollies on the upper Kenai and the Russian River confluence.
Tides & Conditions
Water temps in the rivers are cooling, which has the silvers moving in on every tide. River levels have been fishable with normal September rain. The high tides push fresh silvers into the rivers, and the lower rivers fish best on the incoming and the first of the outgoing. The saltwater has been calm enough for the halibut charters most days, with the fall storms starting to show in the long-range forecast.
Tackle & Tactics
Silvers take a bright spinner, a twitched jig, or salmon eggs under a float in the rivers, and a trolled herring or a hoochie in the salt. Halibut want a big circle hook with herring or salmon belly on a spreader bar, or a heavy jig on the shallower banks. Rainbows and dollies take a bead or an egg pattern drifted behind spawning salmon. Steelhead take a bead, an egg fly, or a small spinner.
Local Intel This Week
Public access: the Kenai River has public launches at Centennial Park and Swiftwater Park in Soldotna and at the Kenai city dock; Homer has the Homer Spit harbor ramp; Seward has the Seward Small Boat Harbor ramp; Whittier has the Whittier harbor ramp. Fish are concentrating in the lower rivers on the tides for silvers and on the nearshore banks for halibut. Alaska fishing regulations are set by area and change by emergency order — check current ADF&G regulations and emergency orders for the specific river or bay before keeping fish, and note that halibut charters operate under federal rules.
This Week’s Tip
Silvers in the lower Kenai will follow a lure but refuse to commit when the water is clear and the sun is high. Downsize the spinner, switch to a twitched jig with a slower fall, or fish the tide change when the fresh fish arrive — they are the ones that bite.
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