Alaska.com: Alaska's Travel Website

Thank God Alaska basks in so much daylight from May to September -- the better to see all the fish available to anglers in a state that can be a paradise for anglers.

Want size? Halibut between 40-80 pounds can stuff a freezer with tasty filets, and Southcentral Alaska's biggest fish of the summer typically weighs more than 300 pounds.

Want feistiness? Gorgeous rainbow trout on the upper Kenai River regularly top 5 pounds and provide a memorable fishing excursion in a beautiful setting. Plenty of other streams north of Anchorage and in the Bristol Bay region are noted for big rainbows too.

Want a heart-throbbing kickoff to the season? Huge king salmon start moving into the Kenai River in May -- that's the month the world record fish of 97 pounds was landed -- with another surge of big kings arriving in July.

Want beauty? Arguably, no fish can outshine the grayling with its spectacular dorsal fin. Grayling won't break any scales -- the world record of about 5 pounds was landed three years ago in northwest Alaska. But the fact that they'll often take a dry fly endears them to anglers.

Any angler fishing Alaska between May and October faces an array of choices that greatly influence the odds of success.

Fish alone, on a charter boat or with a guide?

Fish along the road system or fly in to someplace more remote?

Fish for meat or fish for the beauty of the experience in a memorable setting?

After about six months of winter, Alaskans are anxious to wet a line once May rolls around. Halibut and rockfish limits are regularly landed then by charters out of such ports as Seward, Homer, Whittier and Valdez.

As soon as the ice is off the lakes, trout, Dolly Varden, grayling and landlocked salmon start chowing down, looking to make up for their long, chilly winter short rations. And brawny king salmon move into Cook Inlet, with the forerunners nosing into rivers on Kodiak and the Kenai Peninsula.

For many fishermen, the long Memorial Day weekend is the kickoff to king salmon season, with thousands camping out and casting into such waterways as Deep Creek, the Anchor and Ninilchik rivers.

By June and July, anglers' choices are rapidly improving. Strong and acrobatic red salmon are returning to many rivers, with the popular Russian River, a Kenai tributary, attracting throngs of anglers. Fishermen who flew north to escape crowded Lower 48 waters may be shocked at the elbow-to-elbow crowds, but many of those anglers leave with fish.

In August, silver salmon move in and even after a summer of fishing, they're not to be missed. Prone to jump and rip off yards of line, silvers are a hoot to catch and make nearly as memorable a dinner. An autumn river float for silver salmon can turn into the fishing trip of a lifetime on a sunny day when the leaves are bronze and scarlet.

September, of course, is the beginning of football season. And hunting season. Translation: less company on Alaska's rivers and streams. An added bonus is that this is the time of year rainbow trout and Dolly Varden are fattening up for winter and may be more prone than ever to sample your offering.

In Alaska you can fish for fun, for food, for companionship -- even for profit.

An array of fishing derbies from tiny towns to the biggest cities populate the summer calendar. None pays more than the Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby, which earned Fairbanks angler Jamie Olvera $40,610 for her 278-pound flatfish last year.