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Western Alaska fishing
As fish return to spawn, anglers score big with sockeye salmon and trout
Alaska.com
Fishing is legendary in Western Alaska -- big country where the largest salmon runs meet the largest bears.
State records of three species have been taken from the rich waters of the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak Island and the national wildlife refuges.
And the world's richest salmon fishery, Bristol Bay near Dillingham, floods dozens of rivers with red (sockeye) salmon. Forty million reds head for the lakes off Bristol Bay each June and July, and 80 percent of the country's reds are processed at canneries and on ships in the bay.
The summer really has two seasons. After the salmon spawn upriver and in lakes, they become useless as game fish. But anglers latch on to rainbow trout, which are fattening themselves on salmon eggs and smolt.
Top sportfish of Western Alaska
- King salmon (chinook)
- Red salmon (sockeye)
- Silver salmon (coho)
- Rainbow trout
- Steelhead trout
- Dolly Varden
- Arctic char
- Arctic grayling
- Northern pike
- Sheefish
- Whitefish
- Halibut
More on this topic

Kenai Peninsula fishing
Interior Alaska fishing
Southcentral Alaska fishing
Southeast Alaska fishing
Northern Alaska fishing
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