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Red salmon (sockeye)
Flavorful fish puts casting skill to the test
Alaska.com
Alaskans love to eat red salmon, but the red (or sockeye) is the hardest of the state's five species of salmon to catch.
Description
Reds (Onchorhynchus nerka) lack the large black spots found on king, silver and pink salmon.
Breeding males develop a humped back and long, hooked jaws filled with sharp, doglike teeth. Both sexes turn brilliant to dark red on the back and sides, pale to olive green on the head and upper jaw and white on the lower jaw. Other names for red salmon are sockeye and blueback.
Sockeye flesh is the reddest of the salmon fleshes.
Alaska record
16 pounds, caught in 1974 in the Kenai River by Chuck Leach.
Tips for fishing
Anglers catch reds in clear water by putting a fly or lure right in front of the fish.
The state's biggest runs are in the summer in Bristol Bay and Chignik Lagoon of southwestern Alaska and Southcentral's Cook Inlet (notably the Russian River, a tributary to the Kenai River), Prince William Sound and the Copper River.
Best time to fish
Southcentral Alaska
- Anchorage, Palmer and Wasilla areas -- July, August
- Susitna, Talkeetna and rivers flowing into western Cook Inlet -- July, August
- Kenai Peninsula / Cook Inlet -- / July, August
- Kenai Peninsula rivers -- June, July
- Resurrection Bay -- July, August
- Prince William Sound -- July, August
- Prince William Sound streams / Copper River basin / Upper Susitna basin -- June, July August
Inside Passage
- Inside Passage offshore, north of Stikine River -- July
- Inside Passage offshore, south of Stikine River -- July, August
- Inside Passage streams, north of Stikine River -- July
- Inside Passage streams, south of Stikine River -- July, August
Western, Interior and Northern Alaska
- Bristol Bay and Kodiak offshore -- June, July
- Bristol Bay streams and Kodiak -- June, July
Sources of information include the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
More on this topic
 Silver salmon (coho)
Pink salmon (humpback)
Chum salmon (dog)
Rainbow trout
Steelhead trout
Cutthroat trout
Brook trout
Dolly Varden
Arctic char
Arctic grayling
Northern pike
Lake trout
Sheefish
Whitefish
Burbot
Halibut
Lingcod
Salmon sharks
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