INFO - Summertime and the Fishin’s Easy
Mixed bag of silver salmon, king salmon, pink salmon and halibut
Summer - most people come to Alaska between June 15th and August 15th with many good reasons. In case you are unaware of the reasons here they are.
Summer is when the weather is warmest in Alaska.
It’s when most species of salmon are spawning and available to catch either in the river or in the salt.
It’s when most people can take a week or more off to come visit Alaska.
It’s when most tour operators are open. Over 95% of fishing charters in Alaska only operate from Memorial Day to Labor Day as well as many hotels, lodges, restaurants, RV rentals, parks and recreation areas.
Weather tends to be calm on average.
Thats when people have always come, they had a good experience so they come back around the same time.
Summer fishing in Alaska speaks for itself if you have been here and seen it when its great. The sun stays up from around 3:30am until midnight-ish in late June never truly getting dark which is part of the reason the marine environment is SO Productive here. Near constant sunlight + glaciers pushing minerals and nutrients out of the land into the oceans+ massive tides creates a very ROBUST base to the food chain. Check out this satellite photo of a phytoplankton bloom in the gulf of Alaska and notice how Southern Cook Inlet is ground zero for mixing.
Phytoplankton feeds the Zooplankton which feeds the Amphipods which feeds the krill and juvenile salmon, halibut, cod, sandlance and the herring which feeds mature halibut, salmon, rockfish, lingcod, puffins, aucklets, murres, sealions, humpback whales, fin whales etc….
The only real way to understand this grand natural event is to experience it for yourself. This “bloom” tends to peak around the 3 weeks after summer solstice (June 21st)
When things come together during summer fishing can be amazing. The main variables outside of time of year are….
Weather - Highly variable. summer is typically calm but strong southwesterly winds can come in with high pressure and make for rough days or even trip cancelations. (Usually cancel 1-4trips each year)
Tide (I prefer bigger tides as long as the weather is good but the photo to the right is of a catch on July 12th 2019 and the tide was 16ft small to medium in size for the area.
If you have high hopes of catching many different fish in Alaska, or seeing the greatest number of marine critters, or Alaska at her greenest or stopping by all the good parties, Alaskan summer is when you should come. Best time for first time visitors.
