Alaska Trout Fishing - Dolly Varden and Rainbow Trout

Alaska Trout Fishing


Click Here for our Fall Trophy Alaska Trout Fishing Trips


Alaska Rainbow Trout Fishing

For peak Rainbow trout fishing in Alaska come anytime from mid August through the end of September. There are a lot of great options but the best of them are rivers that have huge red runs - the Kenai and Bristol Bay drainages like the Alagnak, Tikchik or Kvichak for those truly big bows.

You can come to the lodge here in Cooper Landing for the Kenai fishery and our wilderness float fishing trips give us access to the Bristol Bay rivers.

The Kenai is easy to access by car from Anchorage so weekends tend to be busy - plan to fish mid week for the best results. If you are planning a multi day trip we can show you several sections of the river so you can fish new waters each day, each with its own special character.

The Upper Kenai flows through the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and is closed to motors ... only 20 of us get to guide trips on this part of the river so it is a special place. Those of us with permits are all limited to no more than 10 starts per week so be sure to plan ahead if you want to fish here.

The Canyon is the last several miles of the Upper River and has both some fun rapids and some of the best holding water for big rainbows. This part of the river means crossing Skilak Lake at the end of the fishing day so it is weather dependent.

The Middle River starts in the Wildlife Refuge but leaves it after 5 miles. This part is open to motors so has easy access from a variety of put-ins. Drift boats still account for a lot of the boats on the waters here - most with outboard kickers to allow making several passes through the best holes. Much of the fishing is done from the boat since the river is larger below the lake and the shoreline is less hospitable to casting. Despite these factors, the Middle has some of the biggest trout in the system and can provide some spectacular memories.

 

Click Here for our Fall Trophy Trout Fishing Trips



If you are bringing your own gear, bring at least a 7 weight and be able to land big fish without tiring them excessively. To make roll casting and mending easier, we recommend a 9'6" or 10' rod. If you don't have one, you can use one of ours.

(Or, if you prefer, we will confirm to your spouse that you need to buy a new rod.)

If you are using your own rod, spool up a large arbor reel with an excellent drag system - we use Ross, Abel and Sage for the most part but there are lots of great choices. A weight forward floating line is the best all around choice - Wulff Triangle Taper and Rio Indicator lines are great choices. I suggest overlining by one or two line sizes.

In most rivers any one of these Alaska Rainbow Trout would be a hog. Imagine fishing where you could hit 3 fish like this at one time!


 Boy - do the Rainbows get fat in the fall!

Click Here for our Fall Trophy Trout Fishing Trips

Alaska Dolly Varden Fishing

Dolly Varden are members of the char family like brook trout, lake trout and of course, arctic char.  Most Alaskan river systems have both resident and sea run dollies. The sea runs head for the ocean in mid June and we see them back in the river as the second run of red salmon are well into their run. 

Dollies are unique in that they are not 100% loyal to their birth river. Some of them will leave one river system in early summer and return to an entirely different area – there are documented cases of fish from Alaska entering rivers in Siberia and vice versa. In the Goodnews River, biologists captured Dolly Varden and implanted several fish with radio transmitters. The radio-tagged fish were tracked aerially throughout the year. Dollies tagged in the Goodnews River have been recaptured in the Aniak, Kulukak and north of the Yukon River.

The Goodnews and Kenai are ideal systems for dollies with lots of food and we see Dollies from young resident fish at 6” to the rare sea run 'magnum' that can be over 30" long. The typical dolly is 18 - 28". Like the Rainbows they are targeting salmon eggs in the fall and fishing for one is fishing for both.

Dollies are fall spawners and make the transition from chrome-silver with light pink spots to colorful fish with deep green backs, orange bellies and fins and a pure white stripe on the leading edge of the lower fins. Truly beautiful. They overwinter in the lakes and feed aggressively in the spring before heading out the ocean.

The same rod(s) set up in the same style as for trout fishing will be perfect.

Click Here for our Fall Trophy Trout Fishing Trips

 

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Alaska River Adventures
PO Box 725 * Cooper Landing, AK 99572
Phone 907-595-2000 * Fax 907-595-3454