King salmon fishing trips to Alaska can be some of the best, most rewarding experiences a fisher can have, but they’re also challenging. King salmon are one of the toughest types of fish in Alaska you can catch, after all. Here are a few tips to help.
Use a Guide. – You may be an expert fisher, but you still need to use a fishing guide, no matter what you think. Though you may want to limit your expenses, it’s well worth your money to hire a fishing guide. According to stats form Alaska’s State Department of Fish and Games, an unguided angler will spend almost 40 hours king salmon fishing before they can even hook one — let alone reel it in. Why waste your time, when you can just as easily hire a guide?
Go at the Right Time. – There’s not a right time to go king salmon fishing, and a wrong time to go, but there are better times of the year. Throughout the general majority of the year, the only actual way you can catch a king salmon is to troll deep water, but when the fall migration is on, you can catch them in rivers and tributaries fright from the riverbank. This run usually happens between august and November.
Have the Right Gear. – As previously mentioned, king salmon aren’t easy to catch. They’re big suckers, and so you need to have the right gear to catch them. When you go, bring medium to heavy salmon rods, and some sturdy spinning reels spooled with 30-pound monofilament. Spinning reels are usually best for catching salmon, because they allow you to cast farther with a heavy line.
King salmon fishing trips in Alaska are certainly challenging, but isn’t anything worth doing tough? If you have any questions, or know of any other tips, feel free to share in the comments.
