Posted on April 05 2012
If you read our blog or newsletter regularly, you know that we don’t tend to throw out outlandish claims too often. Yes, mixed with our steady stream of tips, reviews, and guest posts we’ll regularly make a pitch for our lodges – and we appreciate you putting up with that.
But we try to be pretty realistic when we talk about our fisheries. We’ll tell you that you should be really happy with 2 or 3 fish a day on the Dean. We’ll tell you that beginning anglers might get blanked on a windy day on South Andros. We’ll tell you that we don’t claim to offer luxury accommodations at any of our operations.
Sometimes, though, we don’t do a good enough job communicating just how incredible our fishing is. Today, we’re here to tell you that at Alaska West, we have…
The Best Silver Salmon Fishing in the World.
Big Numbers
The Kanektok and Arolik Rivers simply get choked with silvers. They tend to stack up in soft water – in sloughs and in current breaks where they can take a little breather on their way upriver. It’s not at all uncommon to pull up to a spot and see dozens to hundreds of fish hanging out.
These fish are aggressive towards flies, and we catch a lot of them. Really, a lot. Talking about numbers of silvers at Alaska West is tough because it makes us sound like we’re full of it – but these stories are all true. During the month of August, catching a dozen silvers in a day would be pretty disappointing. 20 or 30 per angler per day happens all the time. Doubles happen all the time. To really raise eyebrows takes really big numbers – like the time one of our guests caught 55 one day – all on a single popper that he tied.
This is fast-paced Alaskan salmon fishing at its finest. If you want to catch a lot of fish, you want to go silver fishing at Alaska West.
Fresh Fish
The Kanektok is 90 miles long, and we spend most of our time chasing silvers in the bottom 7 miles of the river. Chrome fish are the norm. We see sea lice all the time. Fish come in in obvious pushes with the tides.
Fresh silvers are aggressive and acrobatic. You don’t need to be very ‘fine’ with your presentation. It’s fairly typical to make a cast in front of a group of fish and see half a dozen silvers peel off the group and fight over your fly.
They jump. They cartwheel. They tail-walk. They’re full of energy and that makes the fights a heck of a lot of fun.
Honest-to-Goodness Topwater Action
Truly fresh silvers in our part of the state eat poppers. It takes low light and really soft water – sloughs in the morning are the sweet spot for poppers.
Popper fishing is really exciting and really visual. Silvers chasing a popper are swimming barely under the water surface, so their pursuit often makes a v-wake. Sometimes they slash at it. Sometimes they explode on it. Sometimes you just see a big kype pop out in the front of that v-wake, and bye-bye goes your popper. Fish on!
Fun for Everyone
With so many fish around you have many, many opportunities, and that makes our silver fishing fun for everyone. Expert anglers like fishing topwater flies and shooting for really big numbers – but beginning anglers appreciate the fact that blowing a cast or losing a fish is not a big deal at all. There will be plenty more.
When we say beginning, we mean beginning. This is a great fishery for kids and others just learning how to fish. If you can land the fly 25 feet in front of you on your 10th attempt, you’re going to catch plenty of silvers.
Last year, one of our guests caught 25 silver salmon – on the first morning he ever fished with a fly rod. That’s really good silver fishing, but seriously – enough said?
Experience the Best Silver Salmon Fishing in the World
Through some bizarre twist of booking fate, one of the best weeks of the year for silver salmon fishing at Alaska West in 2012 has the most openings. We have plenty of room for you to join us from August 3rd to the 10th – right at the peak of our silver run.
Drop us a line to get in on the action. It’s an amazing time of year – and it’s the best silver fishing in the world.
