Summer Solstice Alagnak River Fishing Report

Pagans, celebrate! This is the summer solstice Alagnak River fishing report, coming from Alaska’s Katmai Lodge on the Alagnak River.

A small portion of Katmai Lodge.

The summer solstice has the longest amount of daylight of any day of the year. In the northern hemisphere the solstice was on Wednesday. The length of daylight will now get less and less, seconds or minutes every day, until December 21. The solstice was an important day in the pagan calendar.

A different view of the lodge, including the cafeteria and dock.

So, fishing. The king salmon have begun trickling in. Staff members have gotten five or six jacks this week. Ordinarily king salmon stay at sea anywhere from three to seven years. Jacks only stay at sea a year or two, so when they return they are much smaller than “adult” kings. Jacks are all males, and they are sexually mature. They’re just another of Nature’s ways of mixing the gene pool.

Tom tries to subdue a king salmon.

While we’re hoping for a good run of “adult” kings, jacks are welcome too. While smaller in size they are aggressive and delicious, and are still fun to catch. So jacks, bring it on!

He gets the dehooker on the spinner, and the fish is released.

The new guides here have been schooled this week on king salmon fishing techniques- pitching, boondogging, backtrolling. When the fish arrive we’ll be ready.

Time has been spent rigging.

We have not seen any sockeye or “tiger” (chum) salmon yet. They are expected any day now.

Ethan was happy with his jack king.

The trout fishing has dropped off. One expects Alaska to be cold and wet, but we’ve had exceptionally heavy rains all week and the river is high, high, high. The fish have lots of places to be and they are all spread out, hard to find. Additionally, most of our effort has been directed at kings.

And that is the summer solstice Alagnak River Fishing Report from Katmai Lodge!

Life is great and I love my work!

Life is short- Go Fishing!

John Kumiski
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All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2018. All rights are reserved.