Alaska residents: No size limit: 4 per day, 4 in possession. Nonresidents: No size limit: 4 per day, 4 in possession. 8 fish annual limit, harvest record required (see page 6).
Coho salmon are available primarily headed and gutted, in fillets both frozen and fresh in season from July to October. A limited amount of skinless, boneless coho salmon is sold. Coho is graded 2-4, 4-6, 6-9, and 9 up.
Peak season for salmon fishing occurs from May through September, with the five major species spread across the season. King Salmon fishing begins in May, and you can continue fishing for Silver Salmon all the way through November.
The salmon runs start in early May and continue until September, but they vary each year. Also, different species of salmon run at different times through the summer. First to run are chinook (king) salmon, followed by sockeye (red) salmon and then the coho (silver) salmon. I want to see wildlife in Anchorage.
The colors that show up in the deepest water are greens, blues and blacks. All glow lures glow green. In addition, Ultra Violet colors can be added to your tackle box, as they show up at all depths. While we can't see UV colors, salmon see them very well.
Salmon simply do not change their diets, they are a predatory species. They will attack--rip your arm off attack certain lures during certain stages of their migrations.
The easiest way to see if your salmon has finished cooking is to gently press down on the top of the fillet with a fork or your finger. If the flesh of the salmon flakes—meaning, it separates easily along the white lines that run across the fillet (strips of fish fat)—it's finished cooking.
To the uninitiated, mooching looks like a no brainer. All you do is hook a plug-cut herring to a set of tandem hooks on a 7 or 8-foot leader. Tie the leader to a mooching sinker of four to eight ounces; drop it all in the water and fish it until a salmon rings your bell.
In a broad categorical sense, the best salmon lures for rivers are spinners, buoyant drift rigs, casting spoons, flies, and wide-wobbling diving plugs. Silver or chrome are especially popular hard-lure finishes, and many river salmon lures are enhanced with a bright color, particularly orange or red/pink.
As others have said, Salmon eat worms, they take flies deep.
When you book your trip with A Spot Tail Salmon Guide, we'll take care of your fishing gear, bait, tackle, and bottled water (and rain gear upon request), but there are a few things you need to bring along just in case: – Heavy-duty rain gear (poncho, hat, raincoat, rubber boots, etc.)
Sockeye salmon usually run very close to the riverbank—as close as three to four feet if the water is fast. If I'm standing on that bank, I keep an extra supply of hooks in my pocket instead of carrying them around in a tackle box or a fanny pack, because the trick to catching sockeye salmon is changing hooks often.
