Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Visit Alaska in the summer

Planning a visit to Alaska this summer,last week of June or first week of July for at least 14 days. What do I not want to miss? How is the fishing that time of year? Looking for info from people who live there or have made the trip.
Ron

Where in Alaska? How you planning on getting here (plane, ferry, or ALCAN)?

Which part of Alaska are you going to? Flying in or are taking a cruise up?

Plans are to fly in,hotel for the night then rent a motorhome for the trip.camping would be ok with me,but the wife's idea of camping is a bad motel! Thought the RV would be the middle ground. I do know not to drive slow and back up all the traffic! Want to do a little fishing if possible.
Ron

Flying into Fairbanks or Anchorage? I guess it doesn't matter which, since you'll have an RV for your stay up here. In any case, the fishing is good during those weeks you mention and you should hit the Kenai Peninsula and then take a back drive north through Anchorage and up the Glenn Highway and then across the Denali Highway and onto the Parks Highway. That should eat up your 14 days and give you an appetizer of Alaska.

Ok,flying into anchorage is the plan.thanks for the info. Any good ideas on the fishing? Should have a grand-daughter with us who wants to fish. Don't really want to fish off shore unless the weather is nice. I work on tug boats and have no desire to pay for rough weather!
Ron

I wouldn't pay for rough weather offshore, either. Nowadays, I wouldn't even be paid for the rough weather offshore - been there, done that. You can pick your weather day, if you decide to try fishing offshore. Otherwise, you'll find all sorts of stream and lake fishing opportunities along the highway routes described. In fact, most of the time you'll be within plain sight of water, in one form or another. Just be sure to have a handy-dandy fishing regulation with you, so you'll know where and when it's legal to fish.

I would recommend a charter outta Ninilchik, Anchor point, or even Homer. If you want Halibut that is.
Silvers might be in around Seward toward the end of your trip

You'll go a long way to find silvers out of Seward at the end of June.

MJM:

Silvers in June from Seward? Are you kidding me? Nix that idea. Besides, RGR isn't keen on going offshore anyway.

Maverick

Might want to do the Denali Hwy-- I understand there's some good graying/char/lake trout through there. Never been, myself.

You will likely miss the first run of Sockeye on the Kenai, and be too early for the second, but the kings should be doing OK. Trout and char in most Kenai Pen lakes. You can rent a canoe in Sterling, maybe go out Swanson River Road and hit some of those lakes- Paddle Lake right at the end of Swan Lake Road (40 miles of gravel road) is a nice lake for canoe fishing, as are some others not so far out.. Use eggs fished under a bobber or on the bottom if in one spot, a black or yellow-spotted black Mepps trolled behind the canoe as you paddle, or for casting.. #1 or 2 size. Late evening/very early morning is best.

Do the Denali Park bus tour to Wonder Lake if you can - if you hit it right, you'll see all sorts of critters. White-water rafting there too.

If you are into hiking, there are trails all over the Kenai, mostly up a mountain somewhere, from a couple miles to 35 or so. Russian River Trail to the Falls is one of the few flat-ground trails - so is Kelly-Peterson, or from the other end, at Engineer Lake (7-Lakes Trail???), off the Skilak Loop.

I was figuring if he was getting up there the first week of July like his post said 2 weeks from there would be the middle of July...I'm just sayin we killed em out there last yr 2nd week in july...

Maybe I read the original post wrong, but I thought he'd said he was arriving the latter half of June and was staying 14 days till a corresponding time in the first half of July. In any case, the offshore thing doesn't appeal to him and silvers would be a "hit-or-miss" that early in the year and, I advised him according to those aspects. Anyway, no big deal.

The Russian should be full of reds the end of June but if you do not have campground reservations you will have to camp outside the park or hope for a 12 hour pass.

Taking the bus ride through Denali park is a must.

Finally, I hope you have your RV reservations confirmed NOW because you are trying to book at prime time for rentals.

You could also go to Valdez and take your granddaughter fishing for pinks over at Allison Point. It's been over 20 years since i've fished for them down there so i'm not positive about the timing with the run. Valdez is worth the drive, some beautiful scenery down that way.

Be aware about fishing on the Russian, that is true combat fishing like you've never seen. My advice to you would be to stand back for a bit and watch how others are doing it. The object is to get your fish in as quickly as you can and not fight them too long. Not sure how old your gd is but if she's real young, she might want to skip this one.

If you don't have reservations for the campground yet, i'd bet that you won't find anything unless your willing to take a spot far from the river.

There should be silvers at Pony Cove by the end of June, in sufficient profusion to limit a small boat in a couple hours (if you know what you're doing). The fish will be relatively small. But who cares about silvers anyway. Book with someone in Seward who knows how to catch kings; mid to late June is perfect for that.

Have you narrowed this down?

Keep in mind that any fishing that can be had from the road is sure to have anywhere from a couple hundred to several hundred people standing along the bank trying to get a good spot. Don't even think for a minute that you'll find a nice little spot to fish with your granddaughter, unless of course there are no fish.

Sounds like some took a bitter pill and did not bother to walk a half-mile... There is plenty of incredible fishing a short distance from the road in SC AK...

I agree with Sitka. Although the timing for RGR isn't quite the same, there's some fantastic trophy rainbow fishing along the Parks and hardly anyone at all on the streams, except for the occassional brown bear.