King Salmon Fishing | Early Season at Alaska West

King salmon – the baddest and brightest of the season – on swung flies. That’s what the first trip of our season at Alaska West is all about.

In 2011 ‘week 1’ is actually not a week-long trip. The run timing in the Kanektok is consistent enough that we can usually guess within a couple of days when the fish are going to show up. We want to be there right when they arrive (because the first fish of the season are like no others), but we also don’t want to be fishing an empty river, so we play with our start date a little bit. Anyhow, ‘week 1’ at Alaska West in 2011 is a 5 night / 4 fishing day trip, June 12 – 17, and because it’s shorter than normal it’s less expensive too – $3600 per person, plus travel.

Week 1 Is Not

Week 1 is not easy-fun-times-step-into-every-run-and-catch-fish-no-problem fishing. It’s streaky this week. You might have a day without a pull (but then the next morning all hell might break loose). If you’re looking for no-brainer, high catch rate fishing, you should come later in our season (and we’ve got plenty of it then).
Week 1 typically does not involve balmy weather. The middle of June in Western Alaska often means hats and fleece and maybe even fishing with gloves on.
Week 1 does not have a huge amount of variety. King salmon are, well, king. Rainbow fishing is sometimes great, sometimes less than great. Chum salmon will get caught. The time for lots of species and lots of techniques is late July – not week 1.

Week 1 Is

Week 1 is swinging flies, mostly on two-handed rods, for super-hot fat bright king salmon! We’re not sure why, but the fish this week just seem to have an attitude problem, and tend quite often to go crazy when hooked.
Week 1 is for people who would rather combine some potentially tough fishing with some incredible, time-of-their-life fishing.
Week 1 is a great time to meet some really cool other anglers, because this kind of fishing attracts a great crowd.
Week 1 is a unique chance to get in on the world-class king salmon fishing at Alaska West, complete with our spey instruction program, for quite a lot less money than normal.

We’ve got spots available in ‘week 1’ in 2011. If this sounds like your kind of fishing, you won’t find it anywhere else and you should drop us a line.