With king salmon runs struggling in many parts of Alaska, a growing number of anglers are seeking out silver salmon. At Rainbow Bend Lodges, on the banks of Alaska’s Naknek River, we have excellent silver salmon fishing right out our door. We also can hop in the boat and hit a number of nearby streams that hold solid numbers of silver salmon that can be caught by both fly anglers and gear fishermen.
Many anglers enjoy taking fly-out trips in bush planes to remote Alaskan streams where they can battle silver salmon, and this is something we arrange for guests once or twice a week during their stay with us. Because we have our own dock, float planes can pick you up at our lodge on the Naknek River, mere feet from your cabin.
So, what is it about silver salmon that make them so special? First, their run numbers are phenomenal in this part of Alaska, year after year. Second, you can catch a lot of silver salmon in a day. Some rivers we fish will find you battling multiple coho a day; some remote streams we fish can find experienced anglers hooking and releasing over 50 silver salmon a day. Anglers are allowed to keep 5 silver salmon a day in most rivers in our area, meaning you’ll have plenty of great eating meat to take home. Finally, coho can be fished many ways, and pound-for-pound, fight as hard as any of Alaska’s famed salmonids.
That said, many of our anglers like getting to know the fish species they pursue when fishing with us at Rainbow Bend Lodges. So, whether you’re fishing silver salmon on Alaska’s Naknek River with us, or going on a remote, small-stream fly-out fishing adventure, here are some things to know about this special salmon.
Among the five Pacific salmon species, the silver salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), or coho, ranks atop the list of fly anglers heading to Alaska. No other salmon attracts more people to the Last Frontier than the silver salmon. The action they provide on a fly rod, and the abundance of 10 to 12 pound fish that can be caught throughout most of the day, can be unlike anything a salmon angler ever dreamed possible.
Silvers will attack a multitude of bright, flashy flies, with Flash Flies, Leeches and Deer Hair Pollywogs being among the most common. Dark colored Woolly Buggers also perform well, as do pink and chartreuse colored streamers.
Because silver salmon can be tenacious fighters, a 9 or even 10 weight fly rod is a good choice. Strong, 12 pound leader (1X tippet) is the minimum many anglers will go with on these feisty fish. The fly line used depends on the waters being fished. Floating line is ideal for pulling silvers from shallow, slack water where migrating salmon stop to rest. A sinking line may be necessary in faster moving, deep water.
Silver salmon frequent a great deal of Alaska’s coastal rivers, from Point Hope all the way down through the Panhandle. The Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island are home to some of the state’s largest silvers, while the Ugashik, Egegik, Situk, Togiak, Alagnak, Kasilof and Kenai rivers–just to name a few–are also famous silver salmon fisheries. Countless silver salmon streams exist around the state, though the state record came from Southeast Alaska in 1976 and weighed in at 26 pounds.
The lifecycle of the coho is truly amazing. As adults enter rivers, their bright silver bodies with small black spots along the back and upper portion of the tail, help set them apart from chinook. The white gum lines of silver salmon, along with the absence of black spots on the lower lobe of the tail, help to further distinguish silvers from chinook. But as spawning approaches, both sexes of coho develop dark backs with deep reddish hues along their sides. The bucks develop the distinctive kype and large teeth indicative of salmon.
From mid-July all the way into November, coho salmon make their way into rivers, with water temperature at the spawning grounds dictating when the fish arrive at the precise spot in which they were born. Adults will typically reside in pools until their biological clock moves them on to the spawning beds. Here, the female (hen) digs a nest and deposits up to 4,500 eggs, which are then fertilized by the male (buck).
Over winter the eggs develop, ready to hatch early in the spring. Once the yolk sac has been depleted, fry emerge from the gravel around May and June. As the fry grow, they take up residence in protected, shallow stream fringes, ponds, pools and sloughs. As they grow, young silver salmon even display territoriality toward other salmonids. This innate act of aggression is what makes adult silvers so popular among fishing fraternities.
Young silver salmon spend one to three winters in streams, thriving in habitats void of main channel floods. In lake systems, silver salmon smolt may spend up to five years prior too migrating to sea. Most silver salmon remain in the ocean for one to three years before returning to rivers as healthy adults.
The lifecycle of the silver salmon is amazing…as is fishing them in the beautiful, remote wilderness of Alaska.