JULY

JULY FISHING IN BRISTOL BAY

The month of July holds epic opportunities to fish for the most legendary Alaskan fish, the king salmon or Chinook salmon, sockeye salmon and chum salmon as well as incredible rainbow trout, arctic char, dolly varden, arctic grayling, lake trout, and northern pike. We target July king salmon on our home river, the Naknek as well as on the Alagnak. The Alagnak River is a short flight from the lodge. Frigate Adventure Travel has boats stashed here in a central location where anglers can enjoy fishing for fresh king and chum salmon that arrive on each tide.  We target king salmon primarily by trolling spinners and plugs, as well as fly fishing. The chum salmon run on the Alagnak is one of the largest in the area. The lower Alagnak, where we fish, is full of sandy bars where chum stage by the thousands. We target these fish with 8 wt fly rods while wade fishing. They will aggressively hit a streamer and even come to the surface and eat a waking fly.

Though many anglers think of July as a month solely focused on salmon fishing, the Bristol Bay region has some incredible small stream fishing for rainbow trout, grayling and char during this time. This is often more traditional trout fishing methods with nymphs, dry flies, streamers and even mice! We fly into Katmai National Park and Becharof Wildlife Refuge in float planes to these remote streams often finding the solitude we crave and the trout fishing experience we dream about!

Our home river, the Naknek, has out-migrating salmon smolt leaving the lake system upstream, and a modest population of large rainbow trout ready to feed. Casting into these bait balls reminds us of saltwater experiences: birds diving and predator fish hunting from below. Cast your smolt pattern into the bait balls and hope for a rainbow to smash it!