Salmon Fishing

[snowfighter]

Heading to Alaska next week have fished many different fish here in Minnesota but never salmon in the rivers.What kind of rod/reed/line weight setups are used and what kind of bait or lures?

[traveler]

Too big a question snowfighter! Where in AK? What kind of salmon will you be targeting? Fly, spinning, or??

[snowfighter]

Going up in the Soldotna area,what ever swims in the area

[traveler]

If you end up hiring any charters or guides, they will provide equipment, so for shore fishing...

Reds avg 6 to 10 pounds; 7 or 8 wt fly gear (or heavier in the Kenai). I'm not a big fly guy, but I'll spool a fly reel with straight 20 lb mono for flipping reds. For spinning/casting gear, 8+ foot M/H rods w/ 20lb mono is a good setup, some go even heavier. Sounds heavy I know, but the kenai current rips and those reds are tough fish! If you make it up to the russian, the fish (and current) are smaller and you can drop to 12-15 lb setups. Russian river /coho flies are standard, you can use simple yarn fies as well. There are hook gap requirements on the Russian, none on the Kenai.

For Kings...hire a guide:) The water levels are high in July, and it's a tough go to land kings from shore. Best bet would be the Kasilof, a few miles south of the Kenai. Beefy casting gear w/25+ mono is the norm. Eggs w/spin-n-glos are common. Pixies, Vibrax, etc...are also popular.

[snowfighter]

Thanks thats what I was looking for.

[traveler]

no problem. Wish I was going this summer.