Area Sport Fishing Reports
Kodiak

September 16, 2025

Freshwater Fishing

• Silver runs around the road system started off strong and are continuing to do well; some are stronger, while others have begun to slow. Whether from recent low and warm water or an early push of fish its hard to say yet.
• Remember the road system coho salmon bag limit changes to 1 fish per day on September 16th unless changed by emergency order. The only exceptions are stocked runs at Pillar, Monashka, Mill Bay and Mission Beach and then the harder to get to runs at Saltery, Miam and Sacramento which all remain at 2 fish.
• The best fishing has been at Pasagshak, Olds, Russian, Buskin and Salonie. There are silvers in most other creeks, but many smaller systems aren’t having the larger runs these systems have seen so far.
• Hatchery silvers are showing up at Mill Bay and Pillar and Monashka Creeks, but the warm, dry weather has made fishing slower. The recent rain should help improve fishing, but there doesn’t seem to be huge numbers of fish.
• Dollies are in most rivers now as well, with Buskin, American, Salonie, and the Olds being local favorites.

Saltwater Fishing

• King salmon fishing has been best in Whale Pass in the last week. Fishing has been pretty hot from the sounds of it, with travel time being the slowest part.
• Silvers aren’t showing up in large schools near town, but there are smaller scattered groups near Buskin, Woody Island, Kalsin Reef, Buoy 4, Spruce Cape. Fishing has been good once schools are found; with fish heading back to freshwater, saltwater silver fishing will slow down in the next few weeks.
• Halibut fishing has been slower by many accounts but folks are still finding fish in the 20-50lb range. The outer reefs at Chiniak, Buoys 1 and 3, Kalsin and Kodiak rocks have been good at times, but slower than earlier in the summer.
• Not much word on lingcod right now. Recent effort has been focused at Sunken Spruce, Kodiak Rocks and Triple Lumps.
• There’s been quite a bit of success finding a variety of rockfish species lately: dusky, dark, yellowtail, copper, tiger rockfish. The best success for finding rockfish besides black rockfish has been fishing a little deeper and moving away from the traditional reefs and rock piles that hold the large populations of black rockfish.

Local Lakes

Some great fall rainbow fishing can be found in many of the stocked lakes, but the two furthest out the road can be good stops in between looking for silvers. East twin at Fossil Beach and Bull Lake at Pasagshak Point both are stocked with rainbow trout and can be easily fished from the bank or a watercraft. Many anglers report the largest of our stocked rainbows in East Twin.

Special Species Information

• Coho salmon runs are in full swing although it’s hard to gauge run strength in season since the peak of our local coho runs can vary by up to 3 weeks annually. This is one of the major reasons the coho salmon bag limit reduces to 1 fish on September 16th annually as a precautionary conservation measure. ADF&G staff are out the road frequently surveying streams by foot surveys and drones to assess run strength and will adjust bag limits as able by emergency order.
• New rockfish regulations took effect April 1 for Kodiak and Afognak waters north of Dangerous and Cape Ikolik. This includes all the waters of Afognak, Raspberry and Shuyak Islands as well as Chiniak, Ugak and Marmot Bays and all of Whale Pass, Kupreanof Straight and the Westside of Kodiak Island. It is also in effect for all anglers, both resident and non-resident.
• Anglers fishing in these waters can keep 5 rockfish per day, but only 2 can be of a single species. This is similar to salmon bag limits in the Kodiak Road Zone; for example: an angler could harvest 2 black rockfish, 2 dusky rockfish and a yelloweye. Species ID guides are available in the Southwest Alaska regulation Booklet, on the ADF&G website and in the Kodiak ADF&G office.
• The standard bag limit for yelloweye rockfish is still in effect Island wide, only one fish of your rockfish bag limit may be a yelloweye.
• After similar regulations were implemented last season, many anglers found that shifting their fishing behavior slightly resulted in increased rockfish catches of species other than Black Rockfish, which are typically most commonly caught. dark rockfish, dusky rockfish and other species can often be found just off the side of a rock pile or reef and in deeper water than black rockfish that typically prefer the top of and middle of these structures.
• Keep an eye out for some of the species you may not have realized we have in Kodiak: widow, yellowtail, canary, tiger, northern and silvergray rockfish.
• New for Kodiak waters are Emergency Orders restricting saltwater king salmon harvest. The Island-wide king salmon bag limit has been reduced to 1 fish per day, with no annual limit to align with the rest of the Gulf of Alaska for the 2025 season.

Emergency Orders

Please review the emergency orders and advisory announcements below in their entirety before heading out on your next fishing trip.

• Emergency Order 2-RS-4-35-25 increased the bag and possession limit for sockeye salmon in the Ayakulik River Drainage to 10 per day effective July 7, 2025. This is a combined salmon bag limit, of which all 10 may be sockeye salmon, but no more than 5 may be pink, chum or coho.
• Emergency Order 2-RF-4-19-25 reduced the bag and possession limit for a single species of rockfish to 2 per day, 4 in possession north of Outlet Cape and Cape Ikolik. This emergency order is in effect from Tuesday April 1, 2025 through 11:59 pm. Wednesday, December 31, 2025.

Don't forget to purchase your 2025 sport fishing license and king stamp! You can purchase and display your fishing license and king stamp, record your annual harvest (i.e. king salmon), access sport fishing regulations and locations, and so much more on your mobile device. Download the ADF&G Mobile App today. You can also purchase licenses through the ADF&G online store and print it off from the comfort of your own home. Make sure to review emergency orders, advisory announcements, and the 2025 Southcentral Alaska Sport Fishing Regulations Summary booklet for the area you are fishing before you head out.

For additional information, please contact the ADF&G Kodiak Area Office at (907) 486-1880.