Area Sport Fishing Reports
Yakutat

Archived Sport Fishing Report

July 20, 2023

An excellent resource for planning a trip is the gofishak interactive map for Yakutat which provides information on popular fishing locations, species run timing, fishing gear selections and boat and angler access.

Freshwaters

Red Salmon

Fishing for red salmon continues to be excellent on the Situk river. There have been over 87k fish counted past the weir so far. There are fishable groups of fish spread throughout the entire river.

Saltwaters

King Salmon

Sportfishing for king salmon is open in Yakutat area marine waters. King fishing this last week picked up some. Locations showing better success this week have been Ankau, Monti Bay, Point Munoz, and the Log Dump. Bait is scattered throughout Yakutat Bay. A lot of small "shaker" (sub-legal) fish have been caught and released this last week and are throughout the area so anglers should be aware and measure their kings accordingly. Most anglers troll spoons or herring behind a flasher in about 40-80 feet of water along the shoreline or around pinnacles.

  • Anglers are required to have a king salmon stamp when targeting king salmon.
  • All king salmon less than 28" must be released.

Coho Salmon

Anglers are reporting decent catches of coho this past week, especially around Kahntaak Island. It's a good sign considering how slow it was last year at this time.

Halibut

Reports from anglers over the last week indicate fishing for halibut continues to be slow. The majority of fish being caught are smaller. The dogfish have waned over the last week which has made fishing for halibut easier, but they should make a reappearance later on. Some ways to avoid them are to fish further into the back of the bay where they are less present. If you choose to fish out front try avoiding the use of chumbags and try using bigger baits on the bottom.

Lingcod

Fishing for lingcod continues to be excellent. Try using jigs, darts, or mooching cut-plug herring near rocky structures or pinnacles.

Rockfish

Fishing for rockfish is excellent in the Yakutat area. Try working small jigs or darts or mooching herring near any rocky structures or pinnacles under the water for the best results.

For further information, please get in touch with the Yakutat Area Sport Fish management biologist Jason Pawluk at (907) 784-3222.

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