Randall Bonner, a regular visitor to Southeast Alaska’s Situk River for steelhead, also has enjoyed some outstanding sockeye salmon fishing there. (RYAN MCCLURE)
SEEING REDS ON THE SITUK HOW TO SLAM SOCKEYE ON SOUTHEAST ALASKA RIVER BY RANDALL BONNER
W
hen most people think of sockeye sport fisheries, they tend to think of anglers combat fishing elbow to elbow, not to mention bending their ethics as much as their rods. Being fairly green to sockeye fishing, I can only imagine seeing red in that kind of environment. Luckily, the solitude of Tongass National Forest (the largest national forest in the United States) provides a different kind of backdrop
to an underrated fishery that lives in the shadow of larger rivers in Alaska, which only adds to what draws seasoned anglers back to Yakutat. The area’s history and the cultural significance of the sockeye fishery as both a subsistence and commercial resource are deeply connected to the community that welcomes sport anglers to a little slice of sockeye heaven. Today, the Situk produces roughly 60,000 sockeye every summer, but twice
as many made their way above the weir in 2021, along with over 2,000 king salmon. If the correlation with Bristol Bay’s sockeye fisheries rings true again this year, there will be even more fish to catch.
FROM TOP TO BOTTOM, drift boat traffic is fairly light on the 14-mile float, with only a half-dozen guide boats or so on any given day. Foot traffic at the upper boat ramp can be fairly dense when the sockeye are as well, with a majority of the fish piling
aksportingjournal.com | FEBRUARY 2022
ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
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