Tsiu River, Alaska Silver Salmon Fishing

Silver Salmon are known for being acrobatic, jumping fighters and are some of the best fighting of all Salmon. The fantastic Alaska Silver Salmon fishing on the Tsiu River in Southeast Alaska is due to the huge numbers of fish that return to spawn there every year. The massive run of fish is estimated to be around 120,000 with over 6,000 fish typically in the river at any time! With these huge numbers of Silver Salmon, the fishing action can be literally non stop!

Not only are there a lot of fish but the fish are good sized too running on average from about 10-12 pounds. The Silvers start to show up in August and we fish for them through the middle of October. Silver Salmon tend to congregate in eddies, sloughs and backwater channels off the main current of the River. The Salmon congregate in these areas in large numbers and provide great sport for both fly fishermen and spin casters.

Alaska Silver Salmon Flies

If you are a fly fisherman, and love fly fishing for Silver Salmon then the Tsiu River is the place for you. You can fly fish for aggressive Silvers that willingly hit your flies all day long. Silver Salmon fly fishing is typically not very difficult since the fish are so aggressive and will typically hit a wide range of salmon and steelhead fly patterns. Some of our favorite productive Silver Salmon flies are:

• checkmark Starlight leeches (green head best but red and orange too)
• checkmark Clouser Minnows (variety of colors, white, charetreuse, silver etc.)
• checkmark Articulated leech (black is best, but purple, pink and other colors as well)
• checkmark Alaska flash flies
• checkmark Pink poppers
• checkmark Pink Polywogs

Alaska Silver Salmon Equipment

We can provide all of the necessary fly fishing equipment for you. Of course if you have your own fly fishing gear, but all means you are welcome to bring it. If you do choose to bring your own equipment, we recommend using 8 weight rods with mostly floating lines and reels with a good disc drag. Sinking tip lines can be useful in some pools, but are typically not necessary. The Silver Salmon are aggressive and not leader shy so light tippets are unnecessary and typically 12-15# test works very well.