Bristol Bay's ice is starting to break — and it's about to set off a cascade of fish and fishermen

Lake Aleknagik began shedding its ice this week, the first step in a seasonal sequence that turns the world's most productive sockeye salmon system back into a working fishery for both fish and the people who catch them, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported.

The lake sits at the bottom of the Wood River system in southwest Alaska, a chain of glacial lakes that serves as nursery habitat for the Bristol Bay sockeye return. The upper lakes remain ice-covered, and boat access there is not yet possible. Fishing effort across the bay is minimal right now, said Lee Borden, the department's area management biologist for Bristol Bay.

What is happening, at the streams that drain into the lakes, is smolt outmigration — young salmon leaving freshwater for the ocean. That movement creates the season's first real angling opportunity at spawning-stream outlets, where resident species like rainbow trout, Arctic char, grayling, and northern pike concentrate to feed on the migrating juveniles. Spinners, spoons, and flies should work well at those spots until king salmon begin to show up, typically in the first week of June with the bite improving by mid-month.

Salmon sport fishing won't really start producing on the Naknek River until mid-June; the Alagnak doesn't pick up until late in the month. Halibut fishing should be fair off the coast of Protection Point.

No emergency orders are currently in effect for the Bristol Bay management area.