Kodiak restarts landlocked silver salmon stocking after 11 years

Kodiak's road-system lake anglers are getting a fishery back, though not this season. Fish and Game is stocking Southern, Long and Abercrombie lakes with silver salmon this year, the island's first landlocked salmon stocking since 2015.

The fish need time to grow. "These typically take 3 years to grow to catchable size and are very aggressive feeders," Area Management Biologist Tyler Polum said in the Kodiak Area Sport Fishing Report released Friday. Landlocked silvers, he said, "have historically been a productive fishery year round in lakes with these fish."

The Kodiak Island Road Zone runs about 75 miles of paved and gravel road and reaches 17 stocked lakes, and a year-round lake fishery offers something different from a run-timed river opener. The report notes another stocking change too: no egg takes from kings returning to the road system this year, with kings instead stocked from Anchorage broodstock beginning in 2027.

Wild runs elsewhere on the island remain under pressure, though not uniformly. Fish and Game cut the Kodiak Area king limit to one fish a day and closed westside salt waters after only 93 kings were counted at the Karluk River, against a goal of 3,000 to 6,000; that limit holds through Sept. 15. The Buskin River closed to sockeye fishing in June through year's end.

Saltery River sockeye were running well behind their goal as of late July, and the department cut the Saltery limit from five fish to two, citing very low water. Even so, it expects Saltery to make escapement, and the Pasagshak and Saltery runs stay open. Fish and Game's 2026 forecast classified Kodiak's overall sockeye harvest as weak.