Situk River sockeye fishery has all but ended, ADF&G says

Anglers planning a late-summer sockeye trip to the Situk River should plan on something else. "The Situk River sockeye sport fishery has all but ended," Yakutat Area Management Biologist Jason Pawluk said in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Aug. 6 Yakutat fishing report. Weir counts have dropped significantly, and pink salmon now outnumber sockeye 8 to 1 in the lower river, a ratio Pawluk said increases every day.

The department's report projects a final Situk weir count of roughly 51,000 sockeye from a current count of about 23,000. That figure sits inside the 30,000 to 70,000 escapement goal, but it trails the past five years. The daily bag limit stays at three sockeye. That is the practical squeeze: the limit is unchanged, but fewer fish are in the river to fill it. It is a sharp reversal from 2025, when ADF&G raised the daily limit to six sockeye and the possession limit to 12 after counts suggested that year's run would exceed the upper end of the escapement goal.

For Yakutat sport anglers, the season's primary sockeye opportunity is shrinking just as fish color up in the lower river. Anglers who wanted continued sockeye access are being redirected toward pinks, which reduces harvest chances and may push effort into a more crowded lower-river fishery.

The sockeye news lands on a river already carrying king salmon closures. Alaska News previously covered the department's decision to close the stretch from the weir down to the Rodeo Hole from July 11 through August 15, after only about 100 large kings passed the weir against a management target of 730. Sport fishing within 50 yards of the Nine Mile Bridge is also closed through August 15.

The pattern is a familiar one statewide. Alaska managers routinely adjust sport fishing opportunity in-season based on weir counts, escapement targets and conservation concerns for king and sockeye salmon. The Situk is one instance of that tension between access and conservation thresholds in a mixed-run river.

Pawluk pointed anglers toward pinks for now. "Pink fishing is best down low where fish are bright so get them before they turn," he said. ADF&G also said Dolly Varden fishing should be good on the Situk and in other Yakutat Management Area streams.

Coho are barely started: 29 silvers have passed the weir, so the fishing is downstream of it.

Saltwater offers the better bet right now. ADF&G reports halibut fishing has continued to be good over the last week, lingcod fishing in Yakutat continues to be very good, and rockfish fishing is excellent, with anglers advised to work jigs near pinnacles and shallow rocky structure. King salmon fishing in area marine waters remains slow.