Sport fishing reopens below Situk River weir on Wednesday

The Rodeo Hole and the rest of the closed water below the Situk River weir reopen to sport fishing at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12, restoring access for Yakutat anglers after five weeks of closure that began July 11. The reopened stretch runs from regulatory markers about 300 feet upstream of the weir, at river mile 1.8, down to markers roughly 2,100 feet below it.

Department staff surveyed the closed water and found nearly all king salmon had already moved upstream of it, a finding the Alaska Department of Fish and Game says makes a full sport fishing closure unnecessary. Crews are scheduled to begin pulling the seasonal weir on Aug. 11.

The order lifts an emergency closure that had been set to run through Aug. 15. Alaska News previously covered the July 11 expansion, which shut the Rodeo Hole after only 100 large king salmon had passed the weir, well short of a management target of 730 and a biological escapement goal of 450 to 1,050. In the July 8 emergency order announcing that closure, the department said the measure "protects king salmon holding in several pools downstream of the weir from incidental hooking while fishing for sockeye salmon." Federal managers separately closed the Situk subsistence Chinook fishery from June 1 through July 30, citing conservation concerns.

The basis for this reopening differs from a similar move last year. In 2025, ADF&G reopened part of the Situk to sport fishing on July 26, but only after more than 1,050 large kings, above the management target, had passed the weir. This year's decision rests instead on survey data showing that nearly all kings had already cleared the closed area, not on a count against the target.

For Yakutat anglers, that shifting line matters in practice. Access to productive water like the Rodeo Hole opens and closes by emergency order through the sockeye and king seasons, and anglers have to track retention and release rules as those orders change underneath them. The Situk actions fit a broader pattern: state and federal managers lean on in-season emergency restrictions to protect weak Chinook runs while keeping fishing open for other species where they can.

The entire Situk drainage remains closed to king salmon fishing. Kings may not be targeted, and any hooked incidentally must be released immediately without being removed from the water.

Anglers with questions can reach Yakutat Area Management Biologist Jason Pawluk at 907-465-4224.