Fall Fishing Report

Fall fishing report, as of 8/15/20, fishing at Yakutat Lodge continues to heat up. Halibut, lingcod and rockfish are abundant in Yakutat Bay and over the last week we boated many excellent fish. Halibut are biting jigs and bait fished just off sandy bottoms. Drifts over rock piles are yielding solid lingcod and black rockfish. The key to success is line management and fishing near the bottom, but keeping the jig off the bottom so as to avoid snagging up.

fall fishing report
Coho fishing in the saltwater has been spotty so far, so we expect that fishery to pick up through the month. Once silvers are found in catchable numbers, then mooching for coho in the salt can yield lots of action, and big piles of succulent coho fillets.

Pinks are thick in the Situk River and make for great action. They are in prime chrome shape, love to eat pink lures and can be caught in large numbers. There are some big pinks in the river right now. This makes for a fantastic family fishery and is worth noting in this fall fishing report.

Coho are beginning to enter the river and limits are being caught on each trip, with the volume of coho increasing as you drift downriver. Spinners with grub tails, twitching jigs, and Dolly Llama fly patterns are producing quality fish. Fishing for coho on the river will continue to rapidly escalate.

Dolly Varden char are abundant and can be targeted behind schools of salmon. A bead dead-drifted to a group of dollies will usually elicit a bite. It’s a lot of fun to pick out an individual Dolly and try to catch it. Good polarized sunglasses with amber / copper lenses are a solid choice and critical to helping you pick out fish to target.


A trip to Yakutat Lodge this time of year allows you to capture a bounty of bottomfish and salmon, and experience both the river and the ocean. The fall fishing report will remain good until the end of September, come out and enjoy fall with us! To learn about steelheads fishing this spring or how the season has been the rest of this summer check out our blog.