Winter / Spring 2026 Alaska Fishing Reports
I am often available to guide our 4-hour ice fishing trips on Mat-Su Valley lakes in the Palmer-Wasilla core area north of Anchorage from January through March — and depending upon ice conditions sometimes into early April. Many visitors choose this trip, because it provides a good opportunity to experience winter fun in Alaska. We often start our ice fishing trips around 10 a.m. during January, however, longer daylight hours and warmer temperatures can make for very enjoyable ice fishing conditions in March. We target rainbow trout, Arctic char, and landlocked salmon through the ice with most fish our guest catch running in the 8 – 15 inch range, with occasional rainbow trout and / or Arctic char topping 20 inches. I provide custom-built ice fishing rods and all the additional ice fishing gear, along with helpful instruction. Guests often catch several fish per person on these trips. Guests over 16 years of age are required to have and Alaska fishing license and need to provide their own warm clothes.
NOTE: We do not start guiding open water fishing trips until the ice breaks up on Mat-Su Valley rivers / usually sometime in the month of May.
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December 2025 — Wow that month went quickly! My wife and I enjoyed a wonderful vacation to the Kona, Hawaii area, and I also was able to update and make our 5-hour guided salmon fishing reservation dates available through our online reservation service on this website. For 2026 we have shortened our trips by an hour, and will be offering a wider variety of trip starting times, in an effort to better meet what some of our guests have been requesting. With the new additional starting times — some of the trip reservations will need to be made through phone request — others will be live to book on the website. This system of having some trips only available through phone request allows us the option of having different start time options — while helping us keep the reservations in order so overbookings may not occur.
Friday January 2, 2026 — Happy New Year. Today I went to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game office in Palmer and renewed my guide and business aport fishing registrations for 2026 — So I am getting ready to guide some ice fishing trips — although the temperatures have recently dropped below zero. That make for cool fishing. Ice is plenty thick on Mat-Su Valley lakes, and I’ve heard some decent ice fishing reports.
New Year — New Fishing Gear! I have some new hooks I want to try for ice fishing this year, but most of our new fishing tackle will be geared toward our summer salmon fishing trips. I’ve already built about a dozen new custom fishing rods with more to be built before the season starts. I’ve also purchased a variety of new lures to try, and also intend to fish in locations where bait will be legal for salmon harvest additional days. I am still using Pautzke bait company baits, scents, and cures, and intend to experiment considerably more next summer. Some may have noticed that guest caught more sockeye salmon in particular from my personal guide boat during the summer of 2025 — I attribute some of that to Pautzke krill scent used when I was curing salmon roe and also to fishing in locations where there was a greater abundance of sockeye salmon. I suspect that I may be able to help guest boost sockeye salmon catches even further by experimenting with different hook combinations — so that is part of the game plan for next summer as well. I’ve also purchased a few new spinning reels — including a Daiwa Prorex MQ LT 3000D-C (which appears built stout — while also being one of the lightest weight spinning reels my guests will have ever fished with!). Guest will still have the opportunities to fish with the Daiwa Procyon 3000s and 4000s and / or also the Shimano Stradic 3000s that have worked so well for us the past few years.
Saturday January 3, 2026 — After my new Daiwa Prorex MQ LT 3000 arrived yesterday, I put it on a spinning rod and -examined it thoroughly. As expected it was very smooth with light start up inertia, and felt light as well. This is the compact size reel – meaning it has a similar (or same) gear box compared to the 2500 reel in this series. It has a deep spool which according to specifications will hold considerably more line than I am likely to need on this reel. It has a 5:2:1 gear ratio, which I prefer, because it will provide more cranking power that a higher gear ratio. I intend to spool this reel with a superbraid line rated at approximately 25 lb. and also intend to use it most of next summer (anytime I or my guests are casting lures for coho, chum, sockeye, or pink salmon). Next New Reel: Daiwa Prorex MQ LT 2500-XH — I ordered it this morning, as I know of no business currently stocking them in Alaska. This 2500 size reel has a smaller spool capacity (110 years of 8 lb mono), although I intend to spool it with lower strength superbraid (compared to the 3000 sized reel). I intend to test this reel out thoroughly next summer as well — using it heavily when guiding for trout, arctic grayling, and northern pike. In addition, I intend to use it in some situations when casting for salmon — I believe it would make an exceptional reel for casting small lures at Deshka River for coho and pink salmon.