Alaska has all five Pacific salmon in numbers nowhere else comes close to, and the whole thing happens between late May and November. Everything above about sixty degrees north is compressed into half a year.
Seasons, limits and licence rules are set by your state agency.
Each bar below spans January to December, with today marked, and draws the quoted sentence underneath it. Where an agency describes a run by season rather than by month, the card carries the sentence without a bar.
Alaska gets one Chinook run per river rather than the two, three or four that Pacific Northwest rivers split into.
Alaska streams normally receive a single run of Chinook salmon in the period from May through July.
The Bristol Bay fish, and the largest sockeye run on earth. They need a lake in the system, which is why the Kvichak, the Naknek and the Nushagak carry them and neighbouring rivers do not.
In Alaska, most sockeye salmon return to spawn in June and July in freshwater drainages that contain one or more lakes.
The last big run of the Alaskan year, and the one most obviously triggered by weather rather than by date.
Coho salmon enter spawning streams from July to November, usually during periods of high runoff.
Two year fish, so odd year and even year populations are genetically separate. Which year is the big one depends on where you are: Washington gets its pinks in odd years, while Fish and Game notes even year abundance on Bird Creek and the Susitna. Do not carry one rule across the map.
return to the river they were born to spawn between late June and mid-October
Alaska splits chum into a summer race and a fall race, most visibly on the Yukon. Run timing varies by river, and the state publishes it per fishery rather than as statewide months.
the earlier-running race is referred to as summer chum salmon, and the later-running race is called fall chum salmon
| River | Water temp | Flow | Measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenai Riverat Soldotna | Loading | Loading | |
| Kenai Riverat Cooper Landing | Loading | Loading | |
| Copper Riverat Million Dollar Bridge | Loading | Loading | |
| Yukon Riverat Pilot Station | Loading | Loading | |
| Kvichak Riverat Igiugig | Loading | Loading | |
| Talkeetna Rivernear Talkeetna | Loading | Loading | |
| Little Susitna Rivernear Palmer | Loading | Loading | |
| Ship Creeknear Anchorage | Loading | Loading | |
| Situk Rivernear Yakutat | Loading | Loading | |
| Taku Rivernear Juneau | Loading | Loading | |
| Salmon Rivernear Hyder | Loading | Loading | |
| Chena Rivernear Two Rivers | Loading | Loading |
Source: USGS Water Services (National Water Information System). Instantaneous values service. U.S. Geological Survey data are works of the United States Government and are in the public domain. Gauge list verified 2026-08-24.
Alaska Fish and Game publishes run timing charts by area, and these are the entries for the rivers this page carries a live gauge on. The timings below are the fish; the charts also carry the regulations that run alongside them, so read them in full at the source.
| River | Run | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Kenai River | Chinook | Early run mid May through late June; late run from early July |
| Kenai River | Sockeye | Mid July through mid August |
| Kenai River | Coho | Late July through mid October |
| Kenai River | Pink | Mid July through August |
| Russian River | Sockeye | Early run mid June to mid July; late run from mid July |
| Russian River | Coho | Early August through end of September |
| Kasilof River | Chinook | From late May |
| Kasilof River | Sockeye | June through August |
| Kasilof River | Steelhead | Late March through mid May, and again late August through mid November |
| Ship Creek | Chinook | From late May |
| Ship Creek | Coho | Mid July through late September |
| Little Susitna River | Chinook | Lower river from May; upper river from mid June |
| Little Susitna River | Sockeye | Mid July through early August |
| Little Susitna River | Coho | Lower river mid July through mid August; upper river early August through early September |
| Talkeetna River | Chinook | From mid June |
| Eyak River, Copper River delta | Sockeye | Late May through late July |
| Cordova roadside streams | Coho | Early August through September |
Source: Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish, Southcentral Region run timing charts. Seasons and limits are set by the agency.
The one Alaskan river with a full federal run calendar is the upper Copper. The Park Service puts sockeye there between late May and August, Chinook between late May and July, and coho from early August to late September. At Brooks River in Katmai, where the bear cameras are, the Park Service describes salmon arriving in late June, the migration peaking in July, and the fish spawning and dying through late August.
Sockeye Salmon (reds): arrive in the upper Copper River between late-May and August and spawn in streams and lakes mostly between August and September.
Fish passage counts are published by the programmes that run the counting stations, linked below with what each one reports.
No agency publishes a live or near live count on any Alaska river covered here. The live readings above are river conditions, and the agency linked at the top of the page is the source for run reports.
Run windows on this page are quoted from the agency named beside each one. River conditions come from the U.S. Geological Survey and are readings, not forecasts and not fish counts. Fishing seasons, bag limits, gear rules and licence requirements for Alaska are set by the agency linked here, and a run window is not an open season. For rules, see Alaska Department of Fish and Game. National picture: every state with a salmon or steelhead run →
Hero image: “Grizzly Bear Fishing Brooks Falls” by Azov, CC BY-SA 3.0