Videos

Due to the physical nature of Alaska’s Egegik River, there are many ways to fish for coho salmon, here. One way many anglers enjoy fishing is casting subsurface plugs, not something you can do in just any river.

Fishing with plugs for salmon and steelhead gained traction in the 1970s, and was largely dominated by backtrolling presentations. Recently, plug fishing for salmon has experienced a resurgence, thanks to the unique design of some plugs.

Here, noted author and longtime visitor to Becharof Lodge On The Egegik River, Scott Haugen, talks you though casting Mag Lips for silver salmon and shows how effective and fun it can be in these waters.

While remote Alaska is teaming with coho salmon in many regions, numerous seasoned anglers regard silver salmon fishing on the Egegik River to be the best of the best.

During peak seasons it’s not uncommon for experienced anglers to hook and release over 75 silver salmon a day; often times more than that. You can fish with bait on the Egegik River, and cured salmon eggs are a specialty of ours. You can keep five silver salmon a day, and once done, you can catch and release salmon all day long.

You can also fish for silvers a number of other ways, from jigs to topwater plugs, flies to beads, and more. While this special place in remote Alaska is breathtaking and holds some unique wildlife, including brown bears, it’s the coho salmon fishing which attracts so many anglers from around the world. Yes, our newly updated lodge is comfortable, and our cooks is as good as they come, but what keeps people coming back to the Egegik River is the world-class silver salmon fishing in this part of remote Alaska.

While the Egegik River is wide, its banks are shallow and the coho salmon often travel surprisingly tight to shore. For this reason it’s wise not to wade into a hole without first casting and covering the water near shore.

Often times schools of thousands of silver salmon gather near the shoreline, sometimes within two- to three-feet of the bank where they will hold and travel.

While you’ll want to bring waders to fish with us here at Becharof Lodge On The Egegik River, you’ll not want to wade too deep before making some casts to learn where the fish are.

The coho salmon on the Egegik River are prized for their high oil content, which makes them some of the best eating in Alaska.

A short run from the ocean finds these silver salmon fresh as can be, and while they are excellent when cooked multiple ways, they smoke up incredibly well.

Many anglers like taking packages of salmon bellies home with them to smoke. Here, Ray, our longtime cook, shares one way he likes to prepare silver salmon bellies on a Cabela’s pellet grill.

Longtime guide at our Alaskan lodge, David Stumpf, is tops when it comes to twitching jigs. When not twitching jigs for steelhead on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, you can find David twitchin’ up and down the Egegik River for bright, hard-fighting coho.

Here, David shares how he likes twitching jigs for coho on the Egegik River, something he’s taught many customers of Becharof Lodge On The Egegik River to do with great effectiveness.

On Alaska’s Egegik River, salmon anglers are allowed to fish with cured roe, or eggs; not every river in Alaska allows the use of bait when salmon fishing.

Due to an abundance of fresh silver salmon coming into the river, daily, we have access to the best, freshest salmon eggs you could ask for right here at Becharof Lodge On The Egegik River.

Each evening our guides cure up fresh batches of coho salmon eggs, creating the best baits you can fish with on this river. Here’s just one way we go about curing silver salmon eggs to fish with on the Egegik River.

When it comes to fishing for salmon in Alaska, coho salmon are becoming the new king. With king salmon runs declining in many famous rivers, and daily and possession limits being greatly reduced, more and more anglers are looking to the coho salmon for relief.

Coho, or silver salmon, are highly abundant in the Egegik River, our home waters that we’ve been fishing since 1992. Here, silver salmon receive very little fishing pressure, and anglers can catch and keep five silver salmon a day.

Once you’ve limited out, you can keep fishing, catch and release. If you grow tired of catching coho salmon while drifting cured eggs, switch to lures, bobber and jig, twitching jigs, beads, plugs, flies or poppers; the options are many, and the fish catching as good as it gets anywhere in Alaska.

We first established Becharof Lodge on the Egegik River in 1992, and were the first to do so in this special part of very remote Alaska.

Our knowledge of the salmon and the many ways to pursue them on this crystal clear river, is unmatched, and getting to our camp is so easy. Simply fly to Anchorage then hop on a plane for the one hour flight to King Salmon.

A member of our bushplane service will meet you in King Salmon, help gather your gear, then get you on the bushplane for a 30 minute flight to our camp on the Egegik River…fishing with us in secluded Alaska is that simple.

When it comes to salmon fishing on Alaska’s Egegik River, we at Becharof Lodge supply all the tackle you’ll need. From G. Loomis E6X spinning rods and IMX-Pro fly rods, to Shimano spinning reels and Cabela’s fly reels–including all the terminal gear you’ll need to fish multiple ways–we’ve got you covered.

However, due to the many ways the silver salmon can be fished on the Egegik River, many anglers like bringing their own fishing tackle.

With that in mind, here are some suggestions on what fishing tackle we recommend, along with general gear you’ll find beneficial for your stay at Becharof Lodge On The Egegik River.

At Becharof Lodge On The Egegik River, we specialize in world-class coho fishing. The Egegik River is easy to navigate, simple to wade, and the silver salmon can be caught multiple ways.

Here’s a look at what to expect when it comes to fishing coho salmon in remote Alaska with us.

There are many ways to fillet a fish. Due to the high oil content of the fresh coho salmon we catch on Alaska’s Egegik River, many clients like taking the belly meat home with them to smoke or cook on the grill.

This video shows one way to butterfly fillet a silver salmon. Once removed, the meat can be packaged, whole, or the bellies can be removed and packaged for you trip home.

Once filleted, we recommend taking a spoon and scraping all the meat off both sides of the spine because even on a good fillet job, up to a cup or more of meat can remain on the skeleton of a single silver salmon.

Another option is to remove the head and tail and smoke the spines, which yields great eating meat.

There’s nothing like enjoying fresh caught salmon, and on Alaska’s Egegik River, it doesn’t get any fresher than this. We specialize in shore lunches, but here an angler wanted see just how good a fresh-caught salmon can truly be.

So, with the help of a buddy and a quick filet job to serve one person, along with a hot grill, you can see for yourself just how nice a fresh silver salmon cooks up. And yes, we cleaned up every bit of remaining meat off the fish.

Bead fishing for salmon continues to grow in popularity. Here, noted TV host and longtime author, Scott Haugen, shares how he likes rigging Soft Beads for fishing coho salmon on the Egegik River.

Scott has been coming to Becharof Lodge on the Egegik River for well over a decade, and he enjoys catching these hard-fighting fish, multiple ways, including on the bead.

On Alaska’s Egegik River you’re allowed to fish with bait, which includes salmon eggs, or roe. Every day of the season we catch and cure fresh salmon eggs for anglers to use.

The key to attaining a well-cured egg to fish with starts with bleeding your fish, and is followed by careful removal that won’t damage the skeins and connective tissues.

Here, a silver salmon is filleted with the eggs and entrails still intact. You can see that the ribs protect the skeins, and once the fillets are removed, egg removal is simple, as is filleting the rest of the fish. There are different ways to remove skeins from salmon, but this is the one we most commonly use at Becharof Lodge On The Egegik River.

People take home a lot of salmon when fishing with us on Alaska’s Egegik River, and we get many questions on ways to prepare all that fish.

Here, noted outdoor cookbook author, speaker, and TV host, Tiffany Haugen, shares one way to prepare salmon to be cooked on a Camp Chef pellet grill.

Scott Haugen, author of the best selling book, Egg Cures: Proven Recipes & Techniques, has been coming to Becharof Lodge on the Egegik River for many years.

Due to all the salmon fishing he does in other parts of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, he often takes a cooler full of salmon eggs home. When curing large batches of salmon eggs, recipe diversification is key.

Here, Scott Haugen shares some egg curing tips that are sure to help all you salmon and steelhead anglers, wherever your journeys may take you.

Longtime outdoor writer, Scott Haugen, has been fishing the Egegik River with Becharof Lodge for 15 years. In this video he looks at what makes coho fishing on Alaska’s Egegik River so unique. Haugen also details drift-fishing techniques, as well as how to cast plugs from shore for salmon (and steelhead). He shares what he loves about the Egegik River, and why he keeps coming back after all these years. Scott Haugen has fished throughout Alaska for 31 years, is author of one of the best selling books of all time, A Flyfisher’s Guide To Alaska, and he still ranks the Egegik River as the best coho salmon stream he’s fished, year after year.