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Home › Waters › Alaska › Staney Creek
Creek · Southeast Alaska, Prince of Wales Island, the Tongass National Forest road system west of Klawock and Craig · Alaska

Staney Creek Fishing Guides

A road-accessible Prince of Wales Island steelhead and salmon creek in the Tongass, with a gauge reading temperature, flow and stage on one of Southeast Alaska's most fishable small streams.

A braided river running out of a green Alaskan valley
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Staney Creek

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About the Staney Creek

Staney Creek drains a stretch of the Tongass National Forest on the west side of Prince of Wales Island and reaches salt water in the Gulf of Esquibel country west of Klawock. It matters out of proportion to its size for one simple reason: Prince of Wales has an extensive logging road network, and Staney Creek is one of the streams that network actually reaches. In a region where most good water needs a floatplane or a boat, a wild steelhead creek you can drive to is a rare thing.

The gauge carries water temperature, discharge and stage, and all three earn their keep here. Southeast Alaska streams are rain-driven and rise and fall fast, so the discharge reading is the difference between a fishable green creek and an unfishable brown one. Temperature matters for timing the spring steelhead, which move on rising water as the creek warms out of winter. Experienced anglers watch for the drop after a big rain rather than the peak.

The spring steelhead run is the headline. These are wild fish, not hatchery fish, and the creek fishes best from roughly April into May with fly and light gear in the pools and tailouts. Behind them come the salmon: pinks and chums in summer in big numbers, sockeye in the system, and coho in autumn, which for many visitors is the most dependable fishing of the year. Dolly Varden and coastal cutthroat are present throughout and will take a fly any month the creek is open.

This is wading and bank fishing along a forest road, with rain gear as important as tackle. Craig and Klawock are the bases, reached by ferry or by air from Ketchikan, and both have lodges and guides. Check Alaska’s regulations carefully, because steelhead and king salmon rules on Prince of Wales streams are specific and change.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Staney Creek.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Staney Creek cfs

Now: 1,290 cfs, read 5:30 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 15081497, STANEY C NR KLAWOCK AK).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Klawock - the nearest community east of the creek, with fuel, a store and the island airport.
Craig - the main town on the west side of the island, with lodges, guides, tackle and full services.
Tongass National Forest - the public land the creek runs through, and the road network that makes it reachable.
Thorne Bay - the community on the east side of the island, another base on the road system.
Hollis - the ferry terminal serving Ketchikan, and the usual arrival point for vehicles.
Ketchikan - the regional hub off the island, with air service, tackle and connections.
Staney Creek Bridge - the forest road crossing at the gauge, the obvious landmark and starting point.

Seasons

Spring: the wild steelhead run, roughly April into May, and the reason most visiting anglers come.
Summer: pink and chum salmon arrive in numbers, with sockeye in the system and Dolly Varden throughout.
Fall: coho salmon run and give the most dependable fishing of the year, with cutthroat feeding behind them.
Winter: cold, dark and high, with very little fishing and access on the forest roads unreliable.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Staney Creek?

As of Oct 18, 5:30 pm, the USGS gauge STANEY C NR KLAWOCK AK reads 1,290 cfs, with water temperature 46.6 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Staney Creek?

Anglers target Chum Salmon, Coastal Cutthroat Trout, Coho Salmon, Dolly Varden, Pink Salmon, Rainbow Trout, Sockeye Salmon, Steelhead on the Staney Creek in Alaska.

Where can you access the Staney Creek?

Klawock - the nearest community east of the creek, with fuel, a store and the island airport. Craig - the main town on the west side of the island, with lodges, guides, tackle and full services. Tongass National Forest - the public land the creek runs through, and the road network that makes it reachable. Thorne Bay - the community on the east side of the island, another base on the road system. Hollis - the ferry terminal serving Ketchikan, and the usual arrival point for vehicles. Ketchikan - the regional hub off the island, with air service, tackle and connections. Staney Creek Bridge - the...

When is the best time to fish the Staney Creek?

Spring: the wild steelhead run, roughly April into May, and the reason most visiting anglers come. Summer: pink and chum salmon arrive in numbers, with sockeye in the system and Dolly Varden throughout. Fall: coho salmon run and give the most dependable fishing of the year, with cutthroat feeding behind them. Winter: cold, dark and high, with very little fishing and access on the forest roads unreliable.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Staney Creek?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Alaska agency site: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fishregulations.main