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Home › Waters › Alaska › Stikine River
River · Southeast Alaska, the delta and lower river above Wrangell where the Stikine crosses out of British Columbia into the Inside Passage · Alaska

Stikine River Fishing Guides

A vast glacial river crossing the border into the Inside Passage above Wrangell, carrying king salmon, steelhead and a spring eulachon run.

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

Guides on the Stikine River

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About the Stikine River

The Stikine drains nearly twenty thousand square miles of northern British Columbia before it crosses into Alaska and spreads into a wide silt delta above Wrangell. It is one of the largest undammed rivers on the Pacific coast and it behaves like it – grey with glacial flour through the summer, braided across a mile of gravel in places, and moving with real authority. This is big country fished from boats, not a river anyone wades.

King salmon are the fish the Stikine is best known for, and the run supports both a directed sport fishery and a long-standing subsistence and commercial harvest managed jointly by the United States and Canada. Season structure changes year to year with the forecast, and it can be restricted at short notice, so checking the current announcement is not optional here. Coho follow in late summer and into the fall and are the more reliable target for a visiting angler.

The tributaries and clearwater sloughs are where much of the fishing actually happens. The mainstem runs too turbid to fish well through the melt season, so guides work the clear side channels, tributary mouths and the sloughs of the delta where fish stage and where the water has some visibility. Dolly Varden and sea-run cutthroat use these same clear pockets and provide steady fishing when the salmon are between runs.

Access is by boat from Wrangell, which sits at the river mouth and is the natural base for a trip. Jet boats run well upriver, including across the border into British Columbia, and a handful of operators offer multi-day trips to the hot springs and the upper canyon. The spring eulachon run in April and May is the other event worth knowing about, drawing sea lions, seals and a remarkable concentration of bald eagles to the delta.

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

Posting to Stikine River.

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.

Access

Wrangell - the town at the river mouth and the base for every guided trip.
Stikine River delta sloughs - the clearwater channels where most fishing takes place.
Shakes Slough - a well-known clearwater side channel with a Forest Service cabin.
Andrew Creek - a clearwater tributary that holds king salmon and steelhead.
Garnet Ledge - a landmark and access point on the lower delta.
US-Canada border reach - the upper limit of most jet boat trips out of Wrangell.
Forest Service cabins - Shakes Slough and Twin Lakes cabins for multi-day access.

Seasons

Spring: the eulachon run in April and May, high glacial melt, and enormous eagle concentrations.
Summer: king salmon in the early season and heavy turbid water on the mainstem.
Fall: coho fishing in the clearwater sloughs and the most reliable season for a visiting angler.
Winter: cold and quiet, with ice and low light limiting boat access.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Stikine River?

As of Sep 17, 5:15 am, the USGS gauge STIKINE R NR WRANGELL AK reads 55,400 cfs, with water temperature 49.5 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Stikine River?

Anglers target Chinook Salmon, Coho Salmon, Cutthroat Trout, Dolly Varden, Sockeye Salmon, Steelhead on the Stikine River in Alaska.

Where can you access the Stikine River?

Wrangell - the town at the river mouth and the base for every guided trip. Stikine River delta sloughs - the clearwater channels where most fishing takes place. Shakes Slough - a well-known clearwater side channel with a Forest Service cabin. Andrew Creek - a clearwater tributary that holds king salmon and steelhead. Garnet Ledge - a landmark and access point on the lower delta. US-Canada border reach - the upper limit of most jet boat trips out of Wrangell. Forest Service cabins - Shakes Slough and Twin Lakes cabins for multi-day access.

When is the best time to fish the Stikine River?

Spring: the eulachon run in April and May, high glacial melt, and enormous eagle concentrations. Summer: king salmon in the early season and heavy turbid water on the mainstem. Fall: coho fishing in the clearwater sloughs and the most reliable season for a visiting angler. Winter: cold and quiet, with ice and low light limiting boat access.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Stikine River?

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