Tony Weaver

One of Alaska's most popular fisheries, the much-anticipated Russian River red salmon run, opens Wednesday morning, and 1,416 sockeyes are already past the weir at the outlet of Lower Russian Lake. That puts the run considerably ahead of last year, when 35,776 sockeyes eventually made it upriver to spawn.

If you live in Alaska, you can wait all summer for the elements to cooperate and end up never leaving town, or you can go fishing when the weather and conditions aren't in your favor. It usually pays dividends -- even if the fish aren't biting.

Expect the Deep Creek, Anchor and Ninilchik weekend fisheries to improve this weekend. The Anchor River has been slow for kings with a very few fish caught over the Memorial Day weekend, picking up a bit on Sunday and Monday.

When you're planning a fishing expedition, nothing beats firsthand information from people who have recently fished the place where you're headed.

May fishing is turning out to be productive for anglers, especially saltwater anglers. Nice weather helps, and most of the sportfishing charters have been doing well, taking advantage of warmer water temperatures and the great weather.

May fishing is turning out to be productive for anglers, especially saltwater anglers. Nice weather helps, and most of the sport-fishing charters have been doing well, taking advantage of warmer water temperatures and the great weather.

The rain and shorter days means the Alaska fishing season is nearing its end, but there's still time for trout and steelhead before calling it quits.

As the fishing slows for nearly everything but Valdez silver salmon, there is time to check out next year's gear and goodies.

Even when the fishing isn't great by Alaska standards, it's can still be pretty spectacular, especially if you're fishing with friends from out of state.

For Alaska anglers, living in the epicenter of the world's best fishing presents a problem -- too many choices, and too little time.

For a truly amazing Alaska fishery, there's nothing like Ship Creek -- a muddy slice of coho heaven right in downtown Anchorage.

Now's a good time for novices, visitors and kids to try their luck.

Last weekend's mob looking for red salmon on the Kenai Peninsula was a flashback to the old days, when the now-dwindling king salmon runs fueled the area's economy for all of June and July.

The first wave of second-run sockeyes has hit the Kenai River and fishing is good. But there's controversy brewing when it comes to the new Halibut Catch Sharing Plan proposed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.