Beaver Lake Fishing Guide, Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska

• Overview

  Beaver Lake lies within the bounds of Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska. The bank gives way to rolling hill. About 13 acres of surface, which puts the far bank inside easy sight. It is a small entry by Ketchikan Gateway Borough standards. Ketchikan sits 18 miles from here and is the nearest stop. Metlakatla lies 23 miles off, Craig another 77 miles. It lies deep inside the county rather than near an edge.

• Where to Fish on Beaver Lake

  Our records carry no depth, so judge it from the bank. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. Species logged across Ketchikan Gateway Borough include pink salmon, Chum salmon, Chinook salmon, Coho salmon and sockeye salmon. Several of these carry legal protection or closed seasons; the rulebook comes before the rod. At Beaver Lake the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Temperature averages peak at 58°F in August and bottom out at 32°F in January. A lid forms in a hard winter only. Some winters give nothing at all, so plan for open water. February into May fishes hardest as the water warms. Beaver Lake fishes to that pattern most years. After a storm, the water clears from the edges inwards.

• Tackle & Baits

  No access rule appears in what we hold. We find no slipway, car park or made path within a short radius, so treat access as rough. For the trout, small spinners and a box of nymphs cover both approaches. Gates get locked out of season on water like this. Barbless rules turn up on managed water more often than not. For a change of water, Star Lake is 0.5 miles distant. What applies at Beaver Lake may have changed since it was mapped.