Picnic Lake Fishing near Sterling, Alaska

• Overview

  You will find Picnic Lake in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska. The sea is 26 miles distant. This is a pocket water of some 17 acres, and every part of it is reachable from the bank. On size it sits at the modest end of our Kenai Peninsula Borough list. For a base, Sterling sits 17 miles out. Anchorage sits 48 miles out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. There is no boundary nearby to worry about.

• Where to Fish on Picnic Lake

  Without a survey to go on, judge depth from how the bank falls away. Read the surface for the wind lane, then fish the edge of it. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Kenai Peninsula Borough records list northern pike, sockeye salmon, rainbow trout, Coho salmon and Chinook salmon among the fish reported. Protected fish appear in the records for this area, so treat the list as information, not an invitation. Picnic Lake gives up more to patience than to distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The range across the year is 18°F to 56°F. Hard water is a season in its own right here. Winter fishing happens on the ice here, with open water back around late April. Open water usually runs from late April until about early November. Look to early summer and the first cool weeks of autumn. It holds true on Picnic Lake more years than not.

• Tackle & Baits

  Ownership and access are not documented in what we hold. Mapping is blank for access, so scout the approach before committing the car. Trout here take small spinners, spoons and, where fly water allows, a nymph or dry. Read any posted signs at the access point rather than assuming. Some stretches are reserved and marked as such on the ground. Failing this one, try Campsite Lake, 0.8 miles away. Check the position at Picnic Lake before loading the car.