Sixmile Lake in Lake and Peninsula Borough: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  You will find Sixmile Lake in Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska. This is lake country bush country. Surface area runs to some 5.3 sq miles, so a boat and a plan are both worth having. Some 104 miles away sits Anchor Point, the nearest settlement. Diamond Ridge is 115 miles and Homer 115 miles. The nearest edge is a long way off, so local rules apply throughout.

• Where to Fish on Sixmile Lake

  Depth went unrecorded, which puts the reading back on you. On a natural lake the weed line and the shelf beyond it do the work. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. Reported across Lake and Peninsula Borough: sockeye salmon, Chinook salmon and Arctic grayling. Several of these carry legal protection or closed seasons; the rulebook comes before the rod. Fish Sixmile Lake to its features, not to its size.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The year swings from about 14°F in January to roughly 57°F in July. A hard winter is normal, and the thaw brings a strong few weeks. Hard water holds through the cold months, breaking up near early May. Break-up near early May, freeze-up near early November: that is the shape of an average year. Fishing peaks soon after break-up and again before the cold returns. That shapes the year on Sixmile Lake.

• Tackle & Baits

  There is no clear statement anywhere on who can fish it. There is no mapped parking or launch nearby, which keeps numbers down. Trout here take small spinners, spoons and, where fly water allows, a nymph or dry. Rules for this water may differ from the county norm. A polite question at the farm gate opens more banks than anything else. Pickerel Lakes, 3.3 miles away, makes the obvious fallback. None of that is settled for Sixmile Lake in what we hold.