Artificial Lure with your Bristol Bay fishing report for Wednesday, June 4th, 2025. The sockeye surge is in full swing and Bristol Bay is humming again this week as millions of salmon push toward the rivers and anglers cash in on the early-season action.

Weather this morning is on the cooler side with mist hanging over the water, typical for June in the Bay. Expect high temps near the mid-50s and some cloud cover, but nothing that should keep you off the water. Sunrise came in bright and early at 6:04 AM, and sunset is about as late as you’ll find anywhere in the country right now—11:16 PM. That’s a whopping 17 hours of daylight to work your flies, spinners, or bait. Tides for Port Moller are showing a morning high around 5:40 AM and a midday low at 12:07 PM, so prime fishing will bracket those shifts as the salmon stack up in the shallows and near river mouths.

The big headline is sockeye. Alaska Department of Fish and Game has forecast a massive return this season—over 51 million sockeye projected into Bristol Bay, with a potential harvestable surplus of around 36.4 million fish. That’s not quite last season’s historic haul, but it’s way above the long-term average and every bit as exciting for anglers. Fish counts are rolling in strong on the Nushagak, Kvichak, Naknek, and Egegik rivers, with boats regularly limiting out and guides reporting solid action along the flats and gravel bars. In recent days, crews have been catching plenty of bright, hard-fighting sockeye with average weights in the 5-to-7-pound range. Early Chinook are trickling into the Nushagak and Wood rivers as well, but the main push still looks to be a week or so out.

Best lures right now are classic flashy spinners—think #3 Blue Fox Vibrax in silver or chartreuse, Mepps Aglia, or a hammered brass Pixee spoon. Sockeye are also slamming on smaller flies like the Sockeye Lantern, Clouser Minnow, and good old egg-sucking leeches. For bait, cured salmon roe remains unbeatable if regulations allow, but beads and yarn are also productive. Don’t forget your fluorocarbon leaders, especially during the midday sun.

For hot spots, the Nushagak River continues to be the can’t-miss location for both sockeye and early kings. Down on the Egegik mouth, boats are scoring as fish ride the flood, while the Naknek River’s Rapids Camp is lighting up for the walk-and-wade crowd. Also worth checking: the Kvichak River flats at first light and the inside edge of Ugashik bay on a dropping tide.

That’s it for today from Bristol Bay—get out there, be safe, and wet a line while the bite holds strong. Thanks for tuning in to the report, don’t forget to subscribe for all your daily updates. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.