On the Hook! A roster of sports fish in Alaska's Interior.

• Author: Kay, Alexandra
• Position: FISHERIES

Homer has its halibut, the Kenai its kings, Bristol Bay is famous for its sockeye, and Southeast harvests herring. Far from Alaska's 6,640 miles of coastline, though, anglers find plenty of opportunities for sport fishing. The Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) counts an average of nearly 102,000 resident angler days each year in the Arctic/Yukon/Kuskokwim region, plus more than 44,000 non-resident angler days. And they're not snagging salmon--at least, they have plenty of other options. Region III, which encompasses about 80 percent of the state, is home to thirty-seven freshwater and brackish water fish species, of which several are targeted as sport fish.

There's burbot, referred to as the poor man's lobster, an eel-looking fish with mottled skin ranging from black to gray to olive or even yellow. It's popular with sport fishers mainly for its flavor. It is the only freshwater species of cod, which may be why it's so good to eat. Unlike other freshwater fish, burbot spawn in mid-to-late winter, which makes them active during ice fishing season. "A lot of people use set lines for burbot in the winter," says Andrew Gryska, Tanana area biologist for ADF&G. A relatively long-lived and slow-growing fish, burbot typically average three to five pounds, with some fish getting up to about eight pounds, which is not uncommon in the Yukon and Tanana rivers. Burbot live in rivers, both clear and glacial, and in many lakes throughout Alaska, but not in Southeast. The largest burbot sport fisheries occur in the Tanana River and lakes in the upper Tanana, Upper Copper, and Upper Susitna river drainages.

Sheefish, the largest member of the whitefish family, can travel up to 1,000 miles in a year looking for food, spawning sites, and spots to overwinter. Found in large northern rivers and lakes, sheefish are large white or silver colored fish without spots or other markings and have a lower jaw that extends beyond the upper one and a mouth full of small, densely packed teeth. "Sometimes called the tarpon of the north, sheefish are big and aggressive," says Brendan Scanlon, Northwest and North Slope area biologist for the ADF&G Division of Sport Fish. "The state record for one is fifty-three pounds, and there are several places where you can catch fifteen- to thirty-pound fish pretty easily." Sheefish can grow more than 3 feet long and spawn multiple times over their thirty-year lifespan. "The Native population does a lot of sheefish fishing, and...