The dam marker splits the river in two
Every Chena rule turns on one ADF&G marker, placed 300 feet downstream of the Chena River dam, the Moose Creek flood-control structure above North Pole. Upstream of that marker the river is closed to all salmon fishing and every grayling goes back. Downstream, through North Pole and Fairbanks, grayling are catch-and-release from April 1 to May 31 and then one a day, no size limit, from June 1 to March 31. The whole drainage, Badger Slough included, is open all year.
Tackle is the same on both sides: one unbaited, single-hook artificial lure or fly, except that a lure with one treble hook whose gap is larger than half an inch may be used for species other than salmon. Bait is legal only on a single hook with a gap wider than three quarters of an inch, which rules it out for grayling. At its fall 2025 meeting the Board of Fisheries repealed the youth-only grayling weekends on the lower Chena, so adults can now fish those June and July weekends too.
Chena Hot Springs Road, mile by mile
The upper Chena runs through the Chena River State Recreation Area, 397 square miles of state land about 40 miles east of Fairbanks, and Chena Hot Springs Road follows it. ADF&G lists shore access at road miles 27, 28, 28.6 and 31.6 and at each of the four bridges where the road crosses the river. State Parks puts campgrounds at Rosehip (Mile 27), Tors Trail (Mile 39) and Red Squirrel (Mile 43), and the fourth bridge, near Angel Rocks, is at Mile 48.9. The stocked ponds at Miles 30, 45.5 and 47.9 are where you can keep a fish on this road; the river itself is release only.
Jet boats launch at Mile 28 and at the second bridge. ADF&G calls the river low-gradient, mostly clear and Class I to II, but warns that sweepers and log jams make it a trip for experienced floaters and boat drivers only. Alaska.org adds that the North Fork is usually too low to float in mid to late summer.
Dries, dark nymphs and the Salcha Pink
ADF&G's advice for upper Chena grayling is short. Dry flies are often very productive, mosquito and mayfly patterns in particular. When the fish will not come up, fish black or brown nymphs. Once kings and chums are spawning in July and August, egg patterns such as the Salcha Pink work well, just do not cast at the salmon themselves. Spin anglers do well with small spoons, spinners and white or pink jigs.
The fishing lasts from breakup into fall. ADF&G's Tanana run-timing chart shows grayling peaking June through September, and the dry-fly water is best once the June runoff has dropped.
Six years without a king goal
The Chena and the Salcha are the Tanana drainage's two biggest king producers, and neither has reached its escapement goal in six years. The Chena goal is 3,300 to 5,700 kings, and the 2025 estimate was 1,247. On February 18, 2026, ADF&G closed the entire Tanana drainage, Chena included, to king fishing through September 30, catch-and-release included; an incidental king may not be lifted from the water. The department's counting tower on the Chena finished on August 14 at 1,546 kings, still less than half the bottom of the goal.
Chum salmon also ran into trouble. A Tanana drainage chum closure in June was rescinded on July 8, but kings stayed closed. For anyone who remembers keeping a Chena king, the practical meaning is simple: until the tower count climbs back toward the goal, treat the river as a grayling fishery that happens to have salmon spawning in it, and give the redds room when you wade in July and August.
What the Fairbanks gauge shows
USGS 15514000 is in Fairbanks, below the dam, so it reads the lower river, not the Hot Springs Road water 40 miles upstream. Its long-term monthly means peak at breakup, about 3,500 cfs in May, then settle to 2,100 to 2,600 from June through September and fall to about 1,300 in October. No shop publishes a grayling range here, so the 1,300 to 2,600 cfs band on this page is the June through October span of those means. A summer rain spike well above it muddies the lower river and pushes the upper river into the brush; readings at or below the band are the clear-water days.