5/16/2024 Fishing Report

So far, we are off to a pretty nice spring.  Despite a few days of normal Juneau weather, things have been stellar.  After a couple weeks of fairly spotty fishing reports, we are starting to see a bunch of consistency in hitting fish, so weekly fishing reports are back on starting today.  Before we get to the fishing, just a quick reminded about the community casting event at Twin Lake tonight at 6.  We will be there with Trout Unlimited offering free casting lessons and rod demos.  If you can't make it, there are still 4 spots open for our class next Friday from 6-8.  Meet at the shop.

The trout and steelhead fishing has been pretty good this year.  The Dredge Lakes area and Auke Lake has been producing a bunch of nice trout using a variety of different flies.  Small fry patterns, leeches and even some dry flies have all worked well.  As far as steelhead go there have been good numbers of fish around this year.  The water did get low for a bit, and we want to remind people that even a good run of steelhead in our systems is very small and very fragile.  If you find yourself catching the same fish, then it's time to find another fishery for a while.  Steelhead will get stressed at low water and overfishing/poor handling (lifting them out of the water for too long) can have serious consequences for returns in years to come.  Please remember to approach this fishery with a conservation mindset rather than catch as many as possible.  This last bit of rain raised water levels a good bit and we did see some new fish move in.  I suspect we are very near the end of the run.  With time running out Cowee Creek would be the best spot to try your luck one last time.

For those of you who have been waiting to hit the saltwater for spring Dollies the wait is over.  We have not heard very many reports of people having success at Sheep Creek yet, but closer to town near the bridge has been consistently producing fish.  If you are up for a drive, both Echo Cove and Boy Scout Beach have schools of nice Dollies around.  AK Clousers are still some of our favorite patterns for Dollies this time of year.  If you are getting some short strikes, it is worth switch over to the stinger version.

As always, we love featuring your photos for our fishing reports.  If you have a great fish, scenery, or action photo that has to do with fishing around town send it our way!  You can email photos or videos to cory@alaskaflyfishinggoods.com.  Please remember to handle fish with care, especially if you are practicing catch and release.  Consider getting a net with a rubber basket to help land fish quickly, pinch your barbs and keep them in the water until you are ready to snap a quick photo.

See you on the water!

The Crew at AFFG

Listed below are the hot patterns of the week.  Fisheries change here through-out the season and so do the best patterns to use.  Below are some of the recommended flies for the current fisheries.  Happy fishing!

Hot Beads/Flies - Steelhead

Hot Flies - Dolly Varden

Hot Flies - Cutthroat Trout