5/4/2023 Fishing Report

Welcome back for another great year of fishing!  The time has finally come to dust off the gear and start prospecting around town looking for those first few fish of the season.  Winters grip is finally easing up a bit, the ice is melting off the lakes and smolt are starting to out-migrate to the ocean.  While it is still early there are spots that are starting to produce fish around town.  We even heard of the first road system steelhead getting hooked a couple days ago.

Cutthroat trout are among the first fish we can catch here on the road system and lakes tend to be the best bet for locations.  Try small smolt flies on the surface or small leeches stripped in slowly on a sink tip.  Cowee Creek was running very high and muddy after this last little shot of rain mid-week.  As soon as it starts to drop there is a good chance fish will start moving in.  Last weekend we saw a few Dollies on their way out to the saltwater and landed a solo cutthroat.  We didn't see any steelhead, but there are a lot of hiding spots below the bridge now.   This weekend's big tides will help get fish moving into the creeks.

DIPAC moved out the smolt pens last weekend and this is a good indication that there are a few Dollies starting to cruise around the salt water.  Try bracketing the low tide out at Sheep Creek for early Dolly Varden.  The other good early spot for Dollies is out at Echo Cove.  Please keep in mind that Peterson Creek, the Salt Chuck and the ocean within 200 yards of the mouth of Peterson are CLOSED to fishing until July 1st.

For those of you heading to Yakutat the most recent reports are of slow fishing.  The Hooligan returned to the Situk this year in a big way and the steelhead have been slow to trickle in.  Often times when the Hooligan are thick so are the estuary predators, this makes the steelhead think twice before pushing up the river.  Note the predation marks on the fish in the picture above.  With the recent rain on the Situk and this weekend's bigger tides we expect the fishing to be good this coming week.

Listed below are the hot patterns of the week.  Whether you are after steelhead, cutthroat trout, or Dolly Varden we have the right stuff for you.  If you are trying to get out on the water fast, you can also come into the shop and get one of our grab and go fly packages.

Hot Flies- Steelhead

Hot Flies- Dolly Varden/Cutthroat Trout