Fish Report 6-11-20

Fat Fish Creek King!

We've just come off a pretty exciting week of fishing and we're looking for things to get even better next week. Kings, sockeye and Dollies are all on the table for the next few weeks.

Kings lead off our report this week. Saltwater king fishing opens this Monday June 15th. There continue to be a lot of kings spotted in the channel and solid numbers being landed at Fish Creek in the freshwater. And that number will keep building until we reach our annual peak of the run between June 20 and July 1.

ADF&G just released a new Emergency Order liberalizing retention of king salmon. In the terminal area resident anglers can keep four king salmon of any size per day. Outside the terminal area (Sheep Creek anglers take note!) is three king salmon per day 28" in length or greater. These changes were made due to the lack of non-resident anglers fishing for kings this year. With less overall pressure, they were able to open up more liberal bag limits.

Note that the channel south of the Douglas Bridge is not in the terminal area!

If you plan to fish kings before the 15th, Fish Creek remains your only option. Check last week's report for a map of where it is legal to fish in Fish Creek as well as the best tides. It has been busy at Fish, especially on the weekend, but it is a fun crowd and fish are being caught on most (but not every) tide swing. If the side by the houses is too full to find a spot, you can always fish the other side of the creek near Fritz Cove. There is a long shallow shelf that protrudes out near the freshwater boundary where you can wade out and cast into the deeper channel.

Big bright king straight from the salt!

The best flies this past week were all pink in color and include Mr Bodangles, Bjorn's Stinger Prawn and the Rockstar. Once the saltwater opens, good king spots other than Fish Creek include:

Lena Cove (fishes best on an incoming to high tide). Access the fishing via the picnic area.
Sheep Creek - best on a low or mid tide. The kings don't go into the creek so much as they stage out front around the channel marker. Note this is outside the terminal area so kings must be 28" or larger to keep.
Auke Creek - best around a low tide.
Beaches around the channel. All the kings returning to the hatchery have to cruise the beaches on their way back. They often push in with a flood tide and drop back out again on the low and then repeat this numerous time before pushing all the way to the hatchery. Look for areas where the channel is somewhat constricted and kings will flow by on both the flood and the drop.

If a little freshwater salmon fishing is on your mind, Windfall Creek sockeye is open Wednesdays and Saturdays this month. As usual, the early portion of the month sees very few fish coming in. Reports were of good water conditions but no fish in the creek yet. That should change here somewhere around the middle of the month as the first good push of sockeye charge in. It is definitely worth a go this Saturday or thereafter.

Super nice and healthy Dolly Varden off the beach.

Finally, beach fishing for Dollies was very good this week. Some big, solid Dollies were caught from Sheep Creek to Salmon Creek and points in between. They were fat and healthy fish and those who could tear themselves away from king fishing were rewarded. Dropping tides fished a little better than flooding tides and the Dollies disappeared completely at the dead low. Stinger Clousers and AK Clousers were deadly.

Now for a bit of shameless commerce, we just received a mega-load of waders and boots that we have been waiting on for the last month. So if you find yourself with wet feet or your boots are about done, now is the time to come check out some new gear. We have Simms waders from $179 to $849 as well as boots from $99 - $299.