Fish Report 6-18-20

A really good start to king season.

King season is off and rolling and the catch results have been super solid for mid June. Saltwater king fishing opened up this past Monday so anglers could spread out and not all have to be jammed into the freshwater portion of Fish Creek. While Fish Creek is still a very good option, Sheep Creek, Lena Cove, Auke Creek and numerous areas along Gastineau Channel also provide access to kings. Check out the ADFG map below for terminal areas that have good king concentrations. There are a lot of beach areas and constrictions between Fritz Cove and Juneau Douglas Bridge. Just sayin'.....

Note that the channel south of the Douglas Bridge is not in the terminal area! King caught outside the terminal area must be 28" and the daily limit is 3.

And while king fishing was very good, don't be discouraged if you didn't get into one. It is still king fishing which means sometimes they are bitey and sometimes they aren't! It can be maddening when they are around and don't want to eat your flies. Just keep at it and they will turn on. The tides are building this week which is a good thing as it tends to push in more fish and the kings seem to be a little more active when there is a decent amount of water moving. Fish Creek in particular will benefit from some larger tides pushing in new fish.

With more water moving you'll need a little help getting your fly down in to "the zone" where kings like to cruise. Not on the bottom mind you, but dropping your fly 3 or 4 feet below the surface is ideal. If you are fishing a floating fly line, consider getting an Airflo Salmon/Steelhead Polyleader to create your own sink tip line. A Polyleader is simply a monofilament leader with a sinking coating applied to it. You loop it on the end of your floating line, add 4 feet of tippet and tie on your fly. For 9 foot rods a 5 foot or 10 foot Polyleader is ideal. You can check them out here.

Chrome king on the fly.

The usual peak of the king run is June 20 - June 30 so this next week is the time to get after it. We are continuing to build Grab & Go selections for Kings in 6 fly, 12 fly and 20 fly configurations. We change up the contents regularly as different flies become the hot pattern. Stop in the shop to grab one or you can order one online here.

Anglers working the deep run just above the Windfall Herbert confluence.

Sockeye fishing picked up this past week at Windfall Creek. Schools of sockeye moved up the Herbert River and into Windfall Creek. Sporadic bursts of action were reported followed by lulls as the school either moved through or went off the bite. Good flies were the Sockeye Lantern in Green, Sockeye Lightning in Red and Mercer's Sockeye Fly in Black/Orange. Note that we are including all these in our Grab & Go Sockeye Selections.

Windfall will also benefit from the building tides this week. Bigger tides will push more fish in and historically Windfall fishing just keeps getting better right up until it closes in late June. There are only 3 days left to fish it this year! Saturday the 20th, Wednesday the 24th and Saturday the 27th and then Windfall is totally closed to fishing for the month of July. Get up there and give it a go.