Bright pink salmon on a Humpy Hooker!
Last week's high water kicked several fisheries into high gear and this is the time to get out and have some pre-coho season fun.
We'll start off with pink salmon fishing. At long last there are good numbers of pinks in Echo Cove and they are as far up as the boat ramp so a long trek out to the sand spit isn't required. The low end of the tide brings them in close enough to the shoreline to make them easily within fly range. A floating line, 9 foot 10lb or 12lb salmon leader and a Humpy Hooker or Searunner Special will get you in the game. If you are looking for a tune up before coho season, humpy fishing is a great way to get your "cast, strip retrieve, set the hook, fight the fish" skills ready to go. Plus pinks off the beach have plenty of pull and are a lot of fun on a 6, 7 or 8 weight rod. If you are new to beach fishing for pinks, check out our Beach Fishing For Pink Salmon video we did a few years back with some solid basic tips.
Pinks have also made their way into Cowee Creek out the road and Fish Creek out North Douglas. The fish numbers in these creeks are more modest in general, so hooking into a few fish is a more realistic goal. In Fish Creek, the area downstream from the highway is most productive and a low to incoming tide is a good time to go. Look for the area where freshwater and saltwater are meeting and you'll generally find the fish. In Cowee a weighted fly with a larger profile such as a Starlite Leech in Pink or Lead Eye Egg Sucking Leech Pink #4 is a good idea. It gets down a bit more in the current and is a larger target for them to see.
On to Dolly Varden fishing. We say it every year and we'll say it again now: If you want to find Dollies in the creeks, look for chum salmon and fish behind them. Given the choice Dollies will take chum eggs over pink eggs every day of the week. Chum numbers are low but there are more in the creeks now. Sheep Creek got a blast of chum as did Montana Creek. Cowee likely did as well but as of this time the creek still needs to drop a bit more before we can see for sure. Dolly fishing in Cowee is good upstream and downstream from the highway bridge.
Break out the SE Starter Bead Selection and get to it!
On a shop related note, we have just added a bunch of fleece tops, men's and women's rain jackets, WindBloc Gloves, Simms socks and more to our Sale Area. Check them out online or in the shop. Quantities are pretty limited so if you see something you want jump on it!
Happy fishing and we'll see you out there.
