Fish Report 7-8-21

The pink salmon are rolling in, Dollies are moving into freshwater and nice kings are still being caught. It is a great time to be fishing around Juneau!

Nice bright pink salmon!

Pinks are moving in to the area and are steadily being caught off the beaches and at stream mouths. Echo Cove has pinks all the way up to the boat ramp area with more fish out by the sand spit. The lower end of the tide is generally more productive as the pinks are closer to the beach. When you get to Echo Cove take a few minutes and look for rolling fish. They may be next to the boat ramp or they may be across the cove along the far shore. Walking out the shoreline on the same side as the boat ramp can lead you to some great fishing, but it is easily a mile out there.

Humpy Hookers and Searunner Specials are easy to cast and super effective. A floating line and 9 foot 10lb or 12lb Salmon/Steelhead Leader is ideal. Try a strip-strip-pause retrieve that isn't too fast. You'll often feel the line go tight when you resume stripping after the pause.

Pinks have also been caught at Lena Cove, Fish Creek and a few in Cowee Creek. The freshwater fishing for pinks will pick up as we get into the latter half of July.

Cowee Creek has been the bright spot for catching Dollies this past week. They are in little pockets and you'll find groups of Dollies hanging out together waiting for the salmon to arrive. Cowee will keep getting better as more pinks and chums push into the river. As usual, Montana Creek is fairly slow in early July. It will pick up for Dolly fishing later in July as the chum salmon push in.

Bright king from early July.

Finally, kings keep steadily coming in. Fish Creek has been the most productive of late. Some fish are still bright while others have some blush to them, but with a little persistence you can find one out there.

Nice king from the first week of July.

Bead season is nearly upon us as the salmon start pushing into freshwater. From mid July through the end of the season, Dollies will key in on eggs and fishing for them behind spawning salmon is a lot of fun. If you haven't tried bead fishing or if you want to replenish your supply, we have a great stock of the best colors and sizes. For one stop shopping it is hard to beat our SE Alaska Bead Starter Kit. It has everything you need to catch Dollies in Southeast.