Mendenhall River Valley - Juneau, Alaska
The amazing sunny days last weekend brought out Juneau's fly anglers in droves! It was awesome to see so many anglers out there casting fly rods for coho, and in many cases out fishing those slinging hardware and bait! The coho run is building momentum and reports of fish being caught are flooding in from all corners of Juneau. Recreational trollers are still catching coho in great numbers along the coastal channels so there's still plenty of fish making their way inbound to our local roadside fisheries over the coming weeks. In other words, the best is yet to come!
A fly caught silver fresh out of the salt.
Angler's have reported success on a wide range of flies, colors, and sizes including simple light colored starlite leeches, bulky black/white dolly llamas, and thin chartreuse/white stringer prawns and clouser patterns. We saw a few anglers post photos this week of beach caught coho with bellies full of whole herring, so if your normal go-to's aren't doing the trick don't be afraid to try out more traditional baitfish type patterns and colors (blue/white, green/white, black/white) as well. We've heard and experienced for ourselves that the coho have been soft biters so far so be sure you're giving them a solid double pump hook set to increase your odds of keeping them tight on the line. Many fish have been good size and up to 12-15 pounds so be sure your using appropriate strength leader/tippet.
A pair of coho caught on the outgoing tide.
Although fish have been getting caught all over town, the best and most consistent bets have been from AML down to Sheep Creek. Fish have been moving on both the incoming and outgoing tides. As more fish stack up into the channel 5 Mile, 9 Mile and Bayview should be heating up. The water conditions are fairly good at the moment but keep an eye out because that might change quickly with the high winds and rain predicted for tomorrow night. Hopefully we won't get too much rain, too fast and water conditions hold throughout the weekend. On the bright side of things, we're heading into a nice stretch of 60 degree days with good chances of sun into next week.
Scales from a dime bright coho/silver salmon.
We are currently well stocked on all Simms Boots and many of our wader styles and 8-weight Sage and Echo rods. Our fly bins are well stocked with coho flies. if you need to fill up your boxes do not wait long as our back supply is limited and once they are gone we will not have more until next season. As always, we have our handpicked Grab & Go Coho fly packs at the shop in 6 or 12 fly quantities for those on the "go". These will give you an assortment to choose from on the water as you dial in what the coho want to eat. If you haven't noticed it's getting a bit chilly out there, if you are in need of warm socks, gloves, neck/facemasks ("buffs"), and hats come check out our selection of Simms and Rep Your Water options to keep you warm.
Humpies just keep on coming.
Several bright pinks are still lingering around at Sheep creek and Amalga and providing great entertainment and skill building for beginner anglers and kids. Seems like they will eat just about anything right now, but pink is still the winning ticket. Another fly fishing consideration that has somewhat been overshadowed by the arrival of coho's are dollies. More pinks have made their way back into some of our stream systems and are actively dropping eggs in places on Montana Creek and Cowee Creek. If you do head out for dollies you'll likely come across few other anglers and have rested fish in each hole.
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Thanks again for all of your continued support! Happy fishing and see you on the water!
