What a year it has been! Fishing began well over a month ago, and it just keeps going.
As another week of fishing progresses, the Dollies have still been eager to take flies all around town. They are definitely schooling up and scattered around the beaches in town from Dupont to Cowee and everywhere in between. The name of the game this week is patience, and variation. If you are not seeing jumpers or salmon fry busts, don't give up just yet... there is so much food (aka salmon fry) in the water for the Dollies that they are not always forcing the fry to the surface and feeding on them. Sometimes you've just got to throw in some blind casts at your favorite beach in town, and you will typically pick up a few.
Just like usual, bracket the low tides. Use salmon fry patterns such as the AK Clouser and the Stinger Clouser Minnow in Olive/White, and Gray/White. At this point, you could also start throwing those odd ball pink flies out there too, sometimes an attraction pattern is just as good as the real deal.
Looking forward, we are just a few days away from the beginning of the Windfall Creek Sockeye season. Sockeye season is an exciting time around Juneau, because the sockeye are feisty and mighty tasty. That being said, we do remind you that Windfall is only open to fishing on Wednesday's and Saturday's through the month of June and closes the month of July to fishing all together. If you want to get a bit of lake or creek trout fishing in before then, this weekend is your last chance for a little while! We've also got a bunch of new Sockeye patterns this year, almost guaranteed to catch fish. Beyond that, King season is also only a few weeks out. We typically begin to get lucky with the terminal Fish Creek run
around mid June.
At this point, we in the shop are pulling out our sockeye and king gear, making sure it's in good working order, and prepping for the salmon season ahead. We also have our fingers crossed for more sunny days in the future!
If you've got fishing pictures you'd like us to share, send them to Kayla@alaskaflyfishinggoods.com. Don't worry, she won't give away your secret fishing spots!
