This last week has been another dynamite week for fishing around the Juneau area.
With the Chum spawn now in full swing, the trout fishing has been great. The Dolly Varden have moved back into the freshwater creeks around the area, and are having a feeding frenzy on all the delicious Chum eggs floating down stream. Sheep Creek, Montana Creek, and Cowee Creek are all fishing extremely well. Egg patterns and beads in 8mm and 10mm are the key. For flies, try orange and pink in Glo Bugs, Gormans BH Egg and Billys Crystal Egg. Bead colors that are really good are Mottled Peach Roe, Mottled Glo Roe, Mottled Mango, Mottled Egg Yolk, Mottled Peachy King and Mottled Orange Clear. If painting your own beads, try Peachy Roe, Egg Yolk, Orange Clear, Glo Roe and Tangerine as the base color. Please remember that if pegging the beads above a hook or fly, the bead must be within two inches of the hook. Otherwise the bead must be able to freely slide the entire length of your leader. Refer to the ADF&G regulations for more information.
*Do note that the above photo was taken 7-19 on Cowee Creek. Don't forget your bear spray, dog, or bear deterrent the next time you head out that direction.*
On the salmon side of the spectrum, the Chum salmon are nearing the end of their life cycle, and are not as easy to target as they were a week ago. If you wish to chase a Chum try flies like the Hot Shot Comet- Pink or Chartreuse, Rocketman- White, or Striptease- White, Pink, or Purple. The Pink Salmon around the area are still few and far between. There have been a few spotted in the Echo Cove area milling around the cove at low tide, which have been most easily targeted from the sand spit with pink flies like the Humpy Hooker, Searunner Special, and Starlite Leech.
And, now we wait another couple of weeks until we can turn our sites onto the Coho Salmon.
Happy Fishing!
-Brad, Mike & Kayla
