I was fortunate to visit Juneau this past week for work and was able to do a few hours of fishing around meetings.
Research was pretty scant on the internet although I did find a few spots. Fortunately the local shop was very friendly highly recommend Alaska Fly Fishing Goods. They are right next to the airport.
I hit the following spots:Montana Creek, Echo Cove, Fish Creek and Sheeps Creek.
Montana Creek was very cool. You walk along a short trail and then down a hill to the river. It is quite easy as there are steps to get down to the creek. It is a small creek in the summer roughly 30 feet wide at its widest part. The water is a really neat blue color. The chum salmon were in the creek and were spawning, the Dolly Varden's were hanging behind them eat egg patterns.
After stopping at the fly shop and picking up beads, I ventured to the river. When I first arrived there was a guy fishing right at the bottom of the trial head. Not knowing the protocol I asked if it was ok for me to fish below him. It was his second time fly fishing so he didn't care. I walked down about 20 yards and found a bend in the river. 1st trout in about 3 casts. That set the tone for the rest of the trip.
After a few fish I called to the guy and told him to come down where I was. I gave a little instruction on roll casting and after about 10 mins he was into his first dolly. He was a teacher in from MN counting chum in the creek for some organization. It was nice to pass along some experience helping another novice angler. I was there once not too long ago.
I walked down and found run after run after run. I have a bit of trout experience from fishing in ID and CO. It was pretty typical. Look for moving water, rocks, logs etc in the water where the trout will hang out. Cast the bead up stream and get the fly flowing in front of the indicator. I lost track of the number of fish but it was a great way to start the trip.
The next morning I went to Fish Creek. I followed the creek down to the mouth of the inlet about a mile walk. I fished an area the was wide open with a little current from Gastenau Bay. I saw schools of salmon and accidentally caught a chum. It was cool because it was still pretty fresh but not the intended target. I caught 2 of what we would call founder and a ton of bullheads. Every cast dragging a pink clouser n skinny water was the key. Fun but got boring after a few minutes.
I walked to an area called the snagging pond and I would learn later why. I saw some little guys hitting dries so I tried for them since I don't dry fly ever.
That was the last fish of the AM; Had to get to meetings. I went to Sheeps Creek just south of town. It was a tidal estuary with small runs. Since I was there a low tide it was just a smaller more crowded version of Montana Creeks. I caught about 10 dollys and decided to move on. I would return later in the afternoon to the same spot at Fish Creek and fished the creek near the mouth and then worked my way back up. I finally ended up at the snagging pond. There were about 5 groups of locals chucking treble hooks at salmon that got stuck in the pond. They were snagging kings and chum that got caught in the pond. I saw one guy had harvested a silver salmon so I tied on a pink and white clouser and went to work.
The pink were my target species and it was great to land him. Huge fight, huge runs, took me all over the place. So much fun but no jumps.
The next day I had a full day planned to head up to Echo Cove and look for Pinks. They said it was an off year but I bit the bullet and walked the entire cove.
After an hour walk out to the point and hour back, I saw no fish. Think walking in waders in the soft sand in Rehoboth. I did see this bear track and unknown how long it was there but it was neat to see the track and not the bear.
I fished Cowee Creek on the way back to town. I hooked into a smaller pink or big Dolly but lost him. I spent some time at some other creeks along the way back to Juneau. I had caught 1 fish that morning so I decided to go back to Montana Creek. I ended up finding this little run and got real specific trying to land the slob of the run.
This was my little honey hole. I landed this guy and he was clearly the largest Dolly on the trip.
Work called and I had to get back to it so I hit a few more runs and caught a few more fish.
No trout were harmed on the trip as all were successfully released after the pictures
Anyone want specifics please feel free to reach out directly thru the PM function.
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