Fly Fishing Salmon

[Slugranch]

My Son in Law moved to Alaska along with my grandchildren and my daughter. He called me yesterday and asked me what he should be buying to fly fish for salmon in Ship Creek. As I recall, that is a little creek that flows into Cook Inlet in the Anchorage city limits. He says that all of the local guys that he has talked to are avid fly fishermen and that he needs to know what the hot artificials are. If it were me, I'd break out the corkies and yarn,,,,,,,,,,

[Pete]

When I worked at a popular fly fishing catalog business, we used to load fly boxes with black or purple egg-sucking leaches and egg flies when we equipped folks for Alaska. Those would be my first two choices. The flies I always found the most interesting were floating deer hair mouse flies for steelhead ... huge things!

[Grantspastor]

Those deer hair mice flies work great on really big rainbows too.

Ship Creek is fairly small. The flies Pete mentioned will work fine. The big thing there are the 30-33' tides. The fish will come in on a high tide when the depth at the mouth is 20-30'. When the tide goes out it drops to almost nothing. I don't know how you would fly fish the mouth on a high tide, but farther upstream fish it just like you would a smaller river.

Be careful about walking the muddy banks near the mouth. You can get stuck in the mud and it could be a serious problem

[ 06-30-2003, 08:39 AM: Message edited by: Grantspastor ]

[reeldick]

He's going to find that the biggest problem fly fishing Ship Creek when the salmon are in is the elbow to elbow crowds.

[Slugranch]

This will make me sound like an Archie Bunker, but what he'll do is go plunk down a few hundred bucks on a Sage rod and a high dollar reel and all of the related items, go there once and find out fly fishing isn't for him, and then put the gear over in the corner of the garage and never use it again along with all of the diving equipment and the mountain and ice climbing equipment and the golf clubs and the workout equipment,,,,,,,,,,,,,you all know the type,,,,,,,

[draggin bottom]

You bring up a very good point. The rod does not need to be high dollar. Any sound 9 or 10 wt. will do the job. Doesn't sound like he has far to cast anyway. So the high line speed rods are a waste. Tough to cast for a beginner anyway. The reel may be a different story. He'll need a good drag system and room for backing. I'd recommend getting on Ebay and picking up a closed out Redington RS or AL for a hundred bucks or less. Take it for what it is worth.
DB

[Grantspastor]

Slugranch...I have an idea. Tell him instead of sticking that outfit into the corner of his garage to send it to me!

[boo]

Here's a pic of Ship Creek in June of 03. I wandered down to see if anyone was catching and just had to take a picture.
I'd guess I'd suggest bringing mud boots and elbow pads. Didn't see anyone hook up in the 30-35 minutes I was there but there must be times when they slay them or why else would you put up with this.

[ 07-05-2003, 04:47 PM: Message edited by: boo ]

[GutshotApe]

Ahh...Alaska, the last frontier. :depressed:

That photo reminds me of the crowds of snaggers along Russian River on the Kenai Pen. Fishing in the parts of Alaska accessible by road is often more crowded than it is in the lower 48...and the fishing ethics of many people up there leave a lot to be desired.

[Fish_N_Russ]

Hey who needs Alaska, I caught a springer on a fly this evening on the Santiam...........course it had a few white spots on it.....and I only had it on for about 10 seconds, but hey still :tongue:

[Mojo]

Heavily weighted hot pink and chartreuse bunny leeches. They work best for me.

[willametteriveroutlaw]

If you do a little exploring and fish different rivers than the ones that are highly touted you do very well, without fighting monster crowds. You just have to escape the coffee grinder meat fishing crowd. Even at the russian river you can easily avoid the crowds if you fish late night and or are willing to hike, just watch out for bears.