Everybody loves fishing dry flies. There’s just nothing that beats the excitement of a surface take.
In Western Alaska we fish dry flies quite a lot, but the vast majority of the time they’re about as far as you can get from a traditional “match the hatching insect” dry fly program. Here are 4 ways we fish dry flies at Alaska West.
Fishing Dry Flies in Alaska
- Mousing for rainbow trout. Our big predatory rainbows like eating rodents, so we fish giant dry flies that imitate mice and voles. It’s crazy fun. For further reading, click here.
- ‘Wogging for silvers. Traditionally surface patterns for silver salmon were made of spun deer hair, but these days we prefer foam flies of various types because they’re more durable when you’re hooking so darned many fish. Poppers, sliders, chuggers…it’s the bass fishing of the North! Additional materials can be found here.
- Skating for dollies. It’s the latest fad at Alaska West. Swing a ridiculous skater (dangling bead optional) over the top of a bunch of dollies and get ready for surface slashing insanity. We have no idea why dollies go nuts for skaters, but we know that dollies go nuts for skaters. When was the last time your stomach ached from laughing so hard…while fishing?
- Imitating bugs for grayling. Yes, this is actual dead-drift insect-imitating dry fly fishing. Sometimes grayling will eat nearly any little dry fly, but they can also get as picky as any trout, anywhere. Bring your 4 weight along and be ready for some legitimate hatch matching!
Alaska has sporadic hatches that large trout and char feed on. It usually occurs between the runoff and the egg season (June-July) but can happen anytime. I’ve had some awesome action for large Alaska trout on caddis, mayfly, black fly and stonefly imitations in SW alaska. Also, don’t forget the Dry Pinkie egg fly for times when trout are hitting your strike indicator too often. Just don’t forget your dry fly box and floatant!