Fly Fishing for Trout in Alaska | Answers to Basic Questions

Alaska Trout Questions — Typical, beautiful Alaskan trout.

Today we’re continuing a little series of posts where we answer basic questions about some of the topics we normally cover in a lot of detail. No question is too simple!

We’ve covered basic questions about bonefishing and spey fishing. On to trout fishing in Alaska…

9 Questions About Alaskan Trout Fishing You Were Afraid to Ask

Alaska is a big place with highly varied fishing – we’re going to answer these questions from our standpoint at Alaska West.

What kind of tippet do you use? We use pretty heavy, thick tippet since our fish get big and we fish around a lot of structure that can break fine leaders. We don’t use 5x tippet at all – 10 pound Maxima Ultragreen is a common choice.
How many fish can you keep? None. All trout fishing in most quality waters in Alaska is catch and release. You can take home a box of delicious salmon that you caught instead.
Do you use dry flies? We almost never use traditional dry flies that imitate insects, since insects are a tiny part of our trout’s diet. More on this below. The most common form of dry fly fishing we do is mousing!
What’s mousing? Our trout actually eat rodents than fall in and/or decide to swim across the river. Mousing is using really big dry flies (about the size of a golf ball) that imitate rodents. It’s a really fun way to fish because trout move a long way for that big meal.
What other kinds of flies do you use? Typical sculpin flies, a variety of leeches, flies made of rabbit fur that imitate pieces of salmon flesh, small beads that imitate salmon eggs, and other stuff too.
What weight rod do you use? A 6 weight is the standard trout rod in Western Alaska – big enough to fight most fish, but still fun to cast all day. 7 weights are used to target the biggest trout, and 5 weights can be fun in small water like side channels.
Is it hard? Since our trout have only a few months to feed, they have to be really aggressive, which means that it’s usually not hard to catch a bunch of fish. However, the biggest trout in Western Alaska are old (well over 10 years!) and smart, so they can be much harder to hook and land.
Do you wade or fish from a drift boat? Both! We fish on foot in the main river and in side channels. We also fish from our small jet boats just like you would from a drift boat. We don’t use real drift boats because there are no roads in our part of the state – you need a motor to go upriver.
Why should I fish for trout when there are salmon around? Because our trout are really beautiful, you might catch the biggest trout of your life, you can use a wide variety of techniques in a bunch of different parts of the river, and trout fishing can be a really nice break from slaying salmon all day.