One of the reasons many of our guests join us each season at Alaska West is to catch some of these.. Big Alaskan leopard rainbow trout.
Not only are they super pretty and extremely aggressive towards mouse flies, but they also reach sizes rivaling that of some summer steelhead.. Except they stay in our river all year long, and we think that’s pretty cool.
I showed a fly fisherman from Pennsylvania the mangled size 2 Mustad 9672 Egg Sucking Leech I had from a trip on the Copper River. He asked what kind of fish had done that. I said, “a rainbow”. He could not believe me. I explained that the trout we catch on the limestone creeks in New York and Pennsylvania are called “bait” in Alaska. Another good reason I use better quality hooks like Daiichi. As for mouse patterns, I like the Morrish’s Mouse and Dave Whitlock’s Mouserat best. Mousing for ‘bows in late August in Alaska is great fun.