Kings
We get a chance around June to fish for some local hatchery return Kings at a local creek mouth on the outbound tide in Juneau. Many days there seems to be no hot bite, but sometimes within a few minutes there will be three or four hookups, after an hour or two of nothing, without any plain correlation to fly pattern, color, speed, depth, or anything.
It's all a mystery but all in all those that keep their flies in the water the most catch the most.
Chartreuse and Fuscia seem to be the most popular colors, and it could be that the success of these colors are the results of more people fishing these. This year I caught my only one on a white "fly" but hooked two others - one on a small #4 maroon & orange maribou steelhead fly, both way different from what others were using.
http://www.vinsel.com/VINFISH.JPG
Many days, spinners seem to work better. Some of us try flies with spinner blades or propellers, like the fly in the above picture (from Jay Fair of Eagle lake, CA).
When its not too crowded, some of us try spey rods, but mostly it's slow water and cast & retrieve unless it's a big tide drop, so as much as we'd like to we usually fish singlehanded.
A tip I learned from Russ Chatham's Angler's Coast was that the fish circulate back and forth in a defined pattern, and are most inclined to bite at the turnaround point. In our situation, these points move as the tide goes out, but in river pools you could target it more easily.
It is certainly worth a try if you have some kings around, because one 25+ lb fish makes up for a lot of fishless time. Once you catch one you will find it easy to go back and keep trying.
-Vinnie in Juneau
We get a chance around June to fish for some local hatchery return Kings at a local creek mouth on the outbound tide in Juneau. Many days there seems to be no hot bite, but sometimes within a few minutes there will be three or four hookups, after an hour or two of nothing, without any plain correlation to fly pattern, color, speed, depth, or anything.
It's all a mystery but all in all those that keep their flies in the water the most catch the most.
Chartreuse and Fuscia seem to be the most popular colors, and it could be that the success of these colors are the results of more people fishing these. This year I caught my only one on a white "fly" but hooked two others - one on a small #4 maroon & orange maribou steelhead fly, both way different from what others were using.
http://www.vinsel.com/VINFISH.JPG
Many days, spinners seem to work better. Some of us try flies with spinner blades or propellers, like the fly in the above picture (from Jay Fair of Eagle lake, CA).
When its not too crowded, some of us try spey rods, but mostly it's slow water and cast & retrieve unless it's a big tide drop, so as much as we'd like to we usually fish singlehanded.
A tip I learned from Russ Chatham's Angler's Coast was that the fish circulate back and forth in a defined pattern, and are most inclined to bite at the turnaround point. In our situation, these points move as the tide goes out, but in river pools you could target it more easily.
It is certainly worth a try if you have some kings around, because one 25+ lb fish makes up for a lot of fishless time. Once you catch one you will find it easy to go back and keep trying.
-Vinnie in Juneau
