Question:
What flies do you recommend for the Situk River near Yakatat? Slow moving River. They pool up in holes. How do you get the fly down to them, how do you fish them? Dead drift or strip?
Answer:
Hi and thank you for your inquiry,
The most popular way to fish the Situk for steelies is by drifting flies or beads under an indicator. There is some water in the lower river just above tide water that is swingable if you desire to use a small spey rod. Good patterns for drifting that we carry are: Liquid Wrench, Steelhead Glo Bugs in Garcia, black/cerise, chartreuse/cerise, Fish Emission Egg flame #2, Dolly LLamas in pink/purple, black/purple, steelie blue/black, black/white, etc… Beads in8mm-14mm are good. Try colors like mottled tangerine, mottled dark roe, mottled madarine, Mark’s Metalhead Magnets work really well too. In larger sizes try Trout Bead colors like cerise, hot cherry roe, chartreuse and sky blue pear. Drift these under an indicator,
If you want to try your hand at swinging, patterns like Fish Tacos, S.T.S. Leeches, Stu’s Turbo Cone Tubes and Bunny Leech Tubes are all good choices. Nothing too crazy for a sink tip. Something in the 5-10′ length at a medium to medium/fast stink rate should work.
If you have any questions, please shoot an email to Mike. His email is mike@alaskaflyfishinggoods.com. He’s a good resource.