5/22/2025 Fishing Report

The steelhead fishing has mostly wrapped up for the year. Any fish left in the freshwater are likely in full spawn mode, so now is a great time to start really getting after the saltwater fishing. Putting in your time is the name of the game right now. For anglers who have been out quite a bit this last week almost all of them have had at least one banner day of fishing with good numbers and huge fish. DIPAC has release about half of their chum smolt for the year, with rest being release in a couple weeks. There will be a smolt release at the hatchery tomorrow and the king smolt should be released in the first part of June. Generally, this means that the Dolly fishing is about to go bonkers. If you don't have any topwater smolt flies make sure you come grab them. This is also a good time of year to have some attractor colors in your box. If you want to go for a drive, Boy Scout Beach and Echo Cove are full of fish and worth the trek. Boy Scout fishes better around the high tide.

Remember, Peterson Creek, the salt chuck and the saltwater within 200 yards of the mouth are still closed to all fishing. That means absolutely no flies or lures in the water for any species of fish. This closure lasts through the month of June to protect a struggling run of steelhead. Please respect the closure and do not fish out here.

The DIPAC king forecast numbers are looking pretty good this year, so for 2025 we are going to do our first ever king salmon derby! It won't be quite the same as the coho derby, but it will be just as fun. We will release the details for the contest in next week's fish report and the derby will run from June 1st to June 30th.

As always, we love featuring your photos for our fishing reports. If you have a great fish, scenery, or action photo that has to do with fishing around town send it our way! You can email photos or videos to cory@alaskaflyfishinggoods.com. Please remember to handle fish with care, especially if you are practicing catch and release. Consider getting a net with a rubber basket to help land fish quickly, pinch your barbs and keep them in the water until you are ready to snap a quick photo.

See you on the water!

The Crew at AFFG

Listed below are the hot patterns of the week. Fisheries change here through-out the season and so do the best patterns to use. Below are some of the recommended flies for the current fisheries. Happy fishing!