At Alaska West, we fish for all five species of Pacific salmon right next to the salt. Much of the water that we cover has actual tidal influence, and whether we’re 1 mile from the salt or 10, the salmon that we’re presenting flies to tend to be hot and bright.
Hot, bright salmon are aggressive towards flies, and for a few of our species, that means…surface action! Chums, pinks and especially silvers to eat pollywogs and poppers.
The Pink Pollywog is the classic Alaskan dry fly used in the pursuit of silver salmon. We like pollywogs, but the problem is…we catch too many fish. The spun deer hair body on a pollywog can get waterlogged after silver number 5 or 15 or more, so we really like fishing poppers. A foam popper body gives that surface action that silvers love, and poppers tend to be super-durable and they always float.
Lower Kanektok, hot bright salmon, surface flies…who’s in?
