Ask the Pro's: Fly Fishing Near Anchorage in September

Hi Dave,

Your timing is good for some good rainbow trout fly fishing. You have a couple options. You can drive north of Anchorage, through Wasilla, where you will have five, good walk-n-wade, streams. Willow, Little Willow, Sheep, Goose and Montana Creek. All of these are along the Parks Hwy and the highway goes over the top of all of them. One thing to note, it has been raining a ton here and currently these rivers are pretty tough to fish right now. If we can get a break in the weather for a few days to a week, they will get back in to shape.

If you drive South a couple hours, you have Quartz Creek as well as great fishing on the Russian River and Upper Kenai River. Quartz and the Russian are easy walk-n-wades, the Kenai River is a big river but it has a ton of pull outs that you can access good gravel bars to fish.

This time of year is going to be primarily an egg and flesh game but you can certainly entice a fish or two on streams. The northern streams are better mousing rivers but that becomes pretty slow this time of year with so many eggs and dying salmon in the rivers.

If there is anything we can do to help, please let us know, we will do whatever we can to help you find some fun and success.

Mike

Dave,

Well done on making sure you can squeeze in a day of fishing on a work trip! Fishing the Alaska Parks Highway river systems is the closest fishing to Anchorage, about an hour and fifteen minutes. There are a handful of rivers that cross the Parks Highway and all provide great access to fish and solitude. Stripping streamers or drifting beads and flesh is typically the most productive however in the evening a mouse can work. Good luck on your trip and please feel free to contact my company FishHound Expeditions if you would like a guide for a wade or float trip. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Dave,

September is an exceptional month for targeting rainbow trout, though it is not the best month for using a mouse pattern, they can still be caught this way. Fall fishing on the Kenai Peninsula can be some of the most productive fishing of the year…September is usually the time when most salmon are spawning or near the end of their spawning cycle, so trout will be feeding heavily on their eggs and eventually their flesh. Within 2 hours of Anchorage, of course fishing the Kenai River is a great option as well. The Kenai is world famous for the outstanding trout fishing (especially this time of year). Also, the Susitna River tributaries up north of Anchorage also provide great opportunities for walk-in fishing for trout. There are a series of small creeks and rivers that can easily be accessed on the road system if you should choose to go this route.

Tight Lines!

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