Dolly Varden on a fly???

[pointingdogsrule]

I've fished Dolly Varden in POW lakes and had good success on rooster tail spinners. I'm headed back this August and want to try fly fishing. Any suggestions on type and size of Flys? Would they even work in August. I just bought my first fly rod last summer. Thanks.

 

[JLS]

I would think any Muddler pattern with some krystal flash in it would work. Probably a size assortment of 2-8.

 

[rtraverdavis]

I had good success fishing an inlet close to Juneau with smaller clouser minnows. I think anything that imitates fry will do the trick.

 

[jejack26]

Bunny fly hammered them

 

[OntarioHunter]

I did well with thunder creek pattern when salmon fry were in Brooks River.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

I caught some on #6 black wooly bugger with some flash in it last year in July and August. Not up where your going tho, but I don't see why it wouldn't work there to.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Wooly bugger and a little flash has been good, I like root beer brown followed by black. August I would start looking at beads, standard roe colors. I also fish a lot of stimulators in August, Chernoble ants and the like. Any pink or orange Coho fly will also work.

 

[44hunter45]

Taking notes.....

 

[Salmonchaser]

We will often try to catch them on an indicator. Frequently while drifting beads below an indicator the damn things will take the indicator and hang on.

 

[D4570]

Is there any difference between Dollys and bull trout?
When I was a kid the west side of the mountains had gobs of Dolly Varden.
Now I think there called bull trout and endangered, with a special tag you can keep two a year.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Essentially yes and no. My understanding has been Bull Trout are resident fish, do not migrate to the sea. Dollys migrate to the sea. Otherwise they are the same fish. Much like Rainbows and Steelhead. One of my brothers is a fisheries biologist and went on from there.....

 

[OntarioHunter]

As I recall bull trout are all those found in Pacific watershed and Dollies are arctic watershed. Same fish I think but maybe DNA has turned up a slight difference.

 

[OntarioHunter]

]

Essentially yes and no. My understanding has been Bull Trout are resident fish, do not migrate to the sea. Dollys migrate to the sea. Otherwise they are the same fish. Much like Rainbows and Steelhead. One of my brothers is a fisheries biologist and went on from there.....

We are both wrong. They are two separate and distinct species often in overlapping areas of NW America. Both can run to the ocean. The confusion seems to be that Europeans often refer to any trout that are ocean running as bull trout. Curiously, the first dolly varden to be assigned the name were California bull trout. For those who may not know it, Dolly Varden was a character in one of Dickens' novels. She wore a gaudy skirt that resembled the spots of the trout. Also a very fashionable attire in 19th century when the fish was named.

 

[Bambistew]

]

We are both wrong. They are two separate and distinct species often in overlapping areas of NW America. Both can run to the ocean. The confusion seems to be that Europeans often refer to any trout that are ocean running as bull trout. Curiously, the first dolly varden to be assigned the name were California bull trout.

Want more confusion? Many in Alaska mistake Dollies for Char.

Dollies are pretty easy to catch. We catch them on beads, clouser type flies, flesh flies, buggers, streamers. They are trout and are hungry...

 

[Salmonchaser]

Want more confusion? Many in Alaska mistake Dollies for Char.

Dollies are pretty easy to catch. We catch them on beads, clouser type flies, flesh flies, buggers, streamers. They are trout and are hungry...

Yep, been doing it for years. Either way I love fishing for them

 

[Hydrophilic]

Have only fished beads for them.
At the spot I was at in Juneau, at the end of one of the roads, I just had a leader, bead, and hook, and would swing it through the desired water. Caught quite a few, a lot of fun.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Want more confusion? Many in Alaska mistake Dollies for Char.

Dollies are pretty easy to catch. We catch them on beads, clouser type flies, flesh flies, buggers, streamers. They are trout and are hungry...

Only a little experience with them here, but they seem ferocious when they slam your lure. Way more aggressive than the other trout in the stream.

 

[Salmonchaser]

They are that. Over the 20 years Ive guided in Alaska Ive seen 100s of Char and Dollys break off and hit the very next fly presented a few minutes later. I like being able to get my fly back. Rare to see that in Rainbows.

 

[OntarioHunter]

They are that. Over the 20 years Ive guided in Alaska Ive seen 100s of Char and Dollys break off and hit the very next fly presented a few minutes later. I like being able to get my fly back. Rare to see that in Rainbows.

Grayling are like that. And they go right back to the same spot in the stream. Don't recall one ever breaking off but they are nibbly and often come unhooked. Makes no difference. They will go right after the same fly as soon as it floats by again.

At Brooks River Katmai National Park beads are required to be a specified distance up the leader from hooks. Rainbows are catch and release only. They go after the beads so voraciously that fatal hookups are almost unavoidable. So the rule is intended to help avoid that ... which it does. I found it very difficult to hookup with that setup. For whatever reason the trout don't seem to be as greedy with egg or meat pattern flies. Beads just work too well. Oh well. Sockeye put up a MUCH better fight than rainbows even when they're half in the bag. Dogs and kings also stay pretty frisky after they've started to change. Pinks seem to run out of gas very quickly but they go rotten about the fastest. Silvers were surprisingly poopless by the time they got to Brooks even though they still looked good. However, they'll rip your arm off at King Salmon just after leaving the ocean.