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Species |
Dolly Varden Char:
 These beautiful fish occur in every river and stream that we fish.
Dolly Varden Char (Salvelinus malma) are often
confused with their close relative, the Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus).
The slight difference
in appearance between the two can at times
be puzzling, but they are
different species and can be
differentiated
by external characteristics or by the habitat i n which
they occur. The common
anadromous (moving between
salt and fresh water and spawning in fresh water) char in western Alaska
is the Dolly Varden. Arctic char, while present, are
only resident in a few of our mountain lakes. We
have large populations of anadromous Dolly Varden in this area. The
fish range in size from 16 to 22 inches, with occasional fish reaching
around 30 inches in length. Young Dolly Varden live in freshwater
 for their first three years and then begin a migratory lifestyle moving to
sea in spring and returning to freshwater in the fall to spend the winter.
Upon reaching sexual maturity, many fish will not migrate, but remain in
rivers to spawn in Septemb er or October. Sometimes
Dolly Varden will follow salmon
upstream from the sea in order to feast on their eggs that fail to be
fully deposited in the stream bottom. They also feed on newly
emerged pink salmon fry in the spring as they move toward the sea.
The Dolly Varden is sought after by fly-fishermen for its beautiful
colors, which can vary from bright silver with pink spo ts,
to a darker shade with pink spots and a red belly. When you hook
into one of these fish, it will give you a fight worthy of
a fish
twice it’s size.
Watch out for their infamous
roll, or they will
quickly
twist your line
around themselves, break it off and be gone. In early
summer bring plenty
of nymphs, woolly buggers, and fry imitations:
later in the summer fish with egg
and flesh patterns.
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