Week two at Alaska West has always been known as a great choice if you want to get the best out of a week of king fishing, as many of the return guests can attest.
Photo: Cameron Miller
Guys like Andy Jensen and Gordy Phillips who have been joining us for years were once again shown the glory of kings on the spey. Mike Opitz, Jack ‘Cuda’ Thomas, Mark Gildenhar, Tony & JM Robins, Marty Herman, Dave Victor and Will Smart have all been with us for years and they experienced some of the best king fishing on the planet this week. Maybe the greatest part about this week was having new guys like Bill Burnett and David Bjerke learn the ways of the spey rod while also catching the biggest fish of their lives, by a long shot.
Charles St. Pierre of Northwest Spey Casting spent the entire week training up the new guys on the ‘Way of the Spey’ and also fine-tuning techniques with guys that have been doing it for years. Charles is one of the nicest guys you will ever spend time with and he just happens to be one of the best spey casters and spey teachers on the planet. He can take the absolute novice and have them in the game within minutes. Ask David Bjerke and Bill Burnett about how good he is. They began the week with no experience at all, but by the end of the week they were bombing casts and catching fatties like no other. Thank you Charles!
The weather this week was schizophrenic to say the least. We had morning temps down to 40 degrees with daily highs near 65. The temps were fairly normal, but the wind, rain, fog and sun were constantly revolving. On Monday we had driving rain and wind all day and then by Tuesday it was clear and fairly sunny, then back to the rain and wind again on Wednesday. Overall we had great weather for king fishing so we hardly heard any complaints about the weather.
In general the fishing was some of the best we have seen in many years. Andy Jensen landed one of the largest kings he has ever seen. Andy also went 8 for 8 one day, which in the world of king fishing on the spey is almost unheard of. Jack Thomas and Mike Opitz, both seasoned veterans of some of the best fishing on the planet, said the fishing was the best in ten seasons on the Kanektok. We are all very fortunate to be part of such a spectacular fishery and with ten more weeks to go we are stoked to see what will happen next week. Thank you, mighty Kanektok!
Our weekly haiku from Matt Hynes:
First time speycasting.
No fish hooked, but lots of fun.
Watch out for your scalp!
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