It’s getting to be that time of year when our minds start drifting off to thoughts of big Western-Alaska trout and chrome-bright pacific salmon. The Alaska fishing season will be here before you know it, and with it comes the earliest of the Pacific salmon, the king salmon. Kings might just be the baddest freshwater fish ever targeted, and there is nothing more exhilarating than stinging one with a fly rod.
We are extremely fortunate to fish water with a low gradient and excellent wade-ability which allows us to target kings with a multitude of techniques. While we love to swing flies and have posted many articles in the past on targeting these incredible fish using two handed (spey) rods, single hand fly rods can be just as effective.
Remember, whether fishing a spey rod or a classic single hand fly rod, both are nothing more than a ‘fly delivery system.’ In other words, once your fly hits the water, you’re just plain fishing! Sure, both rods have their advantages and disadvantages depending on the situation, but that’s not to say they’re not equally as productive.
Through the years both spey rods and single hand rods have been responsible for a number of fly caught kings in our rivers. If you’re itching to ‘sting a king’ but are under the assumption that it is only for the spey casters out there, think again!
And if you’d like to learn more about our king fishing in Alaska, drop us a line – we’d love to hear from you.
As much as I love fishing the two hand for Kings, there are times when the single hand is the ticket. Casting in tidewater from a boat, fishing in sloughs, drifting flies in tight slots, and fishing in smaller channels or rivers. It can be pretty awesome to strip a fly just like for silvers, only to have a big King crush it and head for another zip code.