Buffs, face masks, neck gaitors, or whatever else you choose to call them are a common piece of attire at our lodges. Although originally marketed by Buff, ‘neck gaitors’ are now offered by most outdoor/fishing companies under several different names. Simple, inexpensive, and super functional, we rarely hit the water without one around our neck….
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Silver Salmon in Sunny Conditions – 5 Tips
Fly fishing for silver salmon is awesome.. At Alaska West, we are fortunate to have a great run of silvers each August and we look forward to their return every season. We target them on both single and double handed rods, surface and subsurface patterns, and in a multitude of water types. While most of the…
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Aquaseal UV
Aquaseal has been the fisherman’s choice of adhesive for years. It permanently repairs leaky waders, boots, boats and more. Heck, we even use it to coat knots from time to time! When operating lodges in remote areas of the world, Aquaseal is liquid gold as far as we’re concerned and we go through our share…
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Be Nice to the Juveniles
A couple months back we ran a post reminding you to be nice to non-targets, those species that voluntarily climb onto your fly when you’re on the search for something else. All fish deserved to be handled with care and if catching too many fish is the problem, that’s not a bad problem to have!…
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Selecting Sink Tips
When swinging flies for salmon and steelhead, a question we get asked a lot is ‘what sink tip should I use?’ or ‘how do I know what sink tip to start with?’ Like all things fly fishing, there is no rule of thumb that pertains to every situation. There are far too many variables from…
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Fireweed
Here at Alaska West things change fast, whether that change is the river, flora, fuana, people, or even our camp, it is constantly happening. Our camp is located on the Kanektok River, and the crew spend over three months enjoying every change it has to offer on and off the water. Fireweed Chamerion angustifolium is…
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Grand Salami
We want to extend big Kudos to Alaska West guest Kasey Halcro. Kasey started his morning yesterday planning to target silver salmon early in the morning and hoping to find the clowned up dolly varden of his dreams in the afternoon. Pretty typical day at Alaska West in August. What Kasey did not expect is that…
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Adjustable Indicator Rigs
We’re on the back half of our season here in Alaska and that can only mean one thing.. It’s steak and eggs season! This time of year, our resident rainbow trout are taking full advantage of the continuous supply of salmon parts tumbling down river. Therefore, we ‘match the hatch’ and fish our share of flesh and…
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Fly Fishing Action Shots – Mini Gallery
Today we’re coming at you with a fly fishing photo gallery of a different sort.. Action shots! Hero shots are great, but the ‘ol grip and grin doesn’t always tell the whole story.. Check out some great photos of the pursuit itself.. Enjoy! Other Mini Galleries Fly Fishing Mini Gallery Fly Fishing Objects Mini Gallery Alaska…
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Tying the Intruder Without a Dubbing Loop
Last week, our buddy Stuart Foxall gave us a great tying tip on a better way to create dubbing balls when tying intruder style flies. Stuart is a commercial fly tyer/designer for Aqua Flies, and is a master at constructing modern intruder style flies (among many, many, other patterns). When Stu takes to the vise at Alaska…
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