We’ve said it before – one of the most gratifying parts of being in this business is that we get to take families fishing together. Long time guest and friend Fraser Heston brought his son Jack up to Alaska West during kings this year. They had a great time and we had a great time…
Read More
Alaska West
The Art of Alaska West Guide Jim Palmersheim
Most of our past and current Alaska West guests know Jim Palmersheim as a super-mellow, very friendly, mega-fishy guy who’s not above handing you a hot, riverine cup of French-pressed espresso mid-swing. All true. What you might not know—probably because Jim’s far too humble to talk about himself—is that he’s a world-class pastel artist when…
Read More
Fact: Kings Aren’t Always as Deep as You Think.
We’re lucky enough to fish with a ton of born dredgers in our camps each season — excellent sticks from NorCal, Oregon, Washington, B.C. and beyond — who know how to get a fly deep and keep it there. What tends to blow their minds, however, is that our fish aren’t always as deep as…
Read More
Alaska West Fishing Report: July 20 – 27
Week 6 is a special time at Alaska West. The salmon have begun to spawn, the Silvers have made their appearance in the river, and old friends have returned to explore waters new to both us and them. This year’s Week 6 was full of fun and excitement. The last few days of King Salmon season fell within…
Read More
Depthfinding: The Real Beauty of the New Skagit Intermediate Heads
We’re absolutely loving the new Tom Larimer-designed Airflo Skagit Intermediate Heads for a lot of reasons and here’s how we’re using them to get deeper (hint: it’s might not be exactly how you think). The obvious: The head itself does cut the surface tension to get down a little—a big reason the lines fish so…
Read More
Alaska West Fishing Report: July 13 – 20
Late season Kings can be a fickle thing. Pushes of fewer fish can make the search for fresh Chinooks a day long effort of swinging bars hoping for a grab. Alaska West clients in Week 5 this year found that with patience and hard work, late season Kings are worth the effort. Heavier sink tips came into play during…
Read More
Fishfinders: Arctic Terns
Common on the tundra of Western Alaska and extremely cool little birds to watch, Arctic Terns are also really great fishfinders. Much like the saltwater captains who use schools of birds to pinpoint balls of fish, pay close attention in the early season to groups of Arctic Terns hanging out above shallow flats littered with…
Read More
Sage ONE Spey Rod Review – 10130-4
It’s the second of our four king salmon spey rod reviews that came out of our first week at BC West this season! Here’s the introduction to this batch of king rods and here’s our review of the ECHO King rod from last week. Today we’re giving you our impressions of the Sage 10130-4 ONE,…
Read More
Western Alaska Trout Lifecycles
We were thrilled when Brian Morrison – Alaska West guest and fisheries biologist – volunteered to put together a series of articles for us about the science behind some of the fish we’re so lucky to chase in Alaska. We think Brian’s insights are really interesting and hope you will too. Thanks, Brian! Western Alaska…
Read More
Why Silver Salmon Winner
We’ve run quite a few contests on our web site, and we always get a bunch of quality entries. In our posts announcing who won, we often say something like “it was really hard to pick the winner”. This contest was different. We got a bunch of quality entries – but Doug Jett ran away…
Read More