Spencer Dixon was a first-year guide at Alaska West this year, and everybody who met him was blown away by his skill, his work ethic, his enthusiasm and his fishiness. Turns out Spencer can write too! Here’s the first what we hope will be a long series of posts from him. Thanks, Spencer! The Importance…
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Alaska West
Bulk Hooks
Big fish. Big water. Bigger grabs. You know you’re gonna go through more than a few hooks when fishing deep for salmon and steelhead. Here’s why we like to buy in bulk for rigging tube and stinger-style flies.: Cost savings. While the average cost-per-hook price is relatively the same for hooks purchased in 25 or 100…
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Plan Your 2013 Alaska Fishing Now.
Wait, didn’t the summer season at Alaska West just end? Yep, it did – and that makes now the perfect time to get your 2013 trip planned. You see, we give all of our guests the first right of refusal to rebook their trip with us the following year. That means that we don’t actually…
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Bullet Weights, Part 2: Still Crittery
Last week we gave you a glimpse into the very non-traditional world of using bullet weights with your steelhead and salmon flies. Today, more details! Next time you’re at the vise setting strategy for the ultimate Alaska West or BC West fly program, consider tying a bunch of flies without any weight. Tying on plastic…
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Coho Salmon Lifecycles
Over the last couple of months we’ve run a couple of really well-received posts from Alaska West guest and fisheries biologist Brian Morrison – on the lifecycles of rainbow trout in Western Alaska, and chinook salmon everywhere. Today we wrap up the mini-series with some facts from Brian on another favorite of ours, the coho…
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Another Summer in the Books
…and just like that, it’s over! This past week we finished up our summer seasons at Alaska West and BC West. Golly, 11 weeks goes by fast. Thanks so much to each of you who joined us for some summer fishing. You are the reason we get to do what we do – we truly…
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Bullet Weights, Part 1: The Ultimate in ‘Crittery’
Cri’tter’y – Western Alaskan adj. Shaky, unsure. Often enlightening. Always effective. Now that Skagitmaster 2’s Scott Howell virtually gave the anadromous world ‘permission’ to get all crazy Bassmaster with our flies when playing the weight game, we thought it was time to go public with the whole bullet weight thing, as well—but for a little different…
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Alaska West Fishing Report: August 24 – 31
At Alaska West we fish as hard in our last week as we do in our first week. In this year’s closing act, we fished our wader clad asses off. Week 11 saw a mix of rain and sun, with a couple of unbelievable days of high wind. Throughout the entire week though, the fishing stayed good as…
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Alaska West Fishing Report: August 17 – 24
After two solid weeks of sun and sight fishing, rain returned to Alaska West for Week 10 and brought with it an array of fishing challenges for our anglers. The first few days of the week saw high winds and rain, which made it tough to be outside, much less get a decent cast. The Silver…
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5 Reasons to Bring Your Kid to Alaska West
Bruce Chard, as you probably know by now, teaches our Bonefishing Schools at Andros South. This summer, though, he got to take off his ‘Flats Guru’ hat and replace it with his ‘Dad’ hat when he took his son to Alaska West. They had a great time, and afterwards Bruce came up with this nifty…
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