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…
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Alaska West
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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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Alaska West Fishing Report: July 6 – 13
Some years during the second week in July, the King Salmon fishing begins slow somewhat from the previous weeks of steady insanity. This year the Chinooks kept right on coming and our anglers kept right on catching. Sink tips stayed light for the most part, but as some of the larger, fast moving lower bars finally came into shape,…
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King Season Mantra: Stand Your Ground
Whether it’s a choker king fresh from the Dean Channel or that gagger Alaskan Chinook melting away yards of your backing, one thing’s for certain: This is no time for a Junior Varsity track meet. When that mega-king blasts off into hyperdrive—and make no mistake, it will— there’s always the temptation to chase it down, so remember…
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ECHO King Spey Rod Review
During the first week of our season at BC West this year, we got a hold of a quiver of spey rods designed for king salmon fishing – you can read our introduction to king rods here. Today we kick off the first of our individual rod reviews with the ECHO K-10130 King. Design The…
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Tube Flies – Why We Like ‘Em
Any guest of either Alaska West or BC West in recent years has to have seen this one coming: We’re loving tube flies more and more, and we love ‘em for a few key reasons: They’re super easy to cast. Flat out, one of the best reasons to give them a shot. They’re stackable, and…
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Alaska West Fishing Report: June 29 – July 6
Week 3 brought fair weather and good friends back to Alaska West. In addition to warmer weather, the water had finally dropped enough to leave behind more defined ledges, drop offs, and bars. This definition created some unusual fishing situations too. The fish seemed to be funneled into a few small spots with clear water or along shallow buckets…
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