Featured photo credit Heather Hodson In fly fishing especially, it pays to know your knots. Knots are quite often overlooked in the grand scheme of things. All the attention is paid to the perfect flies, the sleek fly rod, the fancy reel, and the smooth fly line, and the leader… What about the knot? It’s…
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Alaska West
The New Fly Angler, Welcome!
If you’re new to the Deneki Blog, maybe you heard about us through a friend or found our site during a search because you’re interested in fly fishing. We want to say, ‘welcome’ and we hope our content is helpful on your journey to new fly fishing pursuits. All of the members of our team…
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Alaska West in July is a Fly Fisher’s Dream
It sure is! The mighty Kanektok is incredible all season long, but it’s the month of July that sees the greatest biomass increase of the year. By early July the river literally has fish overrunning every inch of it. Kings, chum, sockeye, pinks, sea-run dollies, resident rainbow trout, and grayling can all be caught consistently…
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Alaska West: We Can’t Wait
Ah…Alaska West Lodge, oh how we have missed you. We are looking forward to fishing the awesome Kanektok River and having a chance at achieving the Alaskan Salmon Grand Slam. What is the Alaskan Salmon Grand Slam you ask? It is catching all Alaskan Salmon on the same day; King, Chum, Silver Red, and Pink….
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After a Good Days Fishing, Shenanigans
Stuart Foxall, fly tying Jedi Master, fantastic fisherman, and friend of Deneki Outdoors chimes in on some of the most productive, and entertaining practices at Alaska West Lodge. After a good days fishing and a fantastic evening meal in the dining tent what do we do afterwards???? We tie flies, come up with new fly…
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Fishing Tip: Over Wading
Fly tying savant, fishing extraordinaire, and most importantly, Friend of Deneki, Stuart Foxall drops some knowledge about wading while fishing. Trust us, this is something you’ll want to consider. Enjoy! There’s one major mistake that I see made while swinging for kings on the mighty Kanektok River time and time again. Over wading……and here’s the…
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Deneki Chronicles: Rigging Stinger Hooks – The Twisted Hitch
Deneki Chronicles is an archive of past blog posts that are still relevant, effective, or funny. We don’t have a lot of funny ones. This post is a classic from one from Alaska West Lodge Jerry French. Today we present you with some rigging wizardry courtesy of Alaska West guide, Jerry French. You may recognize…
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Leader Building 101: Rapids Camp Edition
From our Head Guide at Rapids Camp Lodge Chad Bryson drops some great tips on building leaders. Since it’s coming from Chad…I’d take it to heart. Enjoy! There are probably as many different opinions about how to build the perfect Alaska fly fishing leader as there are opinions on the perfect Alaska fly rod. So…
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Guide Tip: Don’t Be A Watcher
Today’s post comes from our Head Guide at Rapids Camp Lodge Chad Bryson. Thank you for your contribution Chad! Countless times during my career I have witnessed fly rods break. Occasionally, it is due truly to a manufacturing defect. Occasionally. Most of the time it is complete operator error in some capacity. No matter if…
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Don Leydon’s “Fisherman’s Friend” Tool
Over the years Alaska West has had many memorable guests who have become woven into the fabric of our lodge. Don Leydon is surely one of them. For years his gifts to Alaska West have hung in our lounge and dining tents as reminders of our past. One of the pictures shows “Salmon Camp” in…
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