I recently read an article that was published a million years ago in 2010 but the message seemed as relevant and time sensitive as ever. The article was written by Robert MacDougall-Davis and featured in an online journal called The Ecologist. It is titled, “Fishing and the environment: why the two are inextricably linked.” I…
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Alaska West
Global Rescue
As you know, we love traveling the world with our fly rods in hand. We are not just talking about our own lodges here, fly fishing travel is what we do. Fly fishing is a vessel for us to experience remote places ranging from the tundra to tropical white sandy beaches. Throughout our years of…
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Pre Rigging
Simply put, the more time your flies spend in the water, the more fish you are going to catch. When fishing subsurface, more often than not you want to be fishing deep which means you are going to have to sacrifice some flies to snags in order to catch fish. This is fine with me,…
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Take a Kid Fishing!
One of the greatest joys in fly fishing is passing along the sport to the next generation. The river is a classroom which can teach lessons that cannot be learned in other venues. There is no specific age when you are supposed to take your child fishing but when you feel the time is right,…
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Alaska Bush Menu
You may be fishing in the wilderness but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice good meals in exchange for remote experiences. Here are some of the menu items at Alaska West documented by our friend Matt Vaughn. We know you are going to be tired after tugging on big fish all day and want…
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5 Reasons Why Closing Week at AK West is the Best
Earlier this year we did a post from Alaska West alumni Zac Cassil on why the opening week at AK West was his favorite. When you have a fishery like the Kanektok River outside your front door, there really is no bad part of the season to be there. Our good friend and regular guest,…
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Cool Article on Kanektok Rainbows
Alaska Department of Game and Fish talks about Kanektok Rainbow Trout in their October Newsletter, WeFishAk. You can read the full article here! Our personal favorite line from the article reads “One researcher on the Kanektok River found 16 mice in one rainbow’s belly!” And yes, they do include a photo of this! To experience the…
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Finishing Strong on the Kanektok
On one of the last days of the season at Alaska West, repeat guest Terry Haines and AK West guide Evan Vick landed 2 incredible leopard rainbows on the K-Tok. These are the fish our homeriver has become famous for, gorgeous yet powerful. The first one was 25 and 1/2 inches on the tape and…
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Bristol Bay Fisheries Report
The incredible ecosystem that is Bristol Bay Alaska had another record breaking year in terms of salmon numbers. According to KDLG, 56.3 million salmon returned to Bristol Bay in 2019. The commercial harvest was the second largest ever at 43 million fish. The total run for the Bay was 33% higher than they forecasted giving…
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3 Reasons We Like This Photo
Take a Kid Fishing! They are the future of this wonderful sport. We work hard to protect places like this from bad ideas (cough, cough Pebble Mine) in part to preserve them for future generations. I mean look at that smile, priceless! It is of a Chum Salmon. In our opinion the most underrated of all…
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