In any avenue of fly fishing, one thing that separates successful anglers from not-so-successful anglers is complete, undivided, fully engaged, focus whenever your fly is in the water. Many fish are lost (or perhaps never hooked at all) from anglers who’s minds were wandering or whom were not expecting a fish to eat the fly in…
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Alaska West
Loop Opti Megaloop Reel
Over the course of the year, we see a lot of quality fly fishing gear put to the test in some of the most demanding conditions possible. That means we often get a first hand look at which gear is up to the challenge, and which gear is, well, not so much. How can we tell when a…
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Lucky Charms
When it comes to fishermen, you know we can all be a superstitious bunch. From that lucky pair of socks, a sweet holey rock, or even a lucky rabbit’s foot, there are many different things that DEFINITELY make a difference on the outcome of a day’s fishing. And, it goes without saying, you better never…
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Turning ‘Bad’ Casts into Great Presentations
Good casts feel good, but good presentations catch fish and today Alaska West guide, Greg Houska, is coming at us with a great writeup on how saving the less-than-perfect cast can help you catch more fish in the long run. Enjoy! Turning ‘Bad’ Casts into Great Presentations Not every cast is perfect, and you should never…
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Skagit Revolution – Download Available
The folks at Beattie Outdoor Productions have teemed up Tom Larimer to produce the latest and greatest instructional video on skagit casting – Skagit Revolution. The video has been years in the making, some of which was actually filmed right here at Alaska West. The full video consists of two separate disks. Disk one touches on the…
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Measure Nets – Why We Like Them
Not all nets are created equal. A quality landing net is a guide’s most important tool, and when it comes to trout, we’re really particular about the nets we use. We recently outfitted our guide staff with measure nets for our trout population and we can honestly say they’re one of the better landing nets we’ve…
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Dueling Vises
This past week we had the good fortune of fishing with our good friend and professional fly designer, Stuart Foxall. For those of you who follow along on a regular basis, you may recognize Stu’s name from all the awesome fly tying posts he’s put together for us over the last few years. During his stay…
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Cardinal Sins of King Fishing
We’re in the midst of a pretty epic King run this year, and that means we’ve seen a heck of a lot of nice fish landed, but even more lost. King fishing is by no means a numbers game.. They’re big, strong, fast, hard mouthed fish that don’t come easily to hand (for both experienced and…
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Rigging Tube Flies – Leave Your Tag Long
If you’ve spent any time with us in recent years at our lodges in Alaska or British Columbia, you’re probably well aware that we’re a big fan of tube flies for a whole bunch of reasons. When fishing tubes, we generally rig them using two different methods – ‘Stinger’ style to hang a trailer hook at…
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Simms BackSaver Wading Belt
We fish hard at our lodges. At Alaska West, our fishing program consists of six consecutive ten hour days. That’s 60 hours straight of continuous casting, wading, hiking, and not mention fighting a whole bunch of heavy fish. It might not seem like much to the uninitiated, but that much activity can leave even the most…
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