If you’re like us, and enjoy spey fishing for trout, you may have found it difficult to find the right spey line to match today’s trout-worthy switch and small spey rods. The development of shorter skagit-style heads such as the Airflo Skagit Switch or Rio Max Short have made loading modern switch and short spey rods…
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Alaska West
Three Good Articles – Spey Edition
We’re back today with our somewhat mid-month tradition of three good fly fishing articles, from other sites around the web. Today’s edition even has a theme, spey fishing! If you’re like us and love fishing with a two-handed rod, make sure to give these articles a look. Enjoy! Three Good Articles – Spey Edition Sink-tip…
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Stu’s Egg Intruder – Tying Instructions
Our buddy Stuart Foxall is back with another great step by step! Whether you’re fishing for steelhead, trout, dolly varden, or the like, this is one killer fly whenever spawning salmon are present. Stu’s Egg Intruder – Tying Instructions I came up with the idea of the egg intruder 5 or 6 years ago when swinging…
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Dinner Time!
We might spend our summer in a remote ‘tent lodge‘ in the Alaskan bush, but we eat pretty darn well. Nobody goes hungry at Alaska West, and to make sure we have an age old tradition of signaling dinner time each night with an old-school dinner bell. We look forward to that sweet sound each night,…
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The Hoh Bo Spey – Tying Instructions
Today we present you with tying instructions for a pattern that has become a staple wherever steelhead are found, the Hoh Bo Spey, designed by long time Deneki pal and spey casting extraordinaire, Charles St. Pierre. Charles has been stomping around the Pacific Northwest for a long time and lets just say, he knows what…
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Just a Cool Casting Shot
Just a cool casting shot, courtesy of Alaska West guide, Jason Whiting. More Cool Photos From Alaska West Alaska West from Above Alaska Mini Gallery – Different Perspectives Edition Wildlife from Western Alaska
Trout Spey Techniques – The Bobble Dredge
A couple weeks back, we ran a post titled, Active Swinging, where we highlighted some of the techniques we use when spey fishing for trout that go beyond the classic downstream and across swing. However, most of these techniques are limited to slower gradual runs, those most characteristic of a swung fly. As spey anglers, most of…
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Take the Sting out of Stinger Hooks
Articulated and stinger-style flies are all the rage these days, and for good reason, they work! Flies designed with a ‘trailer’ hook offer a number advantages over classic long-shank style hooks. First and foremost, the addition of a trailer hook allows for the use of shorter shanked hooks that are far less likely to lever-out…
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Mr. Hankey – Tying Instructions
We have less than a month before we kick off our Alaska season and that means it won’t be long before we’ll be chucking big, gaudy, mouse patterns for our resident rainbow trout. Mousing is by far our favorite way to target trout in our neck of the woods and one of our go-to patterns…
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A Nice Surprise
Sometimes when fishing for salmon at Alaska West, our guests are pleasantly surprised to find that the ‘chum salmon’ they’re hooked up to is actually a trophy sized rainbow. Our early season trout aren’t overly picky, and in no way are we complaining about that. Thanks to Tosh Brown for the killer shot! More on Trout…
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