For the past year, we were fortunate to host Peter Christensen, founder of Kokkaffe Media, at each one of our locations. Peter is a super fishy film maker who has produced numerous award winning fly fishing inspired films alongside Kokkaffe Media cofounder Rolf Nylinder. If you’re a fishing film nerd like us, chances are you’ve seen a…
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Alaska West
A Beautiful Day in Alaska
It might not look like ideal weather to most, but when we’re chasing salmon in Western Alaska, we long for days like this.. Bright sunny days can make for epic trout fishing, but dark, gloomy, and down right miserable looking days means happy salmon, and we like that. More on Salmon Fishing The High Sun Game Plan…
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Fishing From a Boat – Cast Downstream!
At our Alaskan operations, we’re really lucky to have access to some extremely diverse trout fisheries. At any point during the season at Alaska West, we target trout by sight fishing for rainbows in side channels, fishing the main river on foot, or fishing from our jet boats ‘drift boat style.’ The beauty of our river is that trout can…
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Wildlife of Western Alaska
We consider ourselves very fortunate to operate lodges in some very unique places in the world. While our main focus might be on the fishing, every now and then we take our eyes off the water and are often humbled by the diversity of wildlife around us. The wildlife of Western Alaska is no exception, and today we present…
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Our Trout Like Big Flies
The trout in our neck of the woods typically don’t pay much attention to ‘traditionally sized’ trout flies. A size 12 elk hair caddis would be the equivalent of eating the parsley garnish on the side of your steak dinner.. A short growing season, and constant supply of large high calorie food items (i.e. mice, sculpin, salmon flesh, and eggs), causes our…
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Keep ’em Close!
We recently came across this cool shot of a silver salmon caught on the swing by Alaska West guest, Craig Kopcyzk. It reminded us of a great piece of advice from Deneki alum Cameron Miller on taking good fish photos.. Leave the fish close to the water! Not only is it much, much better on the…
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New Study: How Often Do Trout and Grayling Eat Mice?
In our neck of the woods, trout eat mice (well, shrews to be exact). It’s no secret, we write about it a lot.. Why? Because it’s awesome! However, did you know that grayling have also been known to take down their share of mammals as well? Its true, during certain times of year, particularly early…
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Sage Evoke Reel Review
Last summer, the good folks at Sage released a new ‘specialty’ series of reels called the Evoke. According to Sage, the Evoke was the answer to the question, ‘what would many of the most hardcore fly fishers who take on big anadromous fish and powerful saltwater species want in a fly reel.’ Well, that was…
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The Pets
While filleting salmon for our guests, the resident trout around our camp at Alaska West grow pretty fond of the hand that feeds them. Its not uncommon to witness dozens of trophy rainbow trout in the 20 to 30 inch range, patiently waiting for the next salmon scrap to fall off of the fillet table….
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Why They’re Called Leopard Rainbows
Our rainbow trout in western Alaska look a little different than in the rest of the world. We call them leopard rainbows, and for good reason.. They look like this! Thanks to Alaska West regular, James Hambrick Jr. for tying into this beauty. We’re still trying to find an area on this trout that’s not…
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