What do Alaska West guide, Whitney Gould, and Willa have in common? They’re both wearing their life jackets.. That’s because at Alaska West we have a simple rule – When the motor is on, so are the life jackets! We think wearing your PFD is cool, and think you should too. Stay safe out there!…
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Gear
Airflo Super-Dri Nymph/Indicator Fly Line
Western Alaska is far from the traditionalist’s view of trout fishing. It is not the land of four weights, fine tippets, and microscopic dry flies. Instead, bushy mouse patterns, heavily weighted streamers, and clunky flesh and egg rigs are the norm.. None of which are particularly easy to cast. Most trout specific fly lines are…
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OPST at Alaska West – Video
Earlier this summer, we mentioned that the boys from OPST were joining us for a week at Alaska West to test out their new Commando Heads, skagit heads designed with the shorter spey and switch rods of today in mind. One of their goals was to test them out on our leopard rainbows using single handers. That’s…
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OPST Ostrich Intruder Plumes
When it comes to tying large-profile intruder-style flies for steelhead and salmon, one of the most difficult part of the whole process is finding materials of consistent quality. Ostrich herl in particular, a material used in many steelhead and salmon flies, varies quite a bit in terms of quality and can be frustrating to the…
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OPST Swing Hooks – Why We Like Them
When swinging for anadramous fish, we really like fishing flies with trailer hooks. Whether tied on tubes or ‘articulated’ style, flies rigged with a trailer hook offer a number of advantages over flies tied on a traditional long shank streamer hook. However, there’s a lot of debate over the best trailer hook out there. In…
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Spooling Fly Line Correctly
One of the more frustrating things in fly fishing is a twisted fly line or running line. There are many ways that line twist occurs, most of which can be fixed. However, the most common culprit of line twist occurs right from the start, when it’s wound onto the reel! Here are some tips when winding on your…
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TB Peggz – Why We Like Them
Last week we ran a post on three methods of rigging beads, where we highlighted three of the most common ways beads are rigged when fishing for trout. However, we recently picked up a pack of TB Peggz from Trout Beads and found that they work really well! They’re basically a rubber peg designed to…
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What’s Your Favorite Tippet to Fly Knot?
It’s been a while since we’ve ran a poll here on the Deneki blog, so today it’s poll time! We love hearing from you, our readers, on all aspects of fly fishing. We’ve ran polls in the past on everything from your favorite switch rod, to your favorite backing for bonefish, and everything in between. Oddly enough,…
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Angler’s Image Magnetic Hook Boxes
We fish a lot of tube flies for everything from salmon to trout. We think they offer a number of advantages over a traditional long shank fly, one of those advantages being the ability to quickly change out a dull or bent hook without changing flies. However, the size stinger hook suitable for salmon is not…
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OPST at Alaska West
We’re pretty excited to have the OPST crew in camp this week at Alaska West. That’s Olympic Peninsula Skagit Tactics for those who aren’t aware. Why are we so excited? Because they’ve been pumping out some pretty innovative stuff for those of us who like, no love, skagit style spey casting.. Not to mention that the company…
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