One of our favorite running lines for skagit style spey casting is Airflo’s Miracle Braid. It handles well in all conditions, shoots like a rocket, and better yet, it floats! Not to mention it sounds super cool as it zips through the guides. Creating a loop in Miracle Braid to attach to a skagit head or backing can be…
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Gear
Grant Turner’s Alaskan Steelhead Rig
We know many of you enjoy our expert rig series of posts, where we highlight every detail of the setups used by the experts chasing fish in our neck of the woods. It’s been a while since we’ve put out an expert rig, so we reached out to Alaska West guide, Grant Turner for the…
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Hatch Professional Leader and Tippet
Hatch Outdoors might be most well known for their bomb-proof fly reels, but over the past few years, they’ve put out some pretty awesome product on the terminal-tackle side things as well.. Ahem, like their premium backing for example. Hatch recently released their new Professional Saltwater Series of tippet, leader material, and tapered leaders, and since we were able to get our…
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Understanding Fly Line Profiles
Choosing the best fly line for your angling pursuits is the most important consideration of any fly rod setup. Contrary to popular belief, the fly line is the most ‘technically driven’ piece of equipment. Yes, more so than your high modulus graphite or sealed carbon fiber disc drags. There are a wide range of fly lines available today…
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Simms Kinetic Jacket
Simms recently released their newest piece of synthetic insulated jackets called the Kinetic Jacket. We were able to get our hands on one this past summer, and had the pleasure of putting it through an entire Alaska season. We’re pleased to announce that it survived, and today we thought we’d tell you what else we…
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Scientific Anglers SharkWave Saltwater Fly Line
We’ve said it before, but the fly line is the most important component of any fly rod set up. No rod can make up for a poor match of fly line, but luckily there are no shortage of choices on the market today! We love testing out new fly lines and today we present you with…
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Tying Intruders with Trevor Covich
About a year ago, we shared a step by step video of Alaska West alum, Trevor Covich, tying one of his go-to sculpin patterns, along with the handy camera work of another Deneki alum, Ben Paull. The video was a big hit, and many of you expressed how much you enjoyed it! Therefore, we were…
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Aeropress Coffee Maker
We’re all about roughing it, but one luxury we’d rather not live without is good strong coffee. A hot cup of coffee is God sent on a cool day on the water, and we make sure to make it part of our program each day. There are a lot of good coffee making options today for the…
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All About Switch Rods – Interview with George Cook
We love fishing switch rods at our lodges in Alaska and British Columbia. For the most part, we think of them as ‘mini-spey rods,’ and use them when swinging flies for everything thing from dolly varden to king salmon. We get a lot of questions from our guests and readers about the use and practicality of…
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Dr. Slick Razor Scissors
We tie a lot of flies over the course of the year, and one thing we’ve learned after turning out hundreds (maybe even thousands) of flies each season is that quality fly tying tools make a difference. Good tools are not only more comfortable to use in most cases, but they usually turn out better looking…
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