As a guide at Alaska West, Kyle Shea gets to swing flies for king salmon in during his downtime. Here’s his rig of choice! The Summary Echo King 9130-4 Ross CLA # 7 Airflo Skagit Compact 660 The Detail 250 yards of 30 lb. Dacron backing, wrapped 4-5 times around the spool and tied with…
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Gear
Travel Tips for Anglers
With fishing lodges around the world, we receive a lot of questions from our guests about traveling with fishing gear. If you’re an experienced traveler, you understand that there are hardly any guarantees or set rules among competing airlines, and unfortunately this is out of our control. However, what we can do is share a…
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Better Mono Eyes
Adding mono eyes to your bonefish flies is a simple way to increase the realism of your patterns. Mono eyes are very simple to make and offer a good imitation of the beady eyes of most shrimp. Sure, we could debate on whether the fish notice such details or not, but it sure doesn’t seem…
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Double Up Your Loop to Loop Connections
Earlier this month we had the pleasure of fishing the flats with Andros South guest Harrison Perrin. While rigging up, he offered this simple tip when making the loop to loop connection between your fly line and leader to prolong the life of the coating on your factory loop. Check it out – we think…
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Dan Herrig’s Naknek Swinging Rig
Dan Herrig is the Head Guide at Rapids Camp Lodge, our fly out operation in Bristol Bay. Rapids Camp is located on the Naknek River, home to some giant rainbow trout. In the late season at Rapids Camp, there’s a phenomenal swing fishery for these rainbows. If Dan was to step into a run on…
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The Shrimptruder
We swing a lot of flies while fishing in Alaska and B.C., and if you read our blog or hopefully visit with us at these locations, this is not news to you. When swinging for anadramous fish, we have been sold on Intruder-style flies for years. However, as the seasons turn there is a time…
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Top Posts on Fly Lines
You probably know the drill by now – every so often we give you a list of our top posts on a particular topic. Today it’s all about fly lines. In compiling today’s list we’ve realized that our fly line reviews have been really focused on spey lines and bonefish lines – we’ll do our…
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Hair Ties as Rod Straps
If you’re headed out to fish a local piece of water, there’s often no need to bring your rod in a tube – rod tubes are bombproof, but they’re also clunky to carry and pack, they make you take the reel off your rod, and they’re totally overkill if you’re just hopping in your car….
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12 Ways to Tie Better Flies Faster
Winter is here, and for many of us that means it’s fly tying season. If you’re looking to restock your boxes for next season, try a few of these tips to fill them up faster! Take Your Time on the First Pattern. Before you hit production mode, take your time on your first fly pattern. Experiment…
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Cotton Swab Tube Flies
We fish a lot of tube flies at Alaska West, especially when targeting fish on the swing. While there a lot of different tube materials out there marketed by various fly tying companies, when you tie as many flies as we do over the course of the season, sometimes the cheapest option is best. Next time you are…
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