We have had some great weather this year at Alaska West – weather that makes you want to take a quick swim, maybe wet wade during some spey instruction with Whitney Gould before dinner, or just sit around in shorts and a t-shirt talking with friends. Sounds great right? Well that is not the whole…
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Gear
Bruce Chard Grand Slam Line – Congrats on Best in Show
Congratulations to our good friend Bruce Chard – his Grand Slam fly line by Scientific Anglers just won the Best in Show award at IFTD in the saltwater line category! We love Bruce’s line at Andros South because it loads fast rods quickly, has an aggressive taper to turn over big flies, and shoots like…
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Jordan Sly’s Early Season ‘Low Bow’ Rig
Time for more trout rigging detail! Here’s how Jordan Sly chases the big boys at Alaska West. Jordan Sly’s Early Season Lower River Trout Rig I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the dilemma “upriver for quantity, or downriver for quality” here at Alaska West, but it is a common one. This question is…
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RIO GripShooter Review
It looks like RIO has just changed the spey running line game with their new GripShooter line. It’s running line that combines Slickshooter with a PVC coated ‘handling’ section at one end. More details shortly – let’s start with the background. Background Spey and switch anglers who prefer mono running lines like them for a…
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Best Rain Bibs Ever
Ever need a good pair of breathable rain bibs for working in the yard, wearing on a wet boat ride, or just strolling around in the rain? We’ve got a solution for you if you have a old pair of waders laying around. After a while it becomes impossible to keep an old pair of…
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Jordan Sly’s Trout Swinging Rig
Jordan Sly is back today, this time with another information-packed post for our Expert Rig series. Jordan Sly’s Trout Swinging Rig Here at Alaska West our river is just asking to have a fly swung through the water column. Swinging flies for trout is not only fun, but it is also often very effective and…
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Try a Mono Running Line on Your Switch Rod
If you’ve read many of the posts about spey fishing on our blog, you know that a lot of Deneki-folk prefer mono running lines on our two-handed rods. There’s a lot of personal preference in running line choice for sure. Mono running lines have some drawbacks – notably a bit of a learning curve in…
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Trimming Spun Deer Hair
Jordan Sly is back today with another handy post on fly tying! Trimming Spun Deer Hair Spun deer hair is great for many things – adding buoyancy, creating bodies and heads – but it can be hard to get the right shape when trimming it. A flexible razor blade can not only help create a…
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Lubricate Your Knots – Well!
Some of the most common rigging mistakes we see at our lodges involve knots that haven’t been lubricated well. Two of the knots that we use most frequently – the blood knot, for attaching sections of leader together, and the non-slip mono loop, for tying on a fly – really need to be lubricated well…
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Fly Tying with Twist Ties
We’ve got a three-way post today – Jordan Sly weighs in from Alaska West with a great, practical fly tying tip he picked up from angler Kevin Harris. Thanks guys! Tying with Twist Ties I’ll be adding a couple twist ties to my tying kit after watching Kevin Harris tie a couple flies in the…
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