Hey, George caught one! Photo: Cameron Miller George Cook is one of the pioneers of spey fishing for king salmon in the Northwest, and he’s one of our best-in-the-business spey instructors during our king season at Alaska West.George has shared with us a bunch about his philosophy of king fishing in the past, and today…
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Gear
StoneBridge Bamboo Fly Rods
Gary Berenson is a good friend who has spent a bunch of time at our lodges. Gary’s a super guy, and among other things he builds incredible bamboo fly rods under the name StoneBridge Rod Company. Gary’s rods are beautiful. His detailing and overall level of craftsmanship are as fine as you’ll see anywhere, period….
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Sage 5126-4 Z-Axis
This is a really good little spey rod. If you haven’t noticed, we’re pretty fired up these days about fishing lightweight spey rods for trout and smaller steelhead. In our minds, if a fish likes a swung fly, it’s a lot more enjoyable to give it to ’em with a two handed rod. The Sage…
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Running Line Roundup
Running line from above Photo: Cameron Miller As you’ve probably noticed, since we do a lot of spey fishing for king salmon and steelhead at Alaska West and BC West, we play around with spey tackle a lot. Our team and most of our guests use Skagit-style line systems most of the time, and these…
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Bead Fishing for Rainbow Trout
Just a couple to choose from. Photo: Cameron Miller Rainbow trout in Western Alaska eat a lot of salmon eggs. Over the years a lot of different flies like the Glo Bug have been tied to imitate salmon eggs, but recently it’s become clear that the most effective way to trick a rainbow trout into…
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Spey Fishing for Trout, Part 2 – Gear
Workin’ the little rod on the Arolik. Photo: Cameron Miller UPDATE: Thanks for checking out this post in 2009. By 2012 spey fishing for trout had changed a bit, so we put out this post with an update on spey and switch fishing for trout as of 2012. Feel free to read on, though! We’ve…
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Spey Fishing for Trout, Part 1 – Why
Dec Hogan covers the Arolik, bank-to-bank. Photo: Cameron Miller Over the past few years, spey casting has become the method of choice in most fisheries around the world that involve presenting swung flies to anadromous fish. On the Kola Peninsula, and in Iceland, and on the Hoh River and in Tierra Del Fuego, anglers chase…
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Buffs – Why We Like Them
They’re not just for the flats anymore. Photo: Cameron Miller A few years ago on the flats we started seeing people with these funny stretch things wrapped around their heads, and we wondered what the deal was. It turns out they were wearing Buffs, and that Buffs are a great way to protect yourself from…
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Rainbow Trout and Giant Flies
Medium fish, XXL fly. Photo: Cameron Miller Rainbow trout in the Kanektok and Arolik Rivers have a short season during which they can feed, so when it’s summer and the water conditions are good, they tend to pounce on flies that might be, oh, about 1/4 as long as they are.< If you look closely…
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Line Winders
Yeah it’s thick, but it can still get tangled. Photo: Cameron Miller If you fish different parts of the world at different times of the year, you either own a whole boatload of reels or you regularly need to pull one fly line off a reel and slap on another one. If you’re not in…
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