It’s inevitable. If you do any sort of casting your leader or tippet will eventually fall victim to a wind knot that will weaken your line. If you’ve ever lost a fish because your leader snapped at a wind knot, we know the feeling. Now, if you’re lucky enough to find a wind knot near…
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Rapids Camp
Fall Naknek River Rainbows: The Varsity Game
Fishing for and landing big rainbow trout is a goal for a lot of fly anglers across the world and especially here in Alaska. The Naknek River is a great fishery for rainbow trout in the season from beginning to end. During the month of June, the smolt bust is an exhilarating game where you…
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Gear Review: Tornado Anchor
It’s been a while since we have seen much innovation or thought go into new anchoring systems for small freshwater craft. We are talking primarily about jet boats under 20’, drift boats, rafts and catarafts. Well, now there is the Tornado Anchor and it’s a pretty interesting take on an anchor. First off, this anchor…
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3 Simple Tips to Improve your Double Spey Cast
The Double Spey cast is a nice, fluid, and fundamental Spey casting technique. It is also one of the most popular casts in the Spey cast arsenal. Here are a few tips to help with correct anchor placement and effectively loading the rod. Tip 1: Place the connection between the head and the tip in front of you. – While…
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Advanced Bead Fishing for Trout: Matching Bead to Hook Size
With it being mega rainbow season here in Alaska, specifically at Rapids Camp Lodge on the Naknek River, this is the second post this week on advanced bead fishing tips. You can find the post on advanced bead fishing for rainbow trout about matching the egg-hatch here. Both of these posts are courtesy of Rapids…
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Advanced Bead Fishing for Trout: Matching the Hatch
Tis this season for BIG rainbows in Alaska, especially on the Naknek river here at Rapids Camp Lodge, where the rainbow trout are particularly mega. Salmon eggs make up a huge portion of the diet for our Alaskan rainbow trout, which is why bead fishing is arguably one of the most effective means of targeting…
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Dads & Rainbows
When I left Alaska three weeks ago to go back to Texas for a few weeks, I couldn’t help but dread leaving the early Alaska fall with the cooler temps and beautiful leaf changes and going back to beyond uncomfortable heat and humidity. I didn’t have to be dreadful for too long though, because I…
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Deneki Outdoors: Rapids Camp
It has been a tough year for all of us. Regardless of the situation and circumstances, we here at Deneki Outdoors refuse to not have some fun. With Rapids Camp being the only Alaska lodge, within our family of lodges operating this year, we still have managed to operate with awesome staff and a great…
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Deneki Chronicles: Spey Fishing – Watch How Your Fly Lands
When swinging flies for salmon and steelhead, we talk a lot about the importance of ‘fly profile,’ the broadside silhouette the fly takes on while in the water. Many fly tyers go to great lengths trying to achieve the desired profile, and it is this idea that has stemmed many modern steelhead and salmon patterns….
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Swing is King
Swing is king. Long casts, and big mends, swinging is a technique that we not only appreciate here in Alaska West and Rapids Camp, but it is a method we enjoy. D loops, ripping the line off the water resulting in long, bombing casts then having faith that while the fly is going down and…
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