In the world of Spey casting making sure you’re using the right sink tip, let’s be honest is confusing. There are a variety of lengths, sink rates, density, and style of sink tip, and trying to match the right sink tip, to the river your fishing and your own preference can be a daunting task….
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Rapids Camp
Guide Speak Glossary: Alaska West Edition
In our second edition of Guide Speak we visit Alaska West on the Kanektok. The Kanektok is many a fly fisherman’s mecca, or summit, so to speak. It’s also a place that makes coming up with new fishing oriented words and phrases quite easy due to the intense focus on fishing and lodge life. With…
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Indicate or Not to Indicate, that is the Question.
Regardless of how you feel about strike indicators, there is no doubt that a strike indicator will help a new fly fisher catch more fish by visually learning current speed, reading seams, and gauging the depth of the water. However, if you’re not careful, the strike indicator can develop into a crutch for a new…
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Deep Thoughts on Landing Nets
Landing nets just don’t get the deep thoughts and contemplation that may be given to other parts of a fisher person’s arsenal. That’s unfortunate since you are using that net to either catch and release or catch and harvest fish, and both of those activities should be done with the utmost care and forethought. If…
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Timeless Tip: Remove a Wind Knot in your Leader
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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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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