When asked about our favorite flies for silver salmon, many of our guests are surprised to hear that one of the most popular patterns amongst our guide staff at Alaska West is not a ‘typical’ Alaska-born coho pattern such as a hareball leech or dolly llama, but rather a plain ol’ pink and white Clouser…
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Rapids Camp
How to Repair Split Jungle Cock Nails
When it comes to fly tying materials, particularly in the world of salmon and steelhead flies, its safe to say there’s no feather more prized than jungle cock. Due to their stunning contrast of color and natural durable enamel-like coating, jungle cock eyes (or ‘nails’) have been sought after by fly tyers for over a hundred…
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Timeless Tips: 9 Questions About King Salmon You Were Afraid to Ask
Today we’re coming at you with another addition of a series of posts addressing some basic questions on the topics we cover most. We’ve already covered some of the basic questions involving Alaskan trout, bonefish, and even spey fishing. Now its time to address the biggest and baddest of them all, the king salmon. 9…
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How to Make a Single Hand Spey Cast – Video
Contrary to popular belief, spey casting is not limited to double handed rods or swinging flies for anadramous fish like salmon and steelhead. In fact, single-hand spey casting is an extremely valuable tool that allows for fishable casts under conditions that a traditional overhead, or even roll cast, wouldn’t otherwise allow, regardless what you fish…
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There’s Only One Bristol Bay
Our good friend and Sportman’s Alliance for Alaska director, Scott Hed, recently passed along a great writeup sharing a personal experience while stomping around Bristol Bay at our own Rapids Camp Lodge. For those interested in the true power of the Bristol Bay region itself, along with the current status of the proposed Pebble Mine…
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The Morrish Mouse 2.0 – Tying Instructions
Ken Morrish’s ‘Morrish Mouse’ is arguably one of the most well known (and effective) mouse patterns ever created. In fact, it’s one of our favorite flies at Rapids Camp Lodge. However, originally tied on a traditional down-riding hook, some believe the original Morrish Mouse has a tendency for shorter strikes and potentially a higher rate…
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Make Space for More Flies
When fishing for steelhead and salmon, we fish a lot of articulated style flies tied with a ‘stinger hook‘ attached to the body of the fly using a loop of stiff wire or braid. However, many of these flies tend to be fairly large and often take up a lot of space in the fly…
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Simms Dry Creek Backpack – Review
We pride ourselves on having an expansive network of insanely fishy individuals who spend the majority of their life on, or around, the water. When not guiding at our lodges, many of our guides spend the off-season guiding in other areas of the country, or traveling to fish other areas of the world on their…
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3,000 Posts!
We’ve been blogging about fly fishing for quite some time now, and today our humble little fly fishing blog reaches its greatest milestone yet.. Today is the 3,000th blog post here on the Deneki blog. Wow. We really appreciate all of you who have stopped by our blog over the years, continually check in for your daily dose…
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5 Guide Secrets to Catch More Alaska Rainbows
Alaskan trout tend to behave differently from their brethren in the lower 48. As we mentioned last week, that warrants some rather uncommon methods when targeting trout in Alaska compared to those used in other parts of the world. With different methods come different techniques, and today we present you with 5 lesser known tips…
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