Our ridiculous run of silver salmon has just begun to show up in full force, which means alongside four other species of pacific salmon, including voracious chums and feisty pinks, there’s no shortage of practice for fighting big fish. One thing we see on a regular basis from our first-time anglers upon hooking a hefty…
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Rapids Camp
Spey Rods for King Salmon – Our Favorites
Spey fishing for king salmon is not for the light hearted. It puts rods, reels, lines, knots, and mental toughness to the test. It’s not uncommon for one (or more) of the aforementioned to break, and more often than not, its the latter. However, today we’re not talking about broken hearts, we’re talking about rods…..
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Spey Fishing – Pulsing the Swing (Video)
The “tug” might be the “drug,” but most anglers would agree that a tug that stays attached is ideal. Unfortunately, when swinging flies for salmon and steelhead, that’s not always the case. Quick strikes, followed by an unanswered swing, are common when spey fishing, and can be frustrating at the very least. So what do…
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Timeless Tip Tuesday: Rainbow Trout Lies
We asked our Deneki Expert Panel a question a little while back about trout lies – no, not the tall tales that trout spin about the size of the anglers who almost caught them, the places in the river where trout like to live. A later post will give a number of bits of wisdom…
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Mouse Fishing for Trout – Try a Dead Drift
When fishing mouse flies for hungry Alaskan rainbows, a typical presentation goes something like this – Cast at a slightly downstream angle above your target, raise your rod tip, wiggle your rod tip back and forth roughly 8 inches apart while at the same time slowly drawing in line with your line hand. This creates…
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Get Hitched – Rigging Stinger Hooks on Tube Flies
We fish a lot of tube flies at our lodges, and while they can be rigged several different ways, one of our favorite ways is attaching an up-eye octopus style stinger hook to a large loop in the leader nested at the back of the fly. Not only does this position the hook at the…
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Spey Casting – Top Three Tips
Whether we’re searching for steelhead on the Dean, swinging flies for kings on the Kanektok, or soaking sculpins for massive Naknek rainbow trout, we do a lot of spey fishing at our lodges. Therefore, as you might expect, we give our share of spey instructions as well, and today we share with you a few…
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King Salmon in Low Water – 5 Tips
Like most of Western Alaska, we’re experiencing slightly lower than average water conditions on our home river at Alaska West. As is the case with most anadromous species, low and clear water can make for some challenging fishing conditions when swinging flies for deep holding fish like king salmon, and often requires a few adjustments…
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Happy Fourth of July
We’re really lucky to spend our year delivering fishing trips in several different countries to a whole bunch of great people hailing from all over the world. That said, we’re really proud to be based out of the good ol’ U.S. of A. and wish all of you a safe and happy 4th of July….
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Mousing for Trout – Work Upstream
When mousing for trout, we tend to target fish using two different methods – banging the banks from the boat while rowing ‘drift boat style,’ or walking smaller side channels on foot. Both methods have their advantages. Fishing from a moving boat covers far more water than wading, in theory allowing you to put your…
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