Last week, we presented you a clever way to rig up when digging deep for western Alaska rainbows shown to us by Alaska West guide Eric Robbins (in case you missed it, check it out here!). In fact, we liked it so much that we asked him to give us all the nitty gritty details of…
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Rapids Camp
Articulated Egg Sucking Bunny Leech – Tying Instructions
Few fly patterns have caught more fish in Alaska than the egg sucking leech (ESL). Whether tied in the classic “bugger style,” or in a more contemporary fashion utilizing rabbit strips, the ESL family of flies are hard to beat when targeting salmon and trout throughout all of Alaska. In fact, it has been said that the…
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Alaska Style Nymphing with Palsa Pinch-On Strike Indicators
We love fishing dry flies for trout as much as the next guy (ahem, that means rodents in our neck of the woods), but the fact remains that the a vast majority of a trout’s diet actually exists sub-surface. Therefore, if catching a lot of fish is your prerogative, nymphing is hard to beat. While…
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Tying Intruders – Funky Blob Fritz
We’ve been spinning up a lot of king salmon flies lately in anticipation of our upcoming season, and that means big flies for big fish.. Heck we’re getting excited just thinking about it. When swinging flies for kings, we’ve long been fans of intruder style patterns due to their large profile appearance in the water with minimal materials (allowing…
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Stuart Foxall’s King Rig
If you’re a regular to our humble little blog, odds are you’ve heard the name Stuart Foxall before. Stu is a professional fly designer for Aqua Flies as well as part of Loop Tackle’s development team. You could say he knows a thing or two about swinging flies for big, bright, anadramous fish. In fact,…
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3 Slack-Line Presentations Every Trout Angler Should Know
As most effective trout anglers know, a well executed drift is far more important than a perfect cast. Whether we want our fly to drift naturally in the current, or swing through the water column at a particular depth, this is best achieved by mending – That is, repositioning the line on the water after the…
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7-Weights for Alaskan Trout
Ask any group anglers, “what’s your favorite trout rod,” and odds are you’ll hear of a wealth of different makes and models, somewhere in the 3 – 6 weight range. That’s because rods in the 3 – 6 weight range cover a whole bunch of trouty applications from presenting tiny flies on spooky spring creeks to banging…
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7 Reasons We Like To Fish Flesh
Our Alaskan season is just around the corner (71 days in fact, but who’s counting?), and that means it won’t be long before we’re chucking big flies for even bigger Alaskan rainbow trout. We’re really lucky to be able to target trout effectively using a whole bunch techniques from stripping and swinging streamers, to skating…
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Patagonia Stormfront Sling Pack – Why We Like It
Like most anglers, we’re constantly looking around for the best way to carry around our gear. In search of a solution for our gear addiction, we recently picked up the Patagonia Stormfront Sling Pack. We think its pretty slick and today we thought we’d tell you why. What’s a Sling Pack? Aptly named, sling packs are packs…
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What’s the Best Time to Go Fishing in Alaska?
Today’s post falls into the ‘questions we get asked all the time’ category. When talking to folks about fly fishing in Alaska, inevitably we get asked the question, “what’s the best time to go fishing in Alaska?” It’s a great question! However, to answer that question takes much more than a simple one line answer. So, today…
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