When swinging for anadramous fish, we really like fishing flies with trailer hooks. Whether tied on tubes or ‘articulated’ style, flies rigged with a trailer hook offer a number of advantages over flies tied on a traditional long shank streamer hook. However, there’s a lot of debate over the best trailer hook out there. In…
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Rapids Camp
Battle
Today we present you with nothing more than a super cool photo of our good friend and long time Deneki guest, Frank Carlton, battling a hefty coho at Alaska West. Good work, Frank! More on Fighting Fish Top 5 Mistakes Made When Fighting Big Fish 6 Tips for Landing Big Fish Landing Fish Without a…
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Calculating Fish Weight – The Formula
The silver salmon fishing is as good as ever here at Alaska West and Rapids Camp Lodge, and not only are we catching a lot of silvers this year, we’re also catching a lot of bigger fish. That has our anglers are asking, “how big is that hog?”, which has us scratching our heads.. “Yeah, exactly how…
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Price’s Five O’Clock Shadow – Tying Instructions
We love fishing mouse flies for trout whenever possible. However, not all mouse patterns are created equal, and today our buddy Stuart Foxall presents us with a great step by step on how to tie one of the most clever mouse patterns of all time, Kevin Price’s Five O’Clock Shadow. Enjoy! Price’s Five O’Clock Shadow…
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Jordan Sly’s ‘Wake and Eggs’ Rig
A couple weeks ago, Alaska West operation’s manager, Jordan Sly, gave us a great post on the life history of one of the most underrated fish in our river, the dolly varden. In case you missed it, make sure to check it out, here! Today, Jordan is back with another edition of our ‘expert rig‘…
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Smoked Salmon at Alaska West
We’re really lucky in that we have a great smoked fish program here at Alaska West. In fact, many of you have asked for a post highlighting our recipe and smoking process, but until now we’ve done a pretty good job at keeping it a secret. However, the secret is out and today our smoke-master…
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Spooling Fly Line Correctly
One of the more frustrating things in fly fishing is a twisted fly line or running line. There are many ways that line twist occurs, most of which can be fixed. However, the most common culprit of line twist occurs right from the start, when it’s wound onto the reel! Here are some tips when winding on your…
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Jumper!
Long-time Deneki guest, Finn Ward, and Alaska West guide, Ben West, putting the wood to a Kanektok silver salmon. Nice work guys! More on Silver Salmon 6 Ways to Catch More Silver Salmon Jordan Sly’s Silver Rig Silver Salmon in Sunny Conditions – 5 Tips
Finishing Intruders – 9 Styles
Deneki pal and professional fly designer, Stuart Foxall, is back today with another great post for all of you who like tying flies for anadramous fish.. Not one, not two, but nine different ways to finish off your intruders! Enjoy! Finishing Intruders – 9 Styles Intruder style flies are a really fun fly to tie, mainly because…
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Opportunism
This year at Alaska West, our run of chum salmon came in a bit later than normal (don’t worry, they’re here in full force now). However, our resident rainbow trout count on the conveyor belt of salmon flesh each season to fatten up for the winter, which on our river consists of mostly chum and…
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