Our seasons at Rapids Camp and Alaska West are right around the corner – summer’s almost here! Summer brings fishing in Alaska, so today we’re rounding up our best posts about fishing in Alaska. Top 10 Alaska Fishing Posts Bead Fishing for Rainbow Trout. It’s super effective, no doubt about that. Top Mistakes Made Fly…
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Rapids Camp
Spey Casting – Top 3 Casting Faults
We do a lot of spey casting at our lodges, and in turn a lot of spey casting instruction. When working with anglers on their casting, we tend to see many of the same casting faults while making the transition from single hand fly casting to spey casting. Here are the 3 most common spey…
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Drinking Straws for Tube Flies
When it comes to tube flies, we’re big fans. Tube flies are fun to tie and offer many advantages over traditional shank-style flies. However, unlike traditional flies, storing tube flies can be a bit of a hassle. For the most part, a simple Plano box does the trick. That is, until a gust of wind…
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Nymphing For Trout: Hook Sets Are Free!
When fishing for trout in Western Alaska, we dead drift a lot of sub surface patterns in search of the big boys. The majority of a trout’s diet is found near the bottom of the water column. Therefore, nymphing is essential to consistently hooking trout. While most of the time we fish flesh and egg…
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All About Spey Rigging
We make sure to pick the brains of the many guests who frequent our lodges on what topics they would like to see most on the blog. Whether in Alaska or the Bahamas, a reoccurring request is a more comprehensive explanation of spey gear. Modern rods, lines, tips and so on are constantly evolving and…
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Little Ku
The Little Ku On the Southern Shore of Kukaklek Lake, moments from Rapids Camp Lodge, in the Northeastern section of the Katmai National Park, lies a creek legendary to backcountry Alaskan trout fishermen. Loaded with big Kukaklek leopard rainbows, this piece of water can wreck a trout fisherman for life. Totaling about 10 miles of…
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Untwisting Your Fly Line
There’s nothing more disheartening than attempting to make your shot at a tailing bonefish or permit only to find the tangled coils of a twisted fly line bunched up against your stripping guide. Regardless of your skill level, type of fly line, or whether you fish in fresh or salt water, fly line twist is…
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5 Ways to Control the Speed of Your Swing
When swinging for anadramous species like king salmon or steelhead, more often than not, the slower the swing the better. As long as it is moving just enough to suggest life in your fly, odds are you are in the game. However, from time to time, increasing the speed of your swing can be just…
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Battle Creek
Battle Creek in the Katmai National Park is a favorite destination of Rapids Camp Lodge. Just a 20 minute float-plane ride through some of the most stunning back country the park has to offer, and nestled in a long steep-rimmed valley lies Battle Creek. Flowing from east to west, from Battle Lake into Narrow Cove…
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19 Reasons to Fish a Mouse Fly
It’s no secret how much we love fishing mouse patterns for big Alaskan rainbow trout. We do a lot of it and, as odd as it may sound, it is our most productive method for catching trout on the surface. With a conveyor belt of salmon flesh and eggs throughout an already short growing season,…
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