Like many things, the answer is, it depends. There are a lot of great options when it comes to carrying your flies, tools, and tippet around, and finding the best one for you can be a difficult task if you’re only trying to choose only one. Fly fishing is an activity that offers a gamut…
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Tips
Trout Spey and Four Reasons We Like It in Alaska
You’re likely to hear the words “swing season,” “trout Spey,” or even “Micro Spey” if you speak with enthusiastic trout fly-fishing anglers across the nation. Swinging for trout gives fly anglers an alternative method of fishing and a different pace to chase trout during trout season. Trout Spey is essentially just the standard two-handed Spey…
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Deneki Chronicles: Tying Neater Flies – 5 (More) Tips
For many of us winter means fly tying season, and last week we shared with you 5 tips for tying neater/tidier looking flies. Missed it? Not to worry, hit the link to read it right now! Knowing that Old Man Winter might keep you off the water for a couple more months, we figured we’d…
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Deneki Chronicles: Tying Neater Flies – 5 Tips
It’s been said that flies catch fly tyers, not fish. Odds are most fish don’t notice that the head of the fly is a little on the bulky side, or that your wraps are not as even as they could be. That said, a well-tied, tidy-looking fly muster confidence, and having confidence in the fly you…
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8 Tips to a Better Strip Set
To succeed on the flats, a precise strip set execution is essential. A successful strip set involves more than just yanking on the fly line when the fish takes the fly. Here are a few tips on how to execute a better strip set while on the flats. 8 Tips to a Better Strip Set…
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Deneki Chronicles: Clearing Line for Bonefish – 7 Tips
During one of the coldest, wettest, and windiest days of our season here in Western Alaska this week, we couldn’t help but let our minds wander toward the flats. Surprising, right? That got us to thinking, what’s the most overlooked facet of saltwater fly fishing that results in more fish lost or landed? We’d argue…
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Leader Length and Fly Weight
Today we continue our Alaska Guide Secrets series, in which you get the inside scoop direct from our guide crew at Alaska West. You’ve decided which fly to fish and maybe even which sinktip to use. Now you need to decide whether your leader should be 2 feet, 6 feet, or 12 feet long. Got…
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5 Fly Fishing Tips to Catch More King Salmon
We’re currently in the midst of our king salmon season on the Kanektok River at Alaska West and On the Nushagak River at Rapids Camp Lodge. These are not your normal king fisheries – we’re swinging flies for hot chrome fish just a few miles for the salt, and that really turns our crank! Needless to say,…
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Deneki Chronicles: Swinging for Kings – The Broadside Presentation
This week it’s all about the Mighty King Salmon! Friend of Deneki, Stuart Foxall explains how the fly swims and what King Salmon sees makes a difference. We love swinging flies for anadromous fish, and we do a lot of it at our lodges in Alaska. However, swinging flies effectively often takes more than simply…
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4 Tips for Trout Fishing in Side Channels, Braids, and Small Tundra Creeks
We’re lucky at Alaska West Lodge and Rapids Camp Lodge to have incredibly abundant and healthy rainbow trout fishing. Mice, sculpins, leeches, flesh flies, beads, and smolt fly patterns are favorites at both locations. We use single- and two-handed, trout Spey rods. And we fish lots of different parts of our rivers, from the big main…
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