It’s spey casting video time. Whitney Gould makes an appearance today to walk us through the basic steps involved in making one of the most useful spey casts out there – the Snap T a.k.a. Circle Spey a.k.a. C-Spey a.k.a. Circle Cast. It’s a great cast that just happens to have a lot of names….
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Tips
Top 5 Mistakes Fighting Big Fish
At Alaska West and BC West we see a lot of big fish fought by our guests – we’re talking steelhead and king salmon here. Sometimes our anglers do a great job fighting the big ones. Other times…not so much. Fight hard, fight smart, and get it over fast! Top 5 Mistakes Made Fighting Big…
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Get It Down!
We’ve been beating the drum lately about the fact that flies that imitate salmon parts work really well when targeting rainbow trout in Western Alaska. We’ve also mentioned that dead drifts aren’t that important, but getting your fly down is. In the process of going through the 1,273,489 pictures from our summer season at Alaska…
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Steelhead Hangdown Eats
It’s one of the toughest situations in steelheading, but it happens quite a lot. Most often it’s early or late in the day, and light is relatively low. Feeling safe, a steelhead tucks himself in right against the bank. You make a long cast (because even though the fish are in tight, that’s what we…
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Getting In and Out of a Jet Boat
It seems pretty simple, but bad things can happen when people get in and out of boats carelessly! What’s the most common cause of broken rods at Alaska West? Anglers losing their balance on the way into a boat, resulting in errant boots impacting rods. By far. What’s the most common cause of (thankfully minor)…
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4 Things to Learn About Trout
4 Things to Learn About Fishing Alaskan Rainbows From This Picture They like banks. There’s plenty of structure right along grass and tundra banks. Banks are undercut much more than you would think – giving trout a great combination of cover underneath the bank and access to food in the current. They like ledges. Same…
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Steelhead Tips from Scott Baker-McGarva
Scott Baker-McGarva is our head guide at BC West, and he knows a thing or two about swinging flies for steelhead. Today we’ve got a video featuring Scott with a couple of tips on steelhead fishing that are pretty simple, but really important. Fish your bad casts. Let ’em swing right into the bank, even…
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Fly Fishing Research
We recently discovered a web site that we thought you’d be interested in if you like fishing for steelhead or salmon. It’s called Fly Fishing Research, it’s written by Tom Keelin and Bob Pauli, and they’ve done their homework to say the least. They’ve written a bunch of interesting articles based on research in areas…
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Running Line – Holding Loops
If you’re making long casts with a spey rod and a Skagit-style line system, you need to deal with loops of running line. Skagit heads are short but casts can be long, and shooting 50 feet or more of running line happens all the time. Unfortunately you can’t just strip all that line in and…
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Let Your Guide Pick Your Fly
It’s time for another Universal Fishing Tip – pointers that are useful anywhere in the world you go fishing. When you’re headed out for a day in a new fishery, show your guide your fly box and ask what they think you should fish. You might be the best angler in the world, but you’re…
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