Yes, this is a productive, healthy harvest fishery. Fly fishing for dorado in a super-productive fishery like the Tongue of the Ocean off of South Andros Island is a ton of fun. The basic formula is fairly straightforward: locate cover which also locates bait, locate fish, strip flies. There’s a little more to it than…
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Tips
Mousing for Rainbow Trout – 5 Tips
Mouse flies are not delicate. Photo: Cameron Miller One of the most fun and unique ways to target rainbow trout in Western Alaska is by ‘mousing’. Small voles and other rodents often find themselves in the river, intentionally or not, and our bigger predatory rainbows are always on the lookout for a meal that’s even…
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6 Ways to Catch More Silver Salmon
Got one. Photo: Cameron Miller On the Kanektok River where we operate Alaska West, and on other rivers like it in Western Alaska, the classic method for catching silver salmon on flies involves targeting them in slow-moving water, casting a floating line, and stripping back a weighted fly. Here are 6 ways to make the most of this…
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What’s Your Favorite Bonefish Rod?
What did you use to catch me? Photo: Rick Sisler We got some really interesting feedback a couple of weeks ago when we asked our readers about their favorite trout rods. Here’s our post with everyone’s votes, and here’s our post with the results. Today it’s time for round 2. What’s your favorite bonefish rod?…
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Favorite Trout Rod Roundup
Catching me required neither a laser loop nor an 80′ cast into the wind. Photo: Chris Price Thanks to the folks who weighed in on our “What’s Your Favorite Trout Rod?” post last week, we’ve got some somewhat interesting, statistically sort-of-significant, semi-scientific data to present today! Actually we got some great input across the board….
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Fishing with Kids
Seriously, kids are fishy. Photo: Mike Duffy One of the best parts about being in the fishing lodge business is having the opportunity to host family groups at our lodges. We absolutely love having kids around, and watching the experiences that family groups have together couldn’t be more gratifying. Fathers, daughters, sons, mothers, uncles, grandparents…
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Maxima Ultragreen – Why We Like It
The old standard, for a reason. 5 reasons, actually. There are a lot of high-tech leader materials out there, but if you visit one of our lodges in Alaska, British Columbia, the Bahamas or Chile, the material that we’re most likely to suggest you knot to your fly is Maxima Ultragreen. Why is that? It…
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Taking the Perfect Hero Shot – 13 Tips
Cameron, hard at work. Photo: Ric Fogel/Sportfolio If you’ve spent any time on our blog, you’ve seen a whole bunch of photos credited to Cameron Miller. Cameron is a long-time veteran of Alaska West. He spent a bunch of years guiding and taking pictures, and the past few years has made the transition into nearly…
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What’s Your Favorite Trout Rod?
Hmmm, my mouth hurt like that was a 690-4 Z-Axis with G5 technology. Photo: Cameron Miller We spend a lot of time on our blog telling you which gear the experts use. Today it’s your turn. What’s your favorite rod to use when you’re fly fishing for trout? Yes, we know that it could be…
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Secrets of the Flesh Fly
Sometimes all it takes is a little flesh. Photo: Ramsey Smith Trout that live in the lower sections of rivers like the Kanektok and the Arolik in Western Alaska get a lot of their calories from salmon flesh. That means that at Alaska West we spend a lot of time tying and fishing patterns that…
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