Whether we’re searching for steelhead on the Dean, swinging flies for kings on the Kanektok, or soaking sculpins for massive Naknek rainbow trout, we do a lot of spey fishing at our lodges. Therefore, as you might expect, we give our share of spey instructions as well, and today we share with you a few…
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Tips
Timeless Tip Tuesday: 3 Ways to Cast Further
Casting a long ways is not anywhere close to the most important skill in fly fishing. We’d actually tell you that casting too far is one of the leading causes of not catching fish…but that’s a topic for another day! Bombing long casts is fun, and every once in a while, you need to cast…
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King Salmon in Low Water – 5 Tips
Like most of Western Alaska, we’re experiencing slightly lower than average water conditions on our home river at Alaska West. As is the case with most anadromous species, low and clear water can make for some challenging fishing conditions when swinging flies for deep holding fish like king salmon, and often requires a few adjustments…
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Timeless Tips: Lake Fishing With a Tough Backcast
George Cook with some video commentary on fly fishing lakes. The topic de jour is some techniques for dealing with a difficult backcast. In this video, George talks about The fact that some of the best spots in lakes, like bays, can have very tough backcast conditions How basic rollcasting can work How a single hand…
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Timeless Tips: Alaska King Salmon Season – Your Quiver
Today’s installment of our timeless tips series of posts focuses on your ideal rod quiver for our fishery in Alaska from mid-June to mid-July. This time is often referred to as ‘king season’, and that it certainly is, but kings aren’t the only game in town. Must Have A 9 weight spey rod between 12 and…
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Mousing for Trout – Work Upstream
When mousing for trout, we tend to target fish using two different methods – banging the banks from the boat while rowing ‘drift boat style,’ or walking smaller side channels on foot. Both methods have their advantages. Fishing from a moving boat covers far more water than wading, in theory allowing you to put your…
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Arctic Grayling – Fish the Traditionals
For the majority of our guests at Alaska West, the first few weeks of our season is all about two things -swinging flies for big bright king salmon and/or chucking big mouse and sculpin imitations for hungry rainbow trout. However, during the first part of our season, an often overlooked species on our river are…
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Timeless Tip Tuesday: Swinging Flies – Cast, Then Step
Cast, mend, swing fly, take a few steps downriver, repeat. That’s how you fish for steelhead, right? Not necessarily. Michael White stops by in video form today, straight from the Dean River, to tell us a bit about how he likes to present flies to steelhead. The basic idea – rather than stepping downriver after…
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Rigging Backing Solo
When rigging fly reels for hard fighting species like king salmon, bonefish, or any other fish capable of long blistering runs, we’re sticklers for winding on backing tight.. Really tight. Backing wound on too loosely (like you might reel up your fly line), is bound to cut into itself, particularly on hard pulling fish, locking…
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Timeless Tips: 6 Ways to Catch More Steelhead
Fishing for steelhead is fun. Catching steelhead is even more fun. Here are 6 ways you can can more steelhead on flies. Let us know how you catch more! 6 Ways to Catch More Steelhead Fish the near water first. Steelhead can hold in really shallow water, really close to the bank. Always fish the…
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