With a current closure on king salmon at Alaska West, we’ve been targeting more species on the swing than ever this season. We love fishing with a two handed rod and the opportunities available are endless on our river. We have a hefty run of strong, chrome bright, sea-lice toting chum salmon throughout the majority…
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Tips
Mousing for Trout – Try a Strip Set
On our Alaskan rivers, targeting big leopard rainbows with gaudy rodent imitations is not only visually appealing, but also very productive at certain times of the year. Takes can be ferocious and often unexpected. However, one of the most common faults when mousing for trout is setting the hook too early. It’s important to…
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Be Nice to Non-Targets
OK, OK we get it – when you’re swinging flies for steelhead and you can’t keep the pink salmon off, it’s sometimes a little bit annoying. When you’re targeting big rainbow trout and a bunch of little dollies keep climbing on, your rig might get a little screwed up every now and again. But still –…
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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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Stomp Your Foot on the Deck
Today’s fishing tip comes from the world of tarpon fishing – uber-angler Andy Mill in particular is known for using the technique when fighting tarpon. It’s applicable to other types of fishing as well though, especially when you’re fishing out of skiff for other explosive fish. Warning: it’s one of those ideas that make your…
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Fly Casting – Creep vs. Drift
Warning: this is a semi-detailed post on correcting a common fly casting fault. If you’re not into the detailed mechanics of fly casting, click here for some big fish photos instead! Fly casting is an art that will never be perfected, only improved upon. It’s part of what makes the sport great! Nonetheless, there are…
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Wind Your Backing On Tight – Why, Illustrated
Almost five years ago we ran a post about why you need to wind your backing on tight when you’re chasing big fish. A few days ago our good friend Nic Jepson sent us the amazing picture above, which tells the story better than our words ever could. Nic was kind enough to add the…
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Point Your Rod at That Bonefish
We’ve gone on a few diatribes over the years about how to set the hook on a bonefish – here’s our most thorough post on the topic. One of the points that we stress the most (partly because we’re all guilty of screwing it up from time to time) is the importance of keeping your…
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Gluing Knots for Extra Strength
One of our most popular post series to date, is our ‘Expert Rig Series,’ where we give the details of how some of the industry’s best anglers rig up for their respective fisheries. We are fortunate to get to fish with many world class anglers on a day to day basis, many of which are…
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Stripping for Bonefish – Lock Your Elbow
Strip set, strip set, strip set! We’ve set it before, but to consistently land bonefish, it is important to set the hook with a long stripping motion, with the rod pointed at the fish, as opposed to raising the rod in a ‘trout setting’ motion. We’d be lying if we said we didn’t let our…
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