Whether dead drifting flesh and egg patterns or tandem nymph rigs, if you’re not breaking off flies, odds are you’re not fishing deep enough. There’s no question that nymphing for trout is effective. However, it can be frustrating having to constantly re-rig new flies, tippet, and split shot every time you set the hook on…
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Tips
Polyleaders for Single-handed Rods
Polyleaders are great tool that allow for anglers to adapt to a wide range of conditions. In fact, we’ve run several posts in the past highlighting how much we like fishing polyleaders on two handed rods. They’re a great match for lighter setups such as scandi heads or switch lines. However, polyleaders are just as…
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Nymphing For Trout: Hook Sets Are Free!
When fishing for trout in Western Alaska, we dead drift a lot of sub surface patterns in search of the big boys. The majority of a trout’s diet is found near the bottom of the water column. Therefore, nymphing is essential to consistently hooking trout. While most of the time we fish flesh and egg…
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Caring For Fly Lines
Contrary to popular belief, the fly line is arguably the most essential part of any fly rod setup. One can spend top dollar for the most elite rod and reel on the market, but their performance rests largely on the quality of the fly line it is paired with. We go to extreme lengths to…
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All About Spey Rigging
We make sure to pick the brains of the many guests who frequent our lodges on what topics they would like to see most on the blog. Whether in Alaska or the Bahamas, a reoccurring request is a more comprehensive explanation of spey gear. Modern rods, lines, tips and so on are constantly evolving and…
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Which Tippet Size Should I Use?
Selecting the appropriate tippet size for the situation is an often overlooked aspect of fly fishing – even though it could mean the difference between fish and no fish! First and foremost, a great rule to live by is to fish the strongest tippet you can get away with. There’s no glory in intentionally under-gunning…
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Untwisting Your Fly Line
There’s nothing more disheartening than attempting to make your shot at a tailing bonefish or permit only to find the tangled coils of a twisted fly line bunched up against your stripping guide. Regardless of your skill level, type of fly line, or whether you fish in fresh or salt water, fly line twist is…
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5 Ways to Control the Speed of Your Swing
When swinging for anadramous species like king salmon or steelhead, more often than not, the slower the swing the better. As long as it is moving just enough to suggest life in your fly, odds are you are in the game. However, from time to time, increasing the speed of your swing can be just…
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Color Coding Sink Tips
Changing sink tips on the river already takes up valuable time that your fly should be in the water. When it comes time to change tips, the last thing you need is to open up your tip wallet to find a heap of unorganized tips of varying densities. While some tips (such as RIO’s MOW…
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5 Tips for Casting Heavy Rigs and Flies
With only a few short months away until we start our season in Alaska, we couldn’t help but think about chucking big gaudy flies and rigs to the plethora of species that call our river home. Whether it is heavily weighted flies, split shot ridden nymph rigs, or ‘dredger style’ sink tips, there is nothing…
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