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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Tips
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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Reinforcing Welded Loops
When targeting strong fish such as king salmon, tarpon, permit, or even bonefish, any added security in your tackle is a good thing. These fish have the ability to make runs deep into your backing and test the strength of your entire setup from your drag down to your tippet knots. Most of us are…
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Tailing Bonefish – Take Your Time
There is nothing more exciting when bonefishing than seeing that first flash of a tail as it breaks the surface. Many of us have learned that tailing fish are often the most aggressive and because of this fact, we see a lot of anglers rush the shot, including yours truly! We learn quickly that when…
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Retrieving the Mouse Fly
Mousing for trout in western Alaska is about as cool as it gets. We’re not talking about strapping on the headlamp for night time browns or waiting for a “mouse hatch” every seven years (although they both sound awesome as well!), we’re talking about chucking big gnarly mammal imitations day in and day out to…
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Steelheading Simplified
Today we have a few steelheading tips coming at you from our own Kara Knight. Kara is our lodge manager at B.C. West on the Dean River and knows a thing or two about swinging for steelhead. We asked Kara for a few tips she’s picked up from her time on the Dean that might…
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Wind on Your Right Shoulder?
Casting a fly rod with the wind blowing the line into your body is probably the toughest casting situation you can face. Yes, when you’re new to casting in the wind it can be a challenge to cast directly upwind, but a tight loop, high line speed and the right casting plane can all make…
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Bonefish Flies: Ditch the Head Cement
Bonefish have an extremely good sense of smell. It is this sense of smell that allows them to consistently feed on the flats. Although we witness bonefish feeding throughout the water column by watching them charge a stripped shrimp or baitfish fly, a large part of their diet is comprised of prey that live within…
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