You can cast it overhead too, but we almost never do. If you haven’t noticed, we really like spey fishing for trout, and for swung trout flies in smaller water, we think switch rods are pretty cool too. One of our favorite trout switch rods so far is the Sage 5110-4 Z-Axis. Here’s why. The…
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Search Results for: big fish
Casting Practice
Good casts are pretty too. Photo: Garrett Sullivan This post may seem like it’s about golf, but read on…trust us. You’re standing on the first tee at Pebble Beach with a buddy. You’ve been looking forward to this trip for a year. Your buddy mentions the time he’s spent at the driving range over the…
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Switch Rods – Why You Should Try One
Little Water + Little Rod = Big Fun. Photo: Cameron Miller We’re pretty shameless about the fact that we love spey fishing for steelhead, and spey fishing for king salmon, and more recently, spey fishing for trout. We fish in some places that are perfect for the two-hander…and two handed rods are fun! There’s been…
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Sage Xi3 Rods
We couldn’t take pictures of the prototypes…so here’s a tarpon! Since 2004, the Sage Xi2 series has been the go-to rod lineup for many anglers fishing in saltwater. Powerful, versatile and fun to cast, these rods had a really successful run, for good reason. But the torch has been passed on! Sage has just announced…
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Chile West Watercraft
Boat #1: low water and small spaces Photo: Chris Price At Chile West, the mobility of our program allows us to travel to remote locations where the variety of water is pretty much unlimited. We fish big rivers to little streams and after years of experience and exploration, we determined that we need watercraft that…
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George Cook on Sinktip Selection Through A King Season
Hey, George caught one! Photo: Cameron Miller George Cook is one of the pioneers of spey fishing for king salmon in the Northwest, and he’s one of our best-in-the-business spey instructors during our king season at Alaska West.George has shared with us a bunch about his philosophy of king fishing in the past, and today…
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Sage 5126-4 Z-Axis
This is a really good little spey rod. If you haven’t noticed, we’re pretty fired up these days about fishing lightweight spey rods for trout and smaller steelhead. In our minds, if a fish likes a swung fly, it’s a lot more enjoyable to give it to ’em with a two handed rod. The Sage…
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Running Line Roundup
Running line from above Photo: Cameron Miller As you’ve probably noticed, since we do a lot of spey fishing for king salmon and steelhead at Alaska West and BC West, we play around with spey tackle a lot. Our team and most of our guests use Skagit-style line systems most of the time, and these…
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Managing Running Line – 3 Simple Tips
Neat, tangle-free loops. Photo: Cameron Miller At Alaska West and BC West, we do a lot fishing with spey rods. There are a bunch of reasons that we like spey fishing – line control, less fatigue, the pure enjoyment of making a good cast, and the ability to cover a lot of water. Spey rods…
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Rainbow Trout and Giant Flies
Medium fish, XXL fly. Photo: Cameron Miller Rainbow trout in the Kanektok and Arolik Rivers have a short season during which they can feed, so when it’s summer and the water conditions are good, they tend to pounce on flies that might be, oh, about 1/4 as long as they are.< If you look closely…
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