If you’re bouncing around a river swinging flies for steelhead or salmon, you’re probably going to need to swap sinktips every once in a while. You’re hopefully not making a change every 20 minutes, but when you move from a ripping boulder garden to a glassy tailout, you need to make a change. Today’s tip…
Read More
Search Results for: fly tying tips
Jordan Sly’s Trout Swinging Rig
Jordan Sly is back today, this time with another information-packed post for our Expert Rig series. Jordan Sly’s Trout Swinging Rig Here at Alaska West our river is just asking to have a fly swung through the water column. Swinging flies for trout is not only fun, but it is also often very effective and…
Read More
Lubricate Your Knots – Well!
Some of the most common rigging mistakes we see at our lodges involve knots that haven’t been lubricated well. Two of the knots that we use most frequently – the blood knot, for attaching sections of leader together, and the non-slip mono loop, for tying on a fly – really need to be lubricated well…
Read More
Western Alaska Trout Fishing Techniques
We are really lucky at Alaska West to have an incredibly varied fishery for rainbow trout. We fish many different parts of our river using a bunch of different techniques to catch a wide range of trout. We use so many different techniques that you couldn’t hope to cover them in a single post –…
Read More
Follow an Alaska Fishing Guide’s Preparations
Spencer Dixon guides for Alaska West during the summer months. During the winter he guides out of Cascadia Fly Shop in Oregon – and he’s writing a series of posts for the Cascadia blog about his preparations for the summer at Alaska West. He started with this post – 65 days before his departure for…
Read More
Jason Rivers’ Grayling Rig
If there’s a mecca for Alaskan grayling fishing, Fairbanks has to be it! Jason Rivers manages Big Ray’s Fly Shop in Fairbanks, and he was kind enough to put together his go-to grayling rig for us. Thanks, Jason! Grayling Rig Introduction Fairbanks, Alaska would not be the first place you would find water to use…
Read More
Twitching Skaters
Fishing a dryline and skater for steelhead rules. Hitched muddlers. Bombers. Big foam creations—whatever. Love it all. There’s just something magic about the way our big, hot, Dean steelhead respond to the dry and the fact they tend to absolutely crush them makes the whole business of surface fishing even better! For those who agree,…
Read More
3 Good Articles
It’s time for another round of “three recent articles we think you’ll like if you like fly fishing.” We didn’t write any of them. Fishpond Nimbus Guide Pack Review. Michael Gracie reviews an XL fishing pack. Tying the Saltwater Loop Knot. Tom Larimer gives some detailed video tips on tying this very versatile knot (a.k.a…
Read More
Bruce Chard’s Barracuda Rig
Bruce Chard teaches bonefishing schools at Andros South – but even though he’s a master bonefish angler, he always takes some time to throw flies at South Andros Island’s incredible population of barracudas. When Bruce has ‘cudas on the brain, this is the rig that he reaches for. The Summary Ross FW 1090 – 9…
Read More
Leader Length and Bonefishing
One of the cool things about running fishing lodges is that we get to fish in some amazing places with expert anglers who know those fisheries like the backs of their hands. Another cool thing, though, is that between hosted trips, press trips, schools and more, we also get to fish with expert anglers in…
Read More