We’ve been beating the drum lately about the fact that flies that imitate salmon parts work really well when targeting rainbow trout in Western Alaska. We’ve also mentioned that dead drifts aren’t that important, but getting your fly down is. In the process of going through the 1,273,489 pictures from our summer season at Alaska…
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Search Results for: King Salmon
Abel Pliers
After quite a few years of hearing good things about Abel’s fly fishing pliers at our lodges, we decided to buy a pair and try them out. We liked them a lot. Abel’s pliers aren’t cheap. We got the least-expensive option – Model #2, the smaller size, in black. They’ll cost you $130. You can…
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Why We Like Flesh Flies
We fish a lot of flesh flies for rainbows at Alaska West. Here are 5 reasons why. There’s always a flesh hatch. Our rivers get jammed with salmon biomass every summer, and when the salmon die, their flesh winds up in the river. It sticks around for a long time. Flesh hangs up on snags…
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10 Cool Things About Fishing in Chile
In no particular order. Entire rivers to yourself. On your fearless editor’s last trip to Chile West, we first saw another angler on day 9 out of 9. Cantaria beetles. They’re big and crunchy, and trout of all sorts go nutty for them. Bangin’ the banks. It’s action packed and it selects for bigger fish….
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4 Things to Learn About Trout
4 Things to Learn About Fishing Alaskan Rainbows From This Picture They like banks. There’s plenty of structure right along grass and tundra banks. Banks are undercut much more than you would think – giving trout a great combination of cover underneath the bank and access to food in the current. They like ledges. Same…
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IFTD Gear – Sage, Rio, Redington, Tibor
…and the gear reports from IFTD continue! This afternoon’s update covers the highlights of what we’ve seen so far from Sage, Rio, Redington and Tibor. Sage 589-4 Xi3 Sage is making the kick-butt Xi3 in a 5 weight. The 8 foot 9 inch length helps it feel really light in your hand. This rod would…
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Dolly the Clown
Come late August at Alaska West, the Dolly Varden (and/or Arctic Char – it’s confusing) in our rivers get their spawning colors. This time of year, we think they’re just about the prettiest fish around. Late August is pretty fun – ‘clowned up’ dollies like the one above are a nice addition to the already…
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Alaska West Fishing Report: August 13 – 20
Week 10 at Alaska West started out by welcoming back quite a few return guests from years past. Mac and Greg Miller joined us again so that Mac could keep spending some of Greg’s inheritance money. John Amiro and Jebb Curelop came back for another go at the silvers of the Kanektok and Arolik. Mac and Greata…
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Hey Buddy
We get some really high-quality pictures at Alaska West – beautiful landscape shots, great pictures of wildlife, and of course lots of shots of anglers with nice fish. Then sometimes we get really weird but cool pictures of a resident porcupine who decided to hang out in a tree long enough to get his picture…
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Alaska West Fishing Report: July 30 – August 6
Week 8 at Alaska West welcomed a great bunch of anglers to the first full week of silver action on the Kanektok. Bryan and Kathy Whiting along with sons Eric and Jason joined us for a fourth “once in a lifetime” trip. This family of four fishes as hard as anyone you will ever meet and it’s…
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