Yet another reason why you should fish your flesh fly around snags when you’re targeting rainbow trout in Western Alaska – illustrated in one simple photo. See the snag? See the dead salmon on the snag? See why rainbow trout near that snag might be looking for salmon flesh? Thought so. More on Rainbow Trout…
Read More
Search Results for: King Salmon
Man and Silver
Send a bunch of cameras out every day with a bunch of guides on a river that’s loaded with fish, and you’re bound to get some pictures that are beautiful, some pictures that are heroic, some pictures that are artistic, and some pictures that are just, well, kind of strange. Garrett Sullivan and his friend…
Read More
Get It Down!
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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….
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More