Working at a remote fishing lodge like BC West means that your culinary opportunities are somewhat limited. You can’t just jump in the car and head out for a fine dining experience or even go to a grocery store to pick up something tasty to cook at home. With that said we do have some…
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Search Results for: big fish
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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The Drying Tent
Nice and toasty. Photo: Cameron Miller At Alaska West, we have a drying tent – a small structure with a big heater where our guests hang up waders, raincoats and other outerwear at the end of their day on the water. We crank up the heat at night, and in the morning everything comes out…
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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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The West Side – Our Access
Little Creek’s opening to the West Side At Andros South, we launch our boats at the mouth of Little Creek, a tidal creek that opens up on the East to the ocean-side flats of South Andros. One of the big reasons for the location of our launch is that Little Creek also provides our access…
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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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The Kanektok River – 9 Reasons to Love It
The Kankektok: it’s our home and we love it. Photo: Cameron Miller At Alaska West, we’re really, really lucky to call the Kanektok River our home. Our camp is located on the Kanektok, 6 miles from its mouth. If you told us we could have a camp anywhere in Alaska, we’d pick the Kanektok, 6…
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Making T-14 Tips
“And then you color the front loop with a black Sharpie…” Photo: Cameron Miller When we fish the Kanektok and the Dean for kings and steelhead, most of the time we’re fishing Skagit-style spey lines with tips made of Rio T-14. T-14 is a very versatile material for constructing sinktips used when Skagit casting. The…
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Game On
We’re pumped. Are you pumped? Photo: Ed Ward Today marks the start of our 2009 season at Alaska West. Our setup crew has been hard at work for the past few weeks getting our camp ready, and our first group of guests arrive today. The afternoon and evening will be spent unpacking, plotting strategies and…
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Mousing for Rainbow Trout – 5 Tips
Mouse flies are not delicate. Photo: Cameron Miller One of the most fun and unique ways to target rainbow trout in Western Alaska is by ‘mousing’. Small voles and other rodents often find themselves in the river, intentionally or not, and our bigger predatory rainbows are always on the lookout for a meal that’s even…
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