We love fly fishing for trout. However, targeting trout in Alaska is a bit different than targeting trout in other parts of the world. A high abundance of food within a short growing season makes them more opportunistic than most, allowing us to target them with a bunch of different techniques, some of our favorites…
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Search Results for: big fish
Timeless Tips: Selecting Winter Steelhead Flies
We’ve had Tom Larimer stop by our blog from time to time to give us things like a 6-minute master class on spey casting anchor placement, and a 1-minute diatribe (well, for Tom it was a diatribe) on fishing your fly actively. Today we hear Tom’s thoughts on picking which steelhead fly to fish – especially which…
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OPST Shank Chuck Tool – Why We Like It
We a tie a lot of trailer-hook style flies on both tubes and shanks at our lodges in Alaska and British Columbia. That’s mostly because salmon, steelhead, and even trout in our neck of the woods typically prefer big flies, and a trailer hook allows us to fish large profile flies with fish-friendly sized hooks….
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Fred Telleen’s ‘Twisted Sculpin’
Our pal and legendary Alaskan fishing guide, Fred Telleen, just put together a great video for North 40 Fly Shop on how to tie his ‘Twisted Sculpin,’ a deadly pattern originally developed for big Alaska rainbows. It’s no secret we love tossing sculpins for our resident rainbow trout, and you can be sure we’ll have…
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Top 5 Reasons to Shop at Your Local Fly Shop this Holiday Season
Last week we shared some of our favorite fly fishing gift ideas for this holiday season. And while we might of shared a bunch of online links to those ideas, we still believe in supporting local fly shops, and encourage other anglers to do the same whenever possible. There’s no question the internet has made…
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Tying Neater Heads
Nicely finished heads are the mark of a great fly tyer, and today professional fly designer, Stuart Foxall, is here with some step by step tips on finishing your flies with cleaner looking heads. Enjoy! Stuart Foxall on Tying Neater Heads A consistent problem I see from most inexperienced fly tiers are beautifully tied flies…
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Nervous Water
When most anglers think of bonefishing, the image of fish cruising through gin-clear water, over white sandy bottoms, under the high sun of a blue-bird day is most likely what comes to mind. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. If that was always the case, heck, spotting bonefish would be easy! But its not. Occasional…
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Nymphing Tip: Tag Your Split Shot
Way back in 2011, Alaska West alum and trout guru, JEB Hall, gave us the details for his go-to rig when slinging beads for big leopard rainbow trout. It’s still as current as it was six long years ago, so if you haven’t checked it out, be sure to hit the link to give it…
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Keep Your Rod on Point
You’re patiently scanning the flats when you spot a fish off in the distance. You start closing in on your target when something; a flash, a shadow, a sound, catches your attention. You look away for no more than a second when you realize, “what, he disappeared!?” You scan around frantically for the fish you…
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Timeless Tips: Managing Running Line – 3 Simple Tips
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 let you cover more water because…
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