Our good friends from Aqua Flies have teemed up once again with our pal and Alaska West alum, Jerry French, to bring the latest in hook design with their new AquaTalon Swing Hooks designed specifically for swinging flies for salmon, steelhead, trout, or anything for that matter. Although he needs no introduction, Jerry is arguably…
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Search Results for: fly tying
The Uni Knot – One Knot to Rule Them All
There are many ways to lose a fish, but there’s no way more disheartening than losing a fish to a faulty knot. Make no mistake, knot tying is a skill, and anglers who can tie good knots bring more fish to hand. There are many great fly fishing knots out there, most of which are…
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How to Break Off a Bonefish
Breaking off a bonefish is a bummer. After all the hard work required to find, cast to, and finally hook one it’s the last thing you want to do. That said, despite their best intentions, we still see a lot of anglers coming up with plenty of ways to do it, the most common of…
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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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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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5 Reasons to Fish Poppers for Barracuda
We love fly fishing for barracuda, and while we might be fortunate to be located right in the middle of one of the best bonefish fisheries on the planet, we still spend a lot of time targeting them.. Contrary to popular belief, long, flashy, needlefish imitations aren’t the only fly worth tossing at ‘cuda. In…
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Get Down with Glass Beads
Today we present you with a quick, easy, and sexier way of adding weight to streamers.. Glass beads! We throw a lot of streamers over the course of the summer for our aggressive Alaskan trout, and contrary to popular belief, they eat them all summer long! That’s right, even during the height of the salmon…
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Weekly Fish Stories – That Fish
We’re back today with another edition of our ‘Weekly Fish Stories,’ where guides and guests from our lodges share a brief snapshot of memorable moment on the water. Today, our own Jason Whiting shares a quick story from a day of trout fishing with a fishy father-son duo, Ted and Dean Tsandes, at Alaska West….
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The Bunny Snaelda – Update
Last month we brought to you step by step tying instructions for the ‘Bunny Snaelda,’ a new variation of a popular Atlantic salmon pattern (the Franc N Snaelda) that we’ve seen do really well on our king salmon here at Alaska West. Well, our pal Stuart Foxall recently put it to the test on our…
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History of the Intruder – Interview with Jerry French
Steelhead anglers rejoice! The folks from the Ashland Fly Shop recently conducted a great interview with our pal and Alaska West family member, Jerry French, featuring some great insight on fly selection, spey casting, and an in-depth history of the evolution of the intruder-style fly patterns many of us use today. If you like swinging flies…
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