Pacific salmon don’t feed in fresh water – everybody knows that, right? Wrong. Brian Morrison, fisheries biologist and author of several recent posts on fish lifecycles in Western Alaska, is back today to tell us about some recent research findings that prove conventional wisdom wrong. Read on. Salmon Feeding in Fresh Water? Many anglers have…
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Chum Salmon
Chum Salmon Mini Gallery
Brian Niska, as you may now, is the owner of Whistler Fly Fishing, a spey rod designer, and one of our crack team of guest spey instructors at Alaska West and BC West. He also takes some great photos. We’ve got Brian to thank for today’s mini-gallery about swinging flies for chum salmon at Alaska…
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Top Salmon Fishing Posts of 2011
Our end-of-the-year ‘top posts’ series marches on. We’ve already given you our top bonefishing posts and our top trout fishing posts, and today it’s all about salmon. Our Most Popular Salmon Fishing Posts of 2011 Jeff Hickman’s King Rig. All the detail on how Jeff rigs up to chase king salmon on two handed rods….
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Ode to Mr. Chum
Tom Larimer hosted one of our spey instruction weeks at Alaska West this summer, and on his way home he wrote up a couple of guest posts for us. Today’s is all about the awesome chum salmon. Thanks Tom! Ode to the Chum Salmon While Mr. King, Mr. Rainbow and Mr. Silver are the reasons…
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Chum Salmon – Fly Fishing Techniques
Last week, Brian Niska told us a bit about chum salmon and the Kanektok River. Today, he continues with some tactics and gear advice. Who’s Brian? He’s a much better spey caster than you are. He loves teaching people how to cast and fish flies for anadromous fish. He runs a fly shop and guide…
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Chum Salmon on Swung Flies
Brian Niska is one of our guest spey instruction gurus at Alaska West. He also owns Whistler Fly Fishing. He put together a couple of great posts for us about the hardest working fish in the river – the chum salmon. Brian’s teaching spey casting for two weeks at Alaska West this summer. One of…
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Dog and Fish
More on Culture at Alaska West Guidespeak Glossary Native Crafts Facial Hair
Pacific Salmon – They All Have Two Names
If you’ve ever been confused listening to people talk about the different species of Pacific Salmon, you’re not alone. No one knows why, but for some reason each of the five North American Pacific Salmon have two names. It’s really not that complicated! King Salmon = Chinook Salmon. No difference. Photo: Cameron Miller — Chum…
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Chum Salmon
Big Andy and some chum-flavored Kanektok Chrome. What would you say if we told you that there are a whole bunch of salmon in the Kanektok that are chrome bright and tackle-busting strong, peel off line, jump high, crush flies and even like poppers every now and then? You’d say you’re in, right? Now what…
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Pink Pollywogs and Poppers
They’re a lot more excited than they look. Photo: Cameron Miller At Alaska West, we fish for all five species of Pacific salmon right next to the salt. Much of the water that we cover has actual tidal influence, and whether we’re 1 mile from the salt or 10, the salmon that we’re presenting flies…
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