Recently a guest came to Alaska West Lodge to fish the Kanektok River. We’ll call him “Jim,” protecting his true identity. Jim is packed, has all this clothing (maybe too much clothing), Spey rods, single-handed rods, reels to match, leaders, tips, and flies…everything you’ll need and can fit into an assortment of bags up to…
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hooks
Deneki Chronicles: Rigging Stinger Hooks – The Twisted Hitch
Deneki Chronicles is an archive of past blog posts that are still relevant, effective, or funny. We don’t have a lot of funny ones. This post is a classic from one from Alaska West Lodge Jerry French. Today we present you with some rigging wizardry courtesy of Alaska West guide, Jerry French. You may recognize…
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Advanced Bead Fishing for Trout: Matching Bead to Hook Size
With it being mega rainbow season here in Alaska, specifically at Rapids Camp Lodge on the Naknek River, this is the second post this week on advanced bead fishing tips. You can find the post on advanced bead fishing for rainbow trout about matching the egg-hatch here. Both of these posts are courtesy of Rapids…
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Are Your Hooks Sharp Enough?
Often times when an angler misses a strike or two, they blame their hook set or claim the fish “short striked”. While both of these can certainly be valid, I would argue that far more fish are lost due to dull hook points than most people realize. We live in a time where most new…
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The Finer Points of Finer Points – How to Sharpen Hooks
A while back we told you about our favorite method for testing whether the hook on your fly is sharp enough or whether it’s in desperate need of a touch-up. After all, it doesn’t take much to dull a sharp hook, which is why we think a simple hook file is one of the most…
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AquaTalon Swing Hooks
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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Is Your Hook Sharp Enough?
It goes without saying; sharp hooks catch more fish than dull hooks. Not only do they allow for better penetration into the hard mouths of tough fish, sticky-sharp hooks also allow for a greater margin of error for poor hook-sets as well. Regardless, we find many anglers still regularly fish hooks that are not nearly…
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Make Space for More Flies
When fishing for steelhead and salmon, we fish a lot of articulated style flies tied with a ‘stinger hook‘ attached to the body of the fly using a loop of stiff wire or braid. However, many of these flies tend to be fairly large and often take up a lot of space in the fly…
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Advanced Bead Fishing for Trout: Matching Bead to Hook Size
Last week we kicked off our master class on advanced bead fishing for rainbow trout with a great post on matching the egg-hatch courtesy of Rapids Camp Lodge guide, Alaska West alum, and certified bead ninja, Rob Rymph. Today, Rob is back with some great advice for choosing the appropriate hook size for the bead…
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Rigging Stinger Hooks – The Twisted Hitch
Today we present you with some rigging wizardry courtesy of Alaska West guide, Jerry French. You may recognize Jerry’s name as part of the original brain trust behind the Intruder. However, intruder style patterns are hardly the only flies Jerry fishes.. In fact, he’d be the first to tell you that great anglers evolve, constantly…
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