George Cook pays us another visit today in video form, this time to talk about what 22 lucky anglers are going to be doing a week from today – selecting flies to use when chasing king salmon at Alaska West on the Kanektok. We filmed George in February of this year. He was looking forward…
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King Salmon
Larimer’s Reverse Marabou Tube Fly
One of Tom Larimer’s go-to flies these days for winter steelhead, summer steelhead and king salmon in Alaska is one of his own designs – the Reverse Marbou Tube. NOTE: If you’re viewing this in a newsletter or a reader, click here to hear Tom talk about his steelhead and salmon fly on YouTube. The…
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The Intruder
Warning: this is a very technical post about fly tying. If you’re not interested in the subtleties of tying one of the most influential modern steelhead and salmon patterns, click here to look at a bunch of pictures of fish. Jerry French may not have a household name in the world of anadromous angling in…
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King Salmon. Spey Rod. Chile.
If you’ve spent any time at all around our web site, you know that we’re kind of nutty when it comes to spey fishing. If you’ve followed our first few seasons operating at Chile West, you also may know that there are some pretty incredible king salmon down there. We’ve been catching these chinooks on…
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Oh My.
We recently came across another picture of our friend Jason and the rather ludicrous Chinook/king/giganto salmon with which he had a pretty favorable encounter at BC West on the Dean River a couple of years back. Chinooks this size on the Dean get hooked fairly regularly by fly anglers, but landing them is another story…
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Kings on the Swing
In the angling circles of the Pacific Northwest, there are still some doubters out there. We know because we run into them. “Kings don’t eat swung flies – you have to force-feed them nymphs.” “Sure, you might hook one, but then it’s like reeling in a mattress.” Folks who say those things have been fishing…
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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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Chinook Salmon in Chile
That’s not a small fish. There are Chinook in Chile? That’s right! Some 30 years ago, Chinook salmon were raised and planted in a few river systems in Southern Chile. The stocks were taken from two Washington State rivers, the Kalama and Cowlitz, both tributaries of the Columbia River. Since then these strains have naturalized…
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King Flies – The Mikey Prawn
Looks shrimpy, no? Photo: John Ford Brian Niska will be one of our spey instructors at Alaska West in 2010, for the third year running. Today Brian tells us a bit about one of his favorite king flies, the Mikey Prawn. One of Brian’s spey weeks is sold out, but there’s still space in his…
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Tom Larimer’s King Rig
Tom loads up yet another laser loop. Photo: Cameron Miller Tom Larimer runs one of the premier guide services in the Northwest. He’s a super dude, an incredible angler and teacher, and…you guessed it, he’s one of our spey hosts during our king season at Alaska West. If you saw Tom headed out on the…
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