Hog Johnson, Big Jerry, Jethro.. No matter what you call him, every river has that one fish that haunts all those who fish it. It’s the biggest, baddest fish in the river that many have encountered, but few have held. Here on the Kanektok, we call that fish Walter, and each season our guides and…
Read More
Rainbow Trout
Stinger Mice
One of our favorite ways to fish for rainbow trout in our neck of the woods is with mouse patterns. What’s our favorite pattern? Basically anything with an up-riding stinger hook. Why? We’ll tell you. Many commercial mouse patterns available are tied on large, wide-gapped hooks designed for staying put in tough-mouthed critters like bass,…
Read More
A Nice Surprise
Sometimes when fishing for salmon at Alaska West, our guests are pleasantly surprised to find that the ‘chum salmon’ they’re hooked up to is actually a trophy sized rainbow. Our early season trout aren’t overly picky, and in no way are we complaining about that. Thanks to Tosh Brown for the killer shot! More on Trout…
Read More
Sight Fishing for Trout – 5 (more) Tips
Last month we ran a great article from Alaska West alum, Jeff Forsee, on ten tips on sight fishing for trout. We love sight fishing for big trout in gin-clear back channels at Alaska West. Not only is it a blast to watch a fish take a fly, it’s also extremely effective. After all, your…
Read More
Alaska Mini Gallery – Different Perspectives
We like grip and grins as much as the next guy, but we see a lot of them over the course of a season. That’s why we really like fish photos with a little bit different perspective. So, today we’re coming at you with a few interesting photos (none of which are typical hero shots) of…
Read More
Sight Fishing for Trout – 10 Tips
We’re really lucky to have an extremely diverse trout fishery at Alaska West. It’s not uncommon during any part of our season to catch trout by swinging flies, stripping streamers, dead drifting sub-surface patterns, or skating mouse flies on top. However, one of our favorite ways to target big leopard rainbows is by sight fishing…
Read More
Leopard Rainbow by Ben West
This past summer, we introduced you to the fly fishing inspired artwork of Alaska West guide, Ben West. We were blown away the first time we saw his work, as were many of our guests! Today, we’re proud to post Ben’s latest work, a commissioned painting of a gorgeous leopard rainbow trout caught on site at Alaska…
Read More
Resident Rainbows
One of the reasons many of our guests join us each season at Alaska West is to catch some of these.. Big Alaskan leopard rainbow trout. Not only are they super pretty and extremely aggressive towards mouse flies, but they also reach sizes rivaling that of some summer steelhead.. Except they stay in our river…
Read More
Fishing From a Boat – Cast Downstream!
At our Alaskan operations, we’re really lucky to have access to some extremely diverse trout fisheries. At any point during the season at Alaska West, we target trout by sight fishing for rainbows in side channels, fishing the main river on foot, or fishing from our jet boats ‘drift boat style.’ The beauty of our river is that trout can…
Read More
Our Trout Like Big Flies
The trout in our neck of the woods typically don’t pay much attention to ‘traditionally sized’ trout flies. A size 12 elk hair caddis would be the equivalent of eating the parsley garnish on the side of your steak dinner.. A short growing season, and constant supply of large high calorie food items (i.e. mice, sculpin, salmon flesh, and eggs), causes our…
Read More