Whether early season run-off or late season rain, when the river comes up and the water becomes dirty, fishing for trout can be tough. That’s not to say it can’t be done though! Here are 9 tips when targeting trout in high water. Go Fishing. Don’t let ‘the river’s blown out’ be an excuse to stay…
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Rainbow Trout
Nice Fish, Ben!
Deneki alum and Olympic Peninsula Skagit Tactics general Manager, Ben Paull, recently joined us for a week of reminiscence at Alaska West. Ben spent three seasons guiding on the Kanektok, and like many of us, has been haunted by the massive, walter-sized, leopard rainbows that never quite made it to hand. That is until now.. During…
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Rigging Beads for Trout – 3 Methods
It’s that time of year again. Our early run salmon (namely king, chum, and sockeye) are in full spawning mode, and because of that our rainbow trout and dolly varden are impatiently waiting for any lone salmon egg that happens to come tumbling down river. Salmon eggs are an easy meal for trout and dollies…
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Walter Sighting
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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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