Silver season is upon us, and while silver salmon might not be known as overly finicky in our parts, many salmon anglers would agree that when it comes to fly selection, one pattern in particular reigns supreme – The Starlight Leech. What makes it so effective? Well, we wrote an entire blog post on that…
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Silver Salmon
Fish Beyond Your Fly Line
Lets face it, no matter how good your eyes are, there are plenty of times while fishing, whether with streamers or nymphs, when you can’t see your fly. Perhaps the water is too dirty, too deep, or you momentarily lost track of the fly.. It just happens. However, that should’t keep you from tracking your fly…
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Hang Time
Because it’s been a while since we shared a photo of an airborne coho from Alaska West. Hang time. One of the many, many reasons we love fly fishing for silver salmon. More on Silver Salmon Silver Salmon – 3 Reasons to Love ‘Em Silver Salmon Fly Selection Man and Silver
5 Advantages of High Water
Over the past few seasons, mild winters and reasonably dry summers have made for some low water conditions on our home river at Alaska West. However, this year we’ve been experiencing significantly higher water levels of late, and we really dig it! Due to a few substantial rain (and even hail) storms, we’ve seen a couple…
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Watch Your Fingers!
Just a friendly reminder, the next time you’re handling a whole bunch of silver salmon, watch those fingers! Most anglers are aware that certain species of Pacific salmon (especially chum salmon) can have some pretty gnarly teeth during certain phases of their lifecycle. However, contrary to popular belief, all five species of Pacific salmon actually have…
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Not Your Typical Double
One of the most exhilarating aspects of fly fishing is that each and every time your fly is in the water, you never quite know what could happen next – a perpetual level of faith if you will. Sort of like when you think you’ve doubled up on your umpteenth silver salmon of the day, only to…
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Whitney Gould’s Silver Swinging Rig
When it comes to fly fishing for silvers, it’s hard to argue against the effectiveness of stripping ridiculously colored streamers with a single handed 8-9 weight fly rod. However, one of our favorite things about silver season is that we’re fortunate to be able to target fish using a whole bunch of different methods, thus…
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The Chrome Slam
We’re really lucky to witness prolific runs of all five species of pacific salmon throughout our season at Alaska West. That means that each year some of our guests (particularly those joining us from mid/late July to early August) get a shot at the ol’ grand slam; All five species of pacific salmon, all on the fly,…
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Bring on the Mayhem
Silver mayhem that is! Over the last couple weeks we’ve started to see the first signs of our annual run of silver salmon at both our Rapids Camp Lodge and Alaska West operations. From here on out, each day brings more and more fish into our systems, and it won’t be long until our rivers are…
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Articulated Egg Sucking Bunny Leech – Tying Instructions
Few fly patterns have caught more fish in Alaska than the egg sucking leech (ESL). Whether tied in the classic “bugger style,” or in a more contemporary fashion utilizing rabbit strips, the ESL family of flies are hard to beat when targeting salmon and trout throughout all of Alaska. In fact, it has been said that the…
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