Here is your 2019 Alaska West Salmon Calendar! Alaska West typically has an incredibly consistent run of the various Pacific Salmon. Veteran guides up there can almost tell you what day of the year it is based on what fish are arriving into the river system. If you have a specific species of fish that…
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Silver Salmon
Alaska Silver Salmon Flies – Our Favorites (Updated)
Our summer seasons in Alaska and British Columbia might be winding down but that doesn’t mean our massive run of silver salmon has! In fact, our silvers actually continue to push long after the end of our season. We have a feeling that might the case in your neck of the woods too, so whether…
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Timeless Tips: Fly Fishing for Fussy Silver Salmon
At Alaska West, we have the pleasure of closing out our season with truly prolific runs of silver salmon. Silvers get under the skin of many of our guests due to their strength, acrobatics, and willingness to grab a fly. However, contrary to popular belief, there are times when silver salmon are reluctant to eat…
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5 Ways to Land More Silvers
Our run of silver salmon have just began their annual return to our home river at Alaska West. What does that mean, exactly? It means it won’t be long until our river is teeming with hyper-aggressive, hard-fighting, chrome bright, acrobatic coho that readily take flies. Sound good? It should. Those who have experienced silver madness…
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Timeless Tips: Salmon Fishing – 6 Reasons this Fly Works
We’re really lucky in that most of the fish we target at our locations are not overly picky about specific fly patterns. Our lodges are located (intentionally, we might add) in areas where lots of different flies work, so long as they share a few characteristics. It’s a creative fly tyer’s dream! Here at Alaska…
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The Coho Clouser – Tying Instructions
When asked about our favorite flies for silver salmon, many of our guests are surprised to hear that one of the most popular patterns amongst our guide staff at Alaska West is not a ‘typical’ Alaska-born coho pattern such as a hareball leech or dolly llama, but rather a plain ol’ pink and white Clouser…
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Timeless Tips: Popper Fishing for Silvers – The Retrieve
When the massive run of silver salmon come pushing past our camp each year at Alaska West (that’s late July through August in our neck of the woods), one of our favorite ways to target them is with poppers. That’s right, the same type of poppers you may have chucked near the lily pads on your…
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Tailing Silvers
When most anglers think of tailing fish, the first thing that comes to mind is likely skinny water tropical species – Bonefish, permit, redfish, etc. Right? Well, what if we told you that at Alaska West, under the right circumstances, we’re fortunate to witness big, bright, silver salmon exhibiting the same behavior.. During periods of…
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Popper Fishing for Silvers – Video
We’ve posted an awful lot in the past about popper fishing for our ridiculous run of silver salmon at Alaska West. After all, big bright salmon inhaling surface flies, over and over again, is hard to keep entirely to ourselves.. That said, without seeing it for yourself, we don’t think reading about it does it…
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The Starlight Leech – Tying Instructions
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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