Today we have a few steelheading tips coming at you from our own Kara Knight. Kara is our lodge manager at B.C. West on the Dean River and knows a thing or two about swinging for steelhead. We asked Kara for a few tips she’s picked up from her time on the Dean that might…
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Spey
Starting Short
An angler fishes the near water first, in Slide Run, on the Dean River, at BC West. More Pictures from BC West Standoff at Tidewater 3 Reasons We Love This Picture Load
RIO Skagit iMOW Tips
RIO’s Skagit MOW Tips have been hugely successful since they launched three years ago, and for good reason. By combining floating and sinking sections of various lengths in sets of 10 foot tips, they allow anglers to fish at different depths, while maintaining the same overall length in their head/tip system. This has simplified things…
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RIO Skagit iShort Heads
If you follow the progression of Skagit-style spey lines on our blog at all, you know that we’ve been pretty excited lately about two trends – the development of better shorter heads, and the development of intermediate density Skagit heads. Short Heads, Intermediate Heads We like fishing modern short Skagit heads (like the RIO Max…
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Load.
Speaking of loaded fly rods… During a good spey cast you can always feel when the rod is loaded deep, but man it’s always a surprise to see a picture of your fast two-hander doubled over. That’s a Sage TCX switch rod, and apparently it’s got a little bit of load. More on Spey Casting…
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9 Questions About Spey Fishing You Were Afraid to Ask
We love spey fishing. We also know that spey fishing can be a little intimidating when you first dip your toe in. It shouldn’t be! Spey fishing is just another fun way to fish. It’s not better or worse or harder or easier or simpler or more complicated than ‘normal’ fly fishing. Today we present…
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RIO Skagit Max Review
RIO has just started shipping the Skagit Max, their newest Skagit-style shooting head. The Skagit Max replaces the Skagit Flight as RIO’s go-to floating head for most two-handed rods. We fished the Skagit Max for a week at BC West last month, so we’ll tell you what we thought about it on the Dean. We…
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5 Ways to Avoid Tangles in Your Running Line
One of the most frustrating things about fishing with any kind of shooting head system (spey casting Skagit heads comes to mind) is the tangling that inevitably, occasionally, happens in your running line. You make what was otherwise a beautiful cast, it stops suddenly way short of its target, you say some bad words, and…
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Sage 7126-4 METHOD Review – The Lightsaber
We recently spent a week at BC West fishing Sage’s new 7126-4 METHOD spey rod. We loved it, we named it, and now we’ll tell you why. History The Sage 7126-4 TCX has been one of the more popular steelhead rods around the Pacific Northwest over the past few years. Light but incredibly powerful, the…
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Adjusting the Swing
Fred Telleen has been guiding on the Kenai River since 1989. He also hosts groups at Alaska West during our king salmon fishing season. Fred put together some thoughts on gear and swing techniques after his trip this year – experienced anglers in particular are going to like today’s post. Make sure you check out…
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