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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Spey
Upper Dean River
Our guests at BC West get the chance to fish for steelhead on the 3 miles of river just above the Dean River Canyon – in addition to fishing the water below the Canyon to the mouth. Here, BC West guide Justin Berry sneaks in a few casts for himself on the Upper. More on…
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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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Intermediate Heads on the Dean River
Over the past couple of years the major spey line manufacturers have come out with partly-intermediate and/or full intermediate Skagit heads – the Airflo Skagit Intermediate, the Rio Skagit iFlight and the SA Skagit Extreme Intermediate, to name a few. Today we hear from Scott Baker-McGarva, BC West Head Guide, about why these heads are…
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RIO GripShooter Review
It looks like RIO has just changed the spey running line game with their new GripShooter line. It’s running line that combines Slickshooter with a PVC coated ‘handling’ section at one end. More details shortly – let’s start with the background. Background Spey and switch anglers who prefer mono running lines like them for a…
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Jordan Sly’s Trout Swinging Rig
Jordan Sly is back today, this time with another information-packed post for our Expert Rig series. Jordan Sly’s Trout Swinging Rig Here at Alaska West our river is just asking to have a fly swung through the water column. Swinging flies for trout is not only fun, but it is also often very effective and…
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