If you’ve read many of the posts about spey fishing on our blog, you know that a lot of Deneki-folk prefer mono running lines on our two-handed rods. There’s a lot of personal preference in running line choice for sure. Mono running lines have some drawbacks – notably a bit of a learning curve in…
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Spey
Sage ONE Switch Rod – 8116-4 Review
When we heard that the switch rods in Sage’s ONE lineup would be 11’6″ long, we got pretty excited, for two reasons. Rods north of 11′ tend to work a lot better for our ‘short spey’ applications of switch rods. Yeah, an 11′ rod might overhead cast better…but in our world we don’t overhead cast…
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Spey Fishing Etiquette
We’re calling today’s post ‘Spey fishing etiquette’ just because that’s a more manageable title than ‘swinging flies on foot working down a run etiquette.’ Our suggestions apply to any situation that matches that description – single or double-handed rod chasing any anadromous fish. And, in case it isn’t obvious, these rules apply to conditions in…
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Skagit vs. Scandi Heads and Keeping it Simple
Whitney Gould is a master spey caster and guide, and we’re really happy to have her back at Alaska West this summer. Thanks to Whitney for this great overview of spey line selection, and the best applications for Skagit and Scandi heads! Keeping it Simple The phone rings, and when I answer my Mom’s voice…
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Top 6 Spey Casting Videos
Over the past few years we’ve posted a bunch of videos about spey casting. Here are our 6 most popular. Have a look – you never know when you’ll pick up a tidbit or two! NOTE: If you’re viewing this in a newsletter or a reader, click here to see the videos on our web…
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5 Reasons to Fish Week One
You might have heard that Alaska West runs a spey instruction program during our king salmon season – we bring the best casters and teachers in the world to the lodge to help you get better with your casting. Charles St. Pierre is our longtime instructor during the first week of our season. Today he…
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Alaska Fishing Guide Secrets
Today we’re starting up a series of posts on Alaska Guide Secrets. Various members of our guide crew at Alaska West will pass on some tricks of their trade, and you’ll be the ones the benefit. Our first post comes from Adam Kryder. Take it all in! Don’t guess the depth of the run –…
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Bougle Contest Winner – Tom Ehrhard’s Steelhead Rig
We’re thrilled to present to you the winner of a brand new Hardy Bougle, courtesy of our ‘Tell Us About Your Steelhead Rig’ contest. Tom Ehrhard took this one home with his entry that appears in its entirety below. Before we get to Tom’s rig though, we need to say a few things. You folks…
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Sage 7126-4 ONE Steelhead Spey Rod Review
We recently got the chance to spend some time fishing another one of Sage’s new ONE spey rods – the 7126-4. Today you get to hear what we thought about it. We’ve written up two other ONE spey rods – here are our reviews of the 8136-4 ONE and the 10130-4 ONE. Design The 7126-4…
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Really Heavy Skagit Heads
If you followed our blog much this summer, you may remember that we ran a series of king salmon spey rod reviews based on our experience fishing during the early season at BC West. If you missed that series, here’s the wrap up post. We tend to follow spey tech pretty closely, but in the…
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