The Death Star is at home here. Photo: David Lambroughton As use of Skagit-style spey lines continues to grow and become more refined, rod manufacturers are pushing the envelope on some of the basic variables of rod design. One of the biggest trends is that towards shorter rods that are still plenty powerful. Earlier this…
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Spey
Sage 7136-4 Z-Axis Review – The Perfect Summer Steelhead Rod
Take it pretty much anywhere. If you fish for summer steelhead anywhere in or near the Pacific Northwest, the Sage 7136-4 Z-Axis is a rod that you pretty much need to have in your arsenal. The 13’6″ length is extremely versatile and blends easy all-day casting (because it’s not too long) with the ability to…
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Rio Skagit Flight Review
Sorry, no product photo since the lines aren’t out yet. Here’s a guy casting! Photo: Cameron Miller Introduction and Warning This is a somewhat dorky, technical post about Rio’s new Skagit Flight, a shooting head for spey fishing. If you don’t care about spey fishing and would rather look at pictures of fish, click here….
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Skagit Master Is Out!
Besides learning to tie it, you’ll learn how to cast it. Photo: Jeff Mishler Back in July we told you about Skagit Master, a film in production about Ed Ward – Skagit casting pioneer, spey Zen master, anadromous Jedi Knight, our head guide at Alaska West – and his approach to spey fishing. Ed and…
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Switch Rods – Why You Should Try One
Little Water + Little Rod = Big Fun. Photo: Cameron Miller We’re pretty shameless about the fact that we love spey fishing for steelhead, and spey fishing for king salmon, and more recently, spey fishing for trout. We fish in some places that are perfect for the two-hander…and two handed rods are fun! There’s been…
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Tom Larimer’s King Rig
Tom loads up yet another laser loop. Photo: Cameron Miller Tom Larimer runs one of the premier guide services in the Northwest. He’s a super dude, an incredible angler and teacher, and…you guessed it, he’s one of our spey hosts during our king season at Alaska West. If you saw Tom headed out on the…
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George Cook on Sinktip Selection Through A King Season
Hey, George caught one! Photo: Cameron Miller George Cook is one of the pioneers of spey fishing for king salmon in the Northwest, and he’s one of our best-in-the-business spey instructors during our king season at Alaska West.George has shared with us a bunch about his philosophy of king fishing in the past, and today…
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Sage 5126-4 Z-Axis
This is a really good little spey rod. If you haven’t noticed, we’re pretty fired up these days about fishing lightweight spey rods for trout and smaller steelhead. In our minds, if a fish likes a swung fly, it’s a lot more enjoyable to give it to ’em with a two handed rod. The Sage…
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Spey Fishing for Trout, Part 3 – Tactics
Trout spey tactic #427: Put the wood to ’em. Photo: Cameron Miller In the past couple of weeks we’ve covered why we think you should spey fish for trout, and which gear you should use when you do it. Today we’ll talk a bit about tactics to use when chasing rainbows with lightweight two-handers. Spey…
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Running Line Roundup
Running line from above Photo: Cameron Miller As you’ve probably noticed, since we do a lot of spey fishing for king salmon and steelhead at Alaska West and BC West, we play around with spey tackle a lot. Our team and most of our guests use Skagit-style line systems most of the time, and these…
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