Deneki Outdoors Fishing Lodges

Alaska | The Bahamas | Chile

swinging flies

13 Essential Tools For A Complete Fly-Tying Kit

You can go down a rabbit hole when it comes to fly tying. The craft of creating artificial flies to imitate insects and other aquatic creatures as bait for fly fishing can be a wonderfully creative and relaxing hobby, but it can also become an obsession for those who are truly passionate about it. Fly…
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Trout Spey and Four Reasons We Like It in Alaska

You’re likely to hear the words “swing season,” “trout Spey,” or even “Micro Spey” if you speak with enthusiastic trout fly-fishing anglers across the nation. Swinging for trout gives fly anglers an alternative method of fishing and a different pace to chase trout during trout season. Trout Spey is essentially just the standard two-handed Spey…
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Leader Length and Fly Weight

Today we continue our Alaska Guide Secrets series, in which you get the inside scoop direct from our guide crew at Alaska West. You’ve decided which fly to fish and maybe even which sinktip to use.  Now you need to decide whether your leader should be 2 feet, 6 feet, or 12 feet long.  Got…
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Deneki Chronicles: Swinging for Kings – The Broadside Presentation

This week it’s all about the Mighty King Salmon! Friend of Deneki, Stuart Foxall explains how the fly swims and what King Salmon sees makes a difference. We love swinging flies for anadromous fish, and we do a lot of it at our lodges in Alaska. However, swinging flies effectively often takes more than simply…
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Deneki Chronicles: Swinging Flies – Cast, Then Step.

In this week’s Deneki Chronicles, we explore why it’s best to cast, then step. Jiggy. Cast, mend, swing fly, take a few steps downriver, repeat.  That’s how you fish for steelhead, right? Not necessarily.  Michael White stops by in video form today, straight from the Dean River, to tell us a bit about how he…
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Deneki Chronicles: 5 Ways to Control the Speed of Your Swing

When swinging for anadramous species like king salmon or steelhead, more often than not, the slower the swing the better. As long as it is moving just enough to suggest life in your fly, odds are you are in the game. However, from time to time, increasing the speed of your swing can be just…
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Deneki Chronicles: Swinging Flies – Don’t Block Your Hookset

In any avenue of fly fishing, one thing that separates successful anglers from not-so-successful anglers is complete, undivided, fully engaged, focus whenever your fly is in the water. Many fish are lost (or perhaps never hooked at all) from anglers who’s minds were wandering or whom were not expecting a fish to eat the fly in…
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Fly Tying: The One Sculpin Ultra Rigged

Deneki Friend and Alum Jerry French tied the original version of “The One Sculpin,” an articulated stinger style fly.  Jerry came out with the Ultra Rig Kit last year, and we decided to tie his pattern using that system.  We also changed the throat material as well. What is the “Ultra Rig” you ask? In short,…
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Deneki Chronicles: Spey Fishing – Pulsing the Swing (Video)

The “tug” might be the “drug,” but most anglers would agree that a tug that stays attached is ideal. Unfortunately, when swinging flies for salmon and steelhead, that’s not always the case. Quick strikes, followed by an unanswered swing, are common when spey fishing, and can be frustrating at the very least. So what do…
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