To the uninitiated, swinging flies effectively for anadromous fish might not appear overly complex – Cast across the river with a slightly downstream angle, make a mend, and let your fly swing on through until you feel the take. Sounds simple enough, right? While we’re really lucky to fish runs at Alaska West that tend…
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swinging flies
Timeless Tip Tuesday: Swinging Flies – Cast, Then Step
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 likes to present flies to steelhead. The basic idea – rather than stepping downriver after…
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Timeless Tip Tuesday: Steelhead Hang-Down Eats
It’s one of the toughest situations in steelheading, but it happens quite a lot. Most often it’s early or late in the day, and light is relatively low. Feeling safe, a steelhead tucks himself in right against the bank. You make a long cast (because even though the fish are in tight, that’s what we…
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Timeless Tips: Swinging for Kings – 10 Tips
Planning on swinging flies for king salmon this summer, maybe on the Kanektok or the Dean? Here are some tips that may help. Cast across and slightly downstream. You certainly need to read the water you’re fishing and adjust accordingly, but in general if you’re fishing a broad, gradual gravel bar, the most effective presentation…
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Aqua Flies for King Salmon – 5 Favorites
In a few short months we’ll be heading North to kick off our summer seasons, swinging flies for one of our favorite species of all time – Big, bright, sea-lice ridden, king salmon. Due to their affinity for deep water, kings are a notoriously difficult species to target on the fly in many areas throughout…
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Swinging Flies in Low and Clear Water – Fish Further Away
We’ve said it many times before, but when swinging flies for salmon and steelhead a common mistake made by many spey anglers is actually casting too far – often missing out on the good fishy water right in front of them. However, casting far is fun! And today our own Jason Whiting lends a tip…
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Finish Your Swing with Some Action
Here’s a scenario that most two handed anglers can relate to; You’ve made a nice cast to the opposite bank, kicked over a big mend, and stepped down the run setting up your swing to perfection. Your fly tracks through the gut of the run at that magical speed at what you’re confident is the…
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Cardinal Sins of King Fishing
We’re in the midst of a pretty epic King run this year, and that means we’ve seen a heck of a lot of nice fish landed, but even more lost. King fishing is by no means a numbers game.. They’re big, strong, fast, hard mouthed fish that don’t come easily to hand (for both experienced and…
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Swinging Flies – Think 3D!
As many of you are well aware, our Alaska season is in full swing, and in a few short days we’ll be kicking off our season in British Columbia as well. That means we have Spey fishing on the mind, and with that, Stuart Foxall presents us with a simple tip on selecting the proper…
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Spey Fishing for Kings – 3 Tips
Our annual return of king salmon are trickling by our camp at Alaska West, and in a few short days we’ll be targeting them with one of our favorite tools for anadramous fish, spey rods! With that in mind, and seeing how some of you might even be joining us, we thought it might be…
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