Our buddy Stuart Foxall is back again with yet another great step by step fly tying post. Today’s pattern? The Miles Davis Leech, a super effective fly for steelhead, salmon, or even big trout. Thanks Stu! The Miles Davis Leech – Tying Instructions The Miles Davis black leech pattern is an amazingly simple but effective…
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swinging flies
OPST Swing Hooks – Why We Like Them
When swinging for anadramous fish, we really like fishing flies with trailer hooks. Whether tied on tubes or ‘articulated’ style, flies rigged with a trailer hook offer a number of advantages over flies tied on a traditional long shank streamer hook. However, there’s a lot of debate over the best trailer hook out there. In…
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Trout Spey Techniques: The Hang Down Drop-Back
Rapids Camp Lodge head guide, Tom Provost, is no newbie to swinging flies for trout and today he fills us in on how he targets trout during the most neglected part of the swing, the hang down. Thanks Tom! Swinging for Trout – The Hang Down Drop-Back When swinging for trout or other aggressive species, the dirtiest…
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Three Good Articles – Spey Edition
We’re back today with our somewhat mid-month tradition of three good fly fishing articles, from other sites around the web. Today’s edition even has a theme, spey fishing! If you’re like us and love fishing with a two-handed rod, make sure to give these articles a look. Enjoy! Three Good Articles – Spey Edition Sink-tip…
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Stu’s Egg Intruder – Tying Instructions
Our buddy Stuart Foxall is back with another great step by step! Whether you’re fishing for steelhead, trout, dolly varden, or the like, this is one killer fly whenever spawning salmon are present. Stu’s Egg Intruder – Tying Instructions I came up with the idea of the egg intruder 5 or 6 years ago when swinging…
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Trout Spey Techniques – The Bobble Dredge
A couple weeks back, we ran a post titled, Active Swinging, where we highlighted some of the techniques we use when spey fishing for trout that go beyond the classic downstream and across swing. However, most of these techniques are limited to slower gradual runs, those most characteristic of a swung fly. As spey anglers, most of…
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Active Swinging
When swinging flies for species like steelhead or king salmon, more often than not, a slow uniform swing is best. Rarely do steelhead (particularly when first entering freshwater) and king salmon actively feed upon entering freshwater. Therefore, a slow uniform swing swept past the nose of the fish is usually the most likely presentation to elicit…
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Simms at Alaska West – Video
Last season, Beattie Outdoor Productions‘ Steven Yochum and Simms ambassador, Tom Larimer, joined us at Alaska West during the first week of our season. Along with our good friends at Simms, they put together a pretty killer video, that we think explains what makes the early season on our river so special, and today we share…
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Trout Fishing – Swing Out Your Drift
It’s safe to say, more trout are hooked dead drifting sub-surface patterns than by any other technique. Whether fishing gaudy flesh and egg patterns in Alaska, or delicate nymphs on your local trout stream, there’s no denying imitating a natural drift works. However, we’ve all been there; you finish your drift, start to make your…
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Stay Classy
Modern intruders and tube flies are cool, and we fish a lot of them. However, today we’re coming at you with a friendly reminder that the classic patterns still work too! In fact, it’s safe to say that anglers have been catching steelhead and salmon on classic style flies for far longer than they have with larger…
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