During a large part of our summer, we’re fortunate to be able to target trout using one of our favorite means of all time – with mouse patterns. When its good, its great, and can make for some fast-paced, highly visual fun, at times selecting some pretty quality fish. That said, it doesn’t select all…
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Trout
Mouse Fishing for Trout – Try a Dead Drift
When fishing mouse flies for hungry Alaskan rainbows, a typical presentation goes something like this – Cast at a slightly downstream angle above your target, raise your rod tip, wiggle your rod tip back and forth roughly 8 inches apart while at the same time slowly drawing in line with your line hand. This creates…
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Mousing for Trout – Work Upstream
When mousing for trout, we tend to target fish using two different methods – banging the banks from the boat while rowing ‘drift boat style,’ or walking smaller side channels on foot. Both methods have their advantages. Fishing from a moving boat covers far more water than wading, in theory allowing you to put your…
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Morrish Mouse – Tying Instructions
We’re fast approaching one of our favorite times of year, mouse season! Chucking rodent patterns for voracious rainbow trout is one of our favorite past times, and we’re lucky to do a fair amount of it at our lodges. In preparation of the upcoming season, today we present you with a great step by step, courtesy…
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Nymphing for Trout – The Trigger Finger
Whether bouncing a bead-head pheasant tail down your local tailwater or dredging a flesh fly in western Alaska, dead drifting sub-surface flies, or ‘nymphing,’ requires the ability to detect extremely subtle takes that are not always visual. For many anglers, various types of strike indicators are a huge help in detecting when a fish has taken…
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Rainbow Trout Flies – Our Favorites at Alaska West
We’re in the process of filing up our boxes for our summer season at Alaska West (we hope some of you are too), and we’ve got one of our favorite species on our mind – Big, wild, Alaskan, leopard rainbow trout. Therefore, for all those looking to stock up on flies for the coming season, we…
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Stay in Control – Incorporate Weight Into Your Streamers
We all love fishing for trout with surface flies, and in our neck of the woods, there’s nothing quite like watching a trout inhale a rodent.. However, at the end of the day, its arguable that the most effective way to chase these big Alaskan bad boys over the course of a season is to…
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Watch Your Mouth
Despite the vibrant red stripe on the majority of our trout in Western Alaska, the dark mottled back of a rainbow trout provides surprisingly good camouflage – an adaptation developed to protect from predators from above. Even in clear water, that can make them difficult to spot to the untrained eye, especially from a moving boat….
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Three Good Articles – Spring Trout Edition
Today marks the first official day of spring, and we know for many of you that can only mean one thing.. Spring trout fishing! Therefore, this month’s edition of three good articles has a theme.. You got it.. Fly fishing for spring trout! Enjoy. Three Good Articles – Spring Trout Tips Edition The Secrets of…
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Fish Beyond Your Fly Line
Lets face it, no matter how good your eyes are, there are plenty of times while fishing, whether with streamers or nymphs, when you can’t see your fly. Perhaps the water is too dirty, too deep, or you momentarily lost track of the fly.. It just happens. However, that should’t keep you from tracking your fly…
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