Today’s post is from Mike Brown. Mike is the owner of Mossy’s Fly Shop in Anchorage, Alaska. A lifelong Alaskan with a passion for family, fly fishing, and fly tying. In today’s fly tying world, materials and tools are changing and advancing constantly. You see all kinds of ads telling you about how great this…
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dry flies
Aquatic Insects in Alaska
The saying is, ‘everything is bigger in Alaska’. This also includes bugs. For example, the giant water bug (lethocerus americanus) found in Southeastern Alaska can grow up to 2.5 inches in length. That’s a big bug. From the Arctic tundra to the Southeastern panhandle, aquatic insects exist throughout Alaskan waters and play a large role in the ecosystem. As fly anglers, it’s prudent…
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Dry Fly Time at BC West!
It has been a cool and rainy season on the Dean River so far but things have been turning on as of late. As the rain has continued to fall, it has the fresh fish active and moving. It is also getting to be that time of year where our guests have a very legitimate…
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Timeless Tips: 4 Ways to Fish Dries in Alaska
Everybody loves fishing dry flies. There’s just nothing that beats the excitement of a surface take. In Western Alaska we fish dry flies quite a lot, but the vast majority of the time they’re about as far as you can get from a traditional “match the hatching insect” dry fly program. Here are 4 ways…
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Arctic Grayling – Fish the Traditionals
For the majority of our guests at Alaska West, the first few weeks of our season is all about two things -swinging flies for big bright king salmon and/or chucking big mouse and sculpin imitations for hungry rainbow trout. However, during the first part of our season, an often overlooked species on our river are…
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Trout are Trout
It goes without saying that Alaskan rainbow trout are different from their brethren in the lower forty-eight. Their feeding behavior alone more closely resembles the predatory nature of a Northern Pike than that of a resident trout. Therefore, with mice, sculpin, salmon smolt, and huge chunks of dead salmon flesh on the menu, often times bigger is…
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It Pays to Experiment
Earlier this fall, while enjoying a round of Kaliks and conch salad after a day of flailing away on the flats, Andros South guest, Gordon Macleod presented us with an opportunity – A couple of flies, immitating something in the vicinity of a crab, tied with a buyoant closed-celled foam body.. That’s right, a dry fly,…
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Steelheading: 5 Reasons to Fish a Dry
Catching fish on the surface is certainly not an everyday occurrence for most steelhead anglers. However, during certain parts of our season at BC West we’re pretty fortunate to have a very real opportunity to target them on top, and today Kara Knight gives us a few reasons why you should give the dry a chance….
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Squeak, Squeak
Exactly what you want early season rainbows to be staring at in Western Alaska. Big, gnarly, mouse patterns. More on Trout Fishing How Often do Trout and Grayling eat Mice? Trout Fishing – Swinging Flies Streamer Fishing for Trout – 5 Techniques
Tying Steelhead Skaters
We like hearing about what you, our readers, want to see more of on our blog. We want to give you what you want.. After all, it’s your interest that allows us to do what we love to do! Therefore, we were excited when we received a comment last week from one of you, requesting a step…
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