Kanektok River King Salmon and Rainbow Heavyweight Combo for Malcolm Wood

The Kanektok river is a special place that you should fish, especially if you want to catch monster King Salmon on swung flies and gagger Rainbows on mouse patterns in the same day. Malcolm Wood joined us for week #5 last year at Alaska West and on the last day of his trip caught the King and Rainbow pictured here. The King required a short boat chase to land and was caught in the morning. In the afternoon Malc went Rainbow fishing and coaxed up this beauty on one of guide Kevin Price's signature mouse patterns.

We still have some last minute space for week #5 at Alaska West, July 8th-15th 2011. Give us a call if this inspires you to join us on the Kanektok for this fun week.

Skagitmaster

While fishing at Alaska West this summer I had the pleasure of spending the day with Skagit originater Ed Ward and writer/photographer Jeff Mishler as they put the final touches on their long awaited Skagitmaster DVD.

Jeff and Ed have put together a fantastic instructional DVD that comprehensively covers the sensible and efficient Skagit technique, arguably the greatest innovation in the history of two handed casting.

Check out the Skagitmaster website

Alaska West Photos

Alaska West Wilderness Lodge is truly a great place with fantastic guides and a prime location on the lower Kanektok river near the Yupik village of Quinhagak.The Kanektok is home to plentiful runs of all five species of Pacific Salmon as well as Leopard Rainbows, Dolly Varden and Grayling.

Each summer Alaska West offers a series of spey improvement weeks each featuring a different guest spey instructor. Most recently Dec Hogan, Charles St Pierre, Michael White, George Cook and myself have all lent a hand making sure guests are getting the most out of their Kanektok river experience.

The spey improvement weeks offer a unique opportunity to catch ocean bright Chinook(King) and Chum Salmon minutes from the Bering Sea. As well guests get to experience the ultimate in Trout fishing, casting switch rods with mouse patterns and swinging light two handers for Leopard Rainbows.

There are still some spaces left for Alaska West's Spey Improvement Weeks in 2010. Please contact Whistler Flyfishing at 1-888-822-3474 or info@whistlerflyfishing.com for more information.

Here are some photos from week 4 and week 5 2009

Tying an Intruder

I've been asked a few times to reveal the steps I use to tie our intruder. The Intruder has become more of a style of fly than a specific pattern. The original was tied by legendary Washington Steelhead guide Ed Ward. This variation of an Intruder is tied on a wadington shank with a small octopus style hook rigged in a loop of slickshooter. This set up enables one to change the hook so as to be always be fishing with a sharp hook. Different sizes and colors can enable you to target trout, Steelhead and Salmon, especially Chinook. We have used this fly with great success in the kenektok river Alaska West for Springs, as well as our west coast Steelhead and Chinook. Smaller patterns in olive are great for Bulltrout as well.

SHANK - Partridge waddington 25-55mm
LOOP - 35# slickshooter
THREAD - black
HOOK - octopus #2
TAIL - Polar bear and Arctic Fox on a dubbing loop
BODY - Guidebrod flat braid
HACKLE - Ostrich or Rhea wrapped over spun white polar bear
COLLAR -Mallard, fake spey or Schlappen hackle
HEAD - finish off with a nice set of machined eyes of your preference

First I Slip a hook on a length of slick shooter. Tie the slickshooter, or whatever your using for trailer line, on the top of the shank. Feed it through the eye of the shank and tie it underneith the shank as well. Make sure there is enough room to remove the hook when you need to change it.


Make a dubbing loop out of thin silver wire and put a bit of polar Bear in it. Colors are up to you. I find the softer and shorter fibers work the best. Twist the loop, wrap the Polar Bear and repeat the steps with normal thread and arctic fox right after.
You can either strip your rhea/ostrich and wrap it similar to hackle, or cut the individual fibers off and tye them in. I prefer wrapping, as it wastes less room and material. Tye in your body material, here I used BlueGuidebrod metallic braid, but use whatever you like...



Repeat the first few steps with more polar bear, Arctic Fox and Rhea tied up front. Like I said, colors are optional, pick a favorite fish catching color and work off of it with different shades and similar colors mixed in. I finished off this fly with Chartruese Amherst tied individually, pearl Krystal flash and black fake spey hackle, but Shlappen and large Mallard feathers work great wrapped up front as well. Finish the head with a set of nice dumbell eyes and zap-a-gap.

Fish Alaska West and Receive Casting Instruction from Dec Hogan and a Free Rod and Signed Copy of a 'Passion for Steelhead'

We're announcing a special program for the week of June 12 - 19 at Alaska West. This week involves swinging flies for the hottest, brightest king salmon of the season, and includes spey instruction by the legendary Dec Hogan.
Guests who book a trip with us from June 12 - 19, 2009, will receive at no charge, courtesey of Deneki Outdoors, a single- or double-handed fly rod of their choice. In addition, Dec will autograph and give to each angler a copy of his book A Passion for Steelhead at no charge.

Here are the details.

- Single- and double-handed rods from major manufacturers all qualify. Custom and bamboo rods do not qualify.
- This offer applies only to the week of June 12-19, 2009.
- Rods must be selected by April 1, and will be either delivered to guests at Alaska West or shipped upon receipt of final payment for the trip.

Incredible king fishing, spey instruction from Dec Hogan, Dec's book and the rod of your choice - what could be better?


photos by Cameron Miller

New Loop Whistler Line and opti 8124

In the last year the Loop Opti 8124 has become my favourite Steelhead stick. I have this rod matched up with Loop's new Whistler spey line and Classic 7/9 reel loaded with 40#LTS running line.

The Opti is a gun, super light with a tonne of power. A nice smooth progressive flex with a tip that is medium in flex but incredibly quick recovering, making for a fast rod that doesn't feel like a broom handle. The overall reduced weight and diameter of the Whistler line combined with the fast precise tip of the opti make for a set up that throws razer lazers and fishes great too.


The Whistler spey line is a completely new concept in spey line design.In fact when the line production engineer first received the design this was his comment,

"this new line design is as crazy as a Norwegian in Bull season"

The Whistler casts best with modern fast action rods which is really no surprise as these lines were designed to match up perfectly with the Loop Opti two hand rods. The unique taper of the Whistler line positions the weight in the portion of the D loop where it will have the most effect on loading the rod and generating line speed. The Whistler line perfectly suits our modern northwest speycasting technique. The smooth continuous motion of the rod tip rising into the forward stroke drives the heaviest portion of the head through the apex of the D loop generating line speed. As the heaviest and thickest portion of the line is at the front it is a very efficient use of weight making for a light line that loads the rod like a much heavier line. The Whistler flies fast and true,the aggressive front taper turning over sink tips and large flies with authority.

The first real test of the Whistler line was my trip last summer to Alaska West Lodge fishing for King(Chinook)Salmon. Alaska West operates a tent camp on the lower reaches of the Kanektok river where lucky anglers get to swing flies for chromers fresh in from the Bering Sea. Check out the Deneki blog for more information on Alaska West and other great Deneki destinations.

After great results in Alaska the Whistler lines were put through their paces fishing for wild Steelhead on the Skeena river system in northern British Columbia and then on ocean bright Coho and Chum Salmon back home in Whistler.Along the way the Whistler line was put in the hands of wide cross section of anglers ranging from spey newbies to seasoned guides. The most common comment from the testers was the distincive slow slinky drift the Whistler line gives.


The line has a 12 foot progressive intermediate section at the front to which sink tips are attached meaning that a good portion of the overall head is below the waters surface where the current is slower. This allows for the most direct connection to the fly resulting in unbelievable feel throughout the swing. Rather than the thick floating portion of the line towing around the sink tip, you feel the fly and sink tip in the most straight line connection to the fly and fish. The reduced drag of the thin line combined with the intermediate sinking portion enable the slowest possible swing with a level of control never before experienced. The rear floating portion of the Whistler blending smoothly into the intermediate section behind the faster sinking tip allows the angler to fish deep when out on the seam and yet swing the fly smoothly into a foot of water.