Alaska flies part 1

[Gavin]

Fished them for the first time on the Kenai a couple years ago. They out fished glo-balls by a big margin. They work here too.

Our guide on the Kenai rigged them a differently though. He used an up eye hook and attached the hook to the leader with a snell. Then he popped the bead on the line and attached it to the leader with a loop to loop connection. After that he tied a nail knot the appropriate distance above the hook, then pegged the bead and slide it down to the nail knot. He said it worked better than the standard toothpick, cuz the nail knot wont let the bead slide down on hook. He seamed to think that his clients didnt catch as much when the bead slide down to far. The loop connection was there so he could change bead colors quickly w/o shortenting the leader.

Its not a fly but a great lure, Phil can you make them "legal" on the Nanek by tying some thread on the hook?

[Phil Lilley]

Yes- that's what they do.

As many as clients break off, I bet that guide ties all day! I really enjoy tying knots... in AK I spent alot of time tying for the Dudley's... especially Jerry. It got to be pretty funny how many times in a row he'd break off before I had the back up rod done... especially when he'd break off everything.

[AKflyfisher]

here is a fly I made up for fishing Silvers, It works in fushia and black also but I like purple the most. It should be a good king fly also(never tested it though) I like to fish it on the swing in a deep pool where you see some silvers holding, Its alot of fun watching them move over and hammer flys

[AKflyfisher]

here is a popular late season rainbow/char fly it is called the 'Flesh Fly" this fly is mostly tied in ginger or white to represent aged flesh that has come off the spawned dead salmon, but around some popular salmon fisheries hundreds of anglers fillet their catches right buy the rivers creating a flesh hatch early in the season this flesh is more salmon color and the fish love it. As you can see these are pretty easy flys to tie up and I have thousands of them in all different colors and paterns

[Zach Bearden]

So do you just wrap a zonker strip around the hook and what hook is it?

Whats the purple fly? That looks like it might work down on Taney at night.

[AKflyfisher]

Yea for the flesh fly its just a zonker strip, you can put a little egg at the end and make it a egg sucking flesh fly or you can put multi colors on it there is alot of different ways to tie it. I bet this fly would work for fishing shad kills in the winter.

The purple fly is a salmon atractor the salmon stop eating when the come into the fresh water, but they will slam flys out of anger or curiosity, that fly is basicly a purple zonker with alittle bit of flash and polar chenille added to give it some sparkle, I dont know if this fly would work for rainbows but it might?

[Zach Bearden]

lol where I fish they will hit pink buggers so it wouldnt surprise me they hit it... I think weve even had them hit an electric blue nymph