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.

Just got some sweet new T-shirts in from Patagonia with a classic Green-Butt Skunk design printed on the back. Original artwork by Jeff Kennedy and printed on Patagonia’s standard organic cotton fabric with PVC- and phthalate-free inks. Check them out on our online store!

Start off with an appropriate hook for the size of the fry you will imitate. This is a size 4 straight eye 1750 Daiichi. Whatever works for you, though try to avoid down turn eyes. Using White or Grey thread, wrap a strip on lead along the bottom of the shank.

Tie in the diamond braid out the back of the hook and some Olive Ostrich herl out the front.

Wrap the braid forward, overlapping just a little bit and tie off close to the eye of the hook. Tie in some red “string”, here I used larva lace, but red wire, yard or thread will work. Wrap a few times for the gill and tie off. Whip finish.

Tie in at the tail of the fly, pull the Ostrich back and tie town. Whip finish. Take a lighter and burn off all the long fibers from the back of the fly (not the tail). Any longer fibers will make the epoxy stick out and look pretty bad.

Pinch the tail about .5″ back and rip off the excess Ostrich dangling from the back of the pattern. Ripping rather then cutting gives it a more natural appearance. Add stick on eyes and your pretty much done the fly.

Add your epoxy, it is good to epoxy a bunch at a time rather then just 1 or 2. 5-10 minute epoxy works, though it tends to shatter a little easier then 24hr cure epoxy. A rotating dryer is a great tool for the longer cure stuff. Add the epoxy evenly and don’t add more then you need. If you can, try to keep more on the belly of the fly to insure it rides right side up in the water. Done!

First, light that sucker up. Keep too much heat from the ball of molten mono and work it until it is a desired size. It shrinks when it cool as well, so make it a tad bigger then you want it to look. Make sure not to get any liquid mono on your hands, it really hurts!

It should look like this when its done and cooled off. Don’t heat it too much afterworks or it will burn and become brittle. Stick it in some cold water to cool it right away.

Color it up with some permanent marker. Black works the best.

Now Krazy glue or Zap-a-gap and your done! its easy to make a few dozen eyes like this at once so you have a decent supply. They look sharp, last a long time and can be made using a variety of materials. Next step, I’ll actually find a use for them, time to make some Prawn flies!

Video by Andrew Hardingham

The End loop knot

The second is the Bimini twist which takes a bit of practice but is the strongest of the bunch. Make sure that the loop of backing is big enough to go around the reel or spool of running line.
Then I take my Slickshooter and tie in a perfection loop.

Perfection loop with the Slickshooter flat against itself right before tightening

IMPORTANT! when you tie your loop, make sure that the Slickshooter is lined up flat and there are no twists, otherwise when you tighten the knot the sharp side of the line will cut through itself. You will know very quickly if you did it wrong when you test the strength of the knot. If done right, you should have a perfect loop that shouldn’t break for any good reason.

Loop to loop

Loop the Backing on the running line and reel the rest on. Tie a perfection loop on the other side of the Slickshooter and attach the Line. Easy!

When attaching Airflo Shooting heads, remember that black is the back

Remove the yarn from inside the Mylar tube, it makes it to thick.

The hardest part of this pattern. Pinch the tubing and wrap a bit of thread close to the end of the tail and right up against your thumb were it is ridged. A few loose wraps followed by a couple tight ones and then hitch/ Whip finish and Krazy glue on the thread.

Put some thread on the hook, you don’t need to work it any further down then the top 1/3rd of the hook.

Attach the other end of the tubing on the hook, try to keep it as thin and compact as you can. The body should be around 1.5x the hook length at max.

Fold a very thin strip of yarn in half and tie in under the head of the fly. Trim the excess.

Whip finish and throw some small stick on eyes on that sucker.

Add epoxy or Aqua seal on the head of the fly and let er dry. Looks killer in the water and the fish don’t stand a chance!