Visiting Alaska West means spending a week in our own little village in the middle of the Alaskan bush.
The staff that supports our facility is a major reason that many of our guests choose to return year after year. Besides our best-in-industry guide staff, our team includes mechanics and camp helpers, a gourmet chef and kitchen staff, housekeepers, managers and a dedicated camp host.
Although our guests see nothing but smooth operations and great days of fishing, back at camp our crack team is maintaining motors, preparing meals, smoking and freezing salmon, cleaning tent cabins, doing laundry, making repairs, and just generally making sure that all you need to worry about is making the next cast!
Ours is a hardcore team of professionals who love Alaskan summers, the bounty of the Kanektok and the opportunity to spend time with our guests. They make a visit to Alaska West what it should be; Incredible!
Our Guides
At first glance their faces would blend into the crowd on a street corner in America. A second glance reveals well-tanned faces that have spent too much time on the river. The faded clothing sport labels from Sage, Simms and other makers of the finest technical outerwear. Their glasses equipped with the best optically ground polarized lenses available. The well-worn look comes from incredibly hard-working professionals who stop at nothing to “make it happen” for our angling clientele. The effort our guides give is seldom equaled in this industry.
Our Gear
Our boats are 16- to 18-foot flat-bottom john boats and are powered by 40-60 HP Yamaha jet outboards. They are equipped with bow anchors, two swivel seats and life jackets and everything else needed for a day on the Kanektok. A cooler is on board to store lunches and drinks. Our jet boats are used in several different ways. While fishing for salmon, you might fish from the boat. Anchoring up and swinging or stripping flies can be very effective. Fishing for trout can be done from our boats as well. Your guide rows you down river ‘drift boat style’ and you cast while floating. We have a whole bunch of gear available to our guests for no additional charge – fly rods, reels and lines, flies, leader material, even wading boots and waders. Whatever gear you’re lacking, just borrow ours.
Spey Fishing
Our home river lends itself perfectly to fishing flies with two-handed rods. We do a lot of Spey fishing! We run very popular Spey instruction programs during the first half of our season each year. Guest instructors join us in camp and provide both group instruction and one-on-one lessons on the river during our fishing day. Dec Hogan, Ed Ward, George Cook, Mike Kinney, Tom Larimer, Charles St. Pierre, Brian Niska, Stuart Foxall … if those names mean anything to you, you’ll be glad to know that they’re all veterans of our “Spey Guru” program at Alaska West.
