March 2018

Description

March 2018
The Years’ Best Gear

Departments 

Fish Alaska Traveler 6

Fish Alaska Online 9

Fishing for a Compliment 10

Salmon Sense 20

Fish Alaska Fly 22

Fish Alaska Boats 24

Fish Alaska Saltwater 30

Fish Alaska Stillwater 32

Fish Alaska Recipe 110

Advertiser Index 113

Fish Alaska Final Drift 114

COVER / Design by Bailey Anderson

Editors’ Choice Awards 34

Fish Alaska’s editors have been hard at it again this year, fishing the length and breadth of Alaska, whether tossing hardware, flies or bait, trolling, mooching and back-bouncing our way around the Great Land. Here are our reviews on the best gear we handled in 2017, neatly categorized for you to make your shopping and packing lists for the trips on tap in the new year.

New Gear 2018 78

Everyone loves new gear, and 2018 has a lot to offer on the equipment front, with dozens of new products simply too awesome to pass up. We’ve compiled the best of the best here.

Retailers’ Choice Awards 94

No one is in a better position to understand Alaskan anglers—what works for them, what they want and what they buy—than those who do it for a living. Here’s what our state’s retailers are saying about their favorite pieces of gear from the past year.

Yakutat Done Right
by Troy Buzalsky 102

Looking for a once-in-a-lifetime destination, Troy Buzalsky headed for Yakutat, a majestic land of pristine beauty, like no other place in the world. Staying at and fishing from the wonderful Yakutat Lodge, he and his fishing partner created a lifetime of angling memories, and a freezer full of fish, as they mixed time in the area’s boundless fresh- and saltwater fisheries.