Todd Tanner
Todd Tanner is an outdoor writer, a former fly fishing guide, and the head of the acclaimed School of Trout. Todd was Sporting Classics magazine fly fishing columnist for many years. His stories and essays have also appeared via a number of respected media platforms including Fly Fisherman, American Angler, Fly Rod & Reel, Sporting Classics, the Flyfish Journal, Field & Stream, Hatch, Sports Afield, Writers on the Range, Men’s Journal, Forbes, the NY Times, and MidCurrent. He is also the founder and president of Conservation Hawks, which created and released the short films “Cold Waters,” “Chrome,” “Convergence” and “In The Heart Of The Rockies.”
Author Articles
The Dangers of Climate Denialism and Why it Matters to Anglers
Editor's Note: After reviewing The American Fly Fishing Trade Association's Tomorrow's Fish—a climate change awareness campaign backed by industry heavyweights like Orvis, Far Bank, Bajio, Mayfly, and Patagonia—MidCurrent felt compelled to offer more perspective on how climate change threatens fishing, ecosystems, and human communities. We hope this...
Six Foolproof Tips to Catch Fewer and Smaller Trout
Most anglers tend to focus on big fish, or lots of fish, or lots of big fish. While I’ll admit there’s a certain allure to that approach, there are also times it pays to look at things from a slightly different perspective. So after guiding on rivers like the Madison and the Henry’s Fork, and running a fly fishing school, and writing more angling...
A Question of Rods: Is Old and Slow the Way to Go?
What would you say if you turned on the 2022 Winter Olympics and the majority of the men and women competing in the slalom were using skis designed in the ‘70s and ‘80s? How would you react if most of the world’s top skiers eschewed modern skis, boots and bindings, and relied on equipment that most of us would consider either dated or irrelevant...
"One Rod to Rule Them All"
Most expert fly fishers will tell you that your gear is not that important. You don’t need the world’s best fly rod to catch trout. Nor do you need a killer reel, or the latest waders, or a cutting-edge fly line to be successful on the water. Your skills as an angler and a fly caster are far, far more important than which brand of fly rod you choose, or...
"VQ"
Tom wasn’t a Native American. He was a fisherman. A fly fisherman. He’d been born to the children of immigrants, his mother Italian and his father Irish, and he’d grown up near Danbury, Connecticut as the country was being shifted and molded by social unrest. A sandy-haired, all- American kid who’d watched "Father Knows Best" on his folks’ black...
"Frozen Toes"
We hit the river around 1:00 in the afternoon this past Saturday, with a three hour drive in the rearview mirror and the various necessities of late winter fly fishing - the waders and the synthetic long johns and the fleece pants and the heavy wool socks and the Nano-Puff jackets—all in place. It didn’t matter. While the air temperature was decent, the...
"Angling Dyslexic"
Chapter Two If you go upstream far enough, past Last Chance, past the Box Canyon, over the dam on the Buffalo and then up through the slow waters near Pond’s Lodge, you’ll eventually find springs. Not the spring, because a river like the Henry’s Fork has hundreds. But you’ll find a place where water, clean and pure, wells up from the petrified...
