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Back in the 1990s, salmon and steelhead returning to the Columbia River Basin averaged just over one million fish per year, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. That includes all five species of Pacific salmon, and steelhead. The current 10-year rolling average is 2.3 million fish per year, which is certainly better than almost 30 years ago, but still...

Years ago, when I first learned to tie flies, my dad showed me a caddis pattern that he said his father—my grandpa—invented. This particular fly is a mashup of what a tier today would label as an Adams and an elk-hair caddis, complete with the wing. It has the Adams tail, but the flat, stubby body of the caddis. You can hackle this fly with whatever you...

Bob Quigley was one of the most influential fly tiers of his generation. While he passed in 2012, his innovations in fly tying live on, and continue to influence fly design today. In a 2013 Fly Fisherman Magazine article, Charlie Craven had this to say about Quigley: "(he) changed the shape of technical dry-fly fishing. That's an impressive sentence and an...

Where I grew up, we called them crawdads. I've heard them called crawfish, but most folks seem to settle on crayfish as the official term for these interesting freshwater lobsters. Regardless of what you call them, crayfish are an important part of the diet for many trout, especially those living in tailwaters. They're a high-protein food source, and some...

There are lots of folks making great fly-fishing videos—the Fly Fishing Film Tour and International Fly Fishing Film Festival showcase some of the best—but few are making true films like Rolf Nylinder. As a young Swedish snowboarder, skateboarder, and angler, Rolf burst onto the scene in 2011, making videos under the name Frontside Fly, and his blend of...

If you put a hole in your waders last season and haven't gotten around to fixing it yet, you might be able to get it professionally repaired. The folks at Patagonia's wader team are hitting the road this spring for their Wader Repair Tour, where they'll inspect, diagnose, and repair waders for free. And they don't have to be Patagonia waders, either. Any...

Oliver White is a renowned fly fishing guide who's also made a name for himself traveling to far-flung locations in search of exotic fish. You might not know his name, but you've probably seen his face in more than a few fly fishing videos, like "A Thousand Casts" from Yeti. Ryan Chelius, over at Field & Stream, recently sat down with White for an...

WRITTEN BY: Lily Cutler Frigid temperatures on Thursday, February 6, kept exactly no one from attending the 10th anniversary of Writers on the Fly at Emerald Water Anglers in West Seattle. The celebration was also a homecoming, taking place at the shop where it all started in 2015. The program featured nine hand-picked writers, who took turns at the...

This week's Tying Tuesday is a nymph-focused affair. While the first dry-fly hatches of the year aren't too far off, nymphing will still be the name of the game for the next few months. These patterns should do some work as the fish warm up and the bugs start moving again. Up first is the Idaho Stank Perdigon from Fly Fish Food. That's an interesting fly...

There was a point where I tied flies religiously. Four or five nights a week, week after week, year after year, I spun out enough flies to almost make the whole thing cost-effective. The problem was that after I filled my boxes with the go-to patterns, I'd browse YouTube and Instagram for new ideas. At one point, I think I had a dozen different types of...