How To

Years ago, back when I still lived in Utah, I spent a lot of time on the Lower Provo River. In the summer, it's crowded with anglers and recreational tubers alike. The flows are high, and the fish have a reputation for ignoring hatches and eating nymphs more than the average trout. Come winter, the flows drop, the crowds thin, and most folks who brave the...

I host a weekly podcast, and in one of the most recent episodes, I talked about five of my most memorable fish. Those catches had a few things in common, but the most prominent thread that connected them was when I caught them. Four of the five ended up in my net in the dead of winter. That's not a coincidence. Rivers drop significantly during winter...

How often do you head to the same spot on your favorite river, and bypass all the water before or after it? I'm as guilty of this as anyone (probably more so). Once I've found a section that I enjoy, I tend to fish it to death, and ignore a lot of the less-obvious water within that portion of the river. I ignore the marginal water, or as Dom Swentosky...

When you lose a fish, Dom Swentosky believes, you're at fault—not the fish. And losing a fish is decidedly different from missing one, as Dom is careful to point out. In this recent story over at Troutbitten, Dom lays out why he "believes the blame lies with the angler and not the fish" when your line suddenly goes slack in the middle of a fight. As is...

New York City probably isn't high on any list for destination fly fishing. Yes, there's plenty of great fly fishing outside the Big Apple, but did you know there's a decent fly-fishing culture there, too? Jared Zissu, writing for Sports Illustrated, takes us through the "surprisingly diverse" fishery in New York City, as well as its local fly shop, Urban...

Chasing redfish on the fly is something I've always wanted to do. And I'll admit, I've thought to myself that it look easy enough. I reckoned I could get the hang of it quick enough to make a trip down south worth my time and money. Then, I read this story by Owen Plair, over at Gink & Gasoline, and realized how wrong I was. He talks about how chasing...

Trout get all the love here in the Rocky Mountains, and for good reason. It's hard to beat the magic of catching a big trout on a tiny fly. But there's another fish in this area that gets degraded to the point some folks call it a "sucker." That would be the mountain whitefish. Whitefish are a native species that thrive in the same conditions trout...

In this recent episode of the Articulate Fly podcast, host Marvin Cash sat down with Austin Conrad to talk all about fly fishing for bass and musky in Virginia. Austin is co-owner of Virginia Trophy Guides, and he has a wealth of experience to draw from as he educates anglers in this episode. I personally enjoyed how he highlights the year-round fishing...

I've never caught a 24-inch brown trout on a fly. I've put a few 23-inch fish in the net, and more than a handful of 20-inchers. But I have yet to cross the 2-foot mark with salmo trutta, even though I'm surrounded by tailwaters supposedly full of fish near 25 inches. I reckon a lot of anglers fall into that same situation, which is why this recent story...

I was speaking with some beginner fly anglers recently, and one of the questions I heard was about how to retrieve a streamer. "There's not really a right or wrong way," I replied. "You just have to figure out what the fish want." In my experience, that's been largely true. Dom Swentosky, over at Troutbitten, has a slightly different take, however. I think...