Skills

Every spring, the same question nags warmwater fly anglers from Oklahoma to Ohio: Is it happening yet? Are the largemouth moving shallow? Have the pike pushed into the backwaters? Is it worth burning a vacation day, or will you spend six hours casting into dead water? Most of us answer these questions the old-fashioned way—scrolling through forum posts...

Tailing bonefish often have their heads down and won't notice a fly that lands several feet away, but with moving tailers casting 6-8 feet ahead and bumping the fly when they get close works well | photo by Susan Fly presentation—where your fly lands and how it moves—matters more than fly pattern when targeting spooky flats fish in clear, shallow water...

Searching the lily pads in Florida | photo by Brandon Sight fishing success comes down to three learnable skills: positioning yourself relative to the sun, wearing amber or copper polarized lenses, and scanning water systematically rather than randomly. These fundamentals transform shallow-water fishing from blind casting into targeted hunting—and they're...

The bass was twenty feet away, hovering over a sandy depression in three feet of water, and you would have walked right past it. Not because you weren't looking—you were—but because your eyes hadn't yet learned to separate the dark oval shape from the tannin-stained bottom, the waving hydrilla, the dappled light. This is the gap that separates the...

photo by Josef Three Spey casts—the Double Spey, Snap-T, and Perry Poke—will effectively cover ninety percent of the water you'll encounter on winter steelhead rivers. These foundation casts handle downstream wind, upstream wind, and heavy sink-tip situations respectively, giving you a safe, reliable answer to virtually any condition from British...

Successful fly casting in wind requires four fundamental adjustments: use a double haul to generate line speed, form tight loops with a crisp rod stop, cast low to stay beneath the strongest gusts, and shorten your leader to ensure turnover. These techniques work whether you're facing a headwind, tailwind, or crosswind—and they'll keep you fishing...

Image by Rick Mikesell Winter in Colorado has stayed pretty mild this year, but it is still cold, and the landscape remains brown and depressing. For much of the rest of the country, winter has followed its usual script of bitter cold, ice, snow, and short days. By the time February and March arrive, warm water and tailing bonefish start to feel like the...

Winter steelhead aren’t everywhere. In January—cold water, short days, and frequent flow swings—steelhead stack in low-effort lies: places they can rest, travel, and eat with minimal energy. Use this winter steelhead water-reading guide (Pacific Northwest, Northern California, and Great Lakes) to stop random casting and start targeting fish—whether...

Sight‑fishing on saltwater flats is hunting with a fly rod. Instead of blind casting, you read light, bottom, current, and fish behavior—then place the fly where the fish will be. Master these fundamentals and you’ll see more fish, spook fewer, and convert more shots on bonefish, redfish, and permit worldwide. "Ready" | photo by Mark Sides Train Your...

Dead-Drift Techniques for Cold-Water Trout There's a particular kind of quiet that settles over a trout stream in January. Snow dusts the banks, ice rims the slower eddies, and most anglers have long since hung up their rods until spring. But for those willing to brave the cold, winter offers something valuable: the chance to become a genuinely better nymph...