Techniques

Screenshot from "How to mend your fly line" Most anglers fishing #16–#18 Sulphurs to selective June trout need roughly four to five feet of usable slack per drift, and the bulk of it should land with the cast rather than get mended in afterward. A reach mend produces about eighteen inches of slack; a George Harvey leader thrown with a checked cast...

Master one of the most effective tight-water techniques in fly fishing with this step-by-step guide to the bow and arrow cast. If you’ve ever been stuck in overgrown streams, battling branches and limited backcast room, this simple but powerful method will help you place your fly exactly where it needs to go—right under trees, bushes, and tight cover...

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...

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...

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...

Sunset redfish | photo by perry Quick answer: The best winter redfish flies are small, subtle, and fished slowly. Pack (1) dark Clouser Minnows or Seaducers (mud minnows/cold‑stunned baitfish), (2) weighted shrimp patterns (Kwan, Craft‑Fur, EP‑style), and (3) compact crab flies (Merkin/EP). Use tan/olive over sand and grass, brown/olive over mud, and...