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Ask any fly fisherman and they will tell you that the season to fish dry flies is never long enough. As the bugs start to fly over the water and the trout rise to meet them, the fly angler needs to be able to quickly identify the family of invertebrate and [...]Read now -
Why Fishing Gets Better When it Turns Dark or Cloudy
Whenever I'm on the river and I see the clouds begin to roll over the mountains, their threats of rain and wind brooding in their dark forms, my heart begins to beat a little faster as I put down my nymphing rig and reach for my dry fly box. It is in [...]Read now -
A Fly Fisher's Guide to Identifying and Matching Caddisflies: Part I
One of the four main aquatic invertebrate food groups, caddis flies, are both a river and lake trout staple, whose appeal to the feeding trout stretches spring through the fall. With 18 families and 1,261 species of caddis crowding our North American waters, it is essential for the fly angler to be able to [...]Read now -
How to Fly Fish at Night for Monster Trout
The night was blacker than tar as he crouched in the tall grass, sweat and dew mixing together, making his shirt cling to him like a second skin. The buzz of mosquitoes droned through his consciousness, their sharp mouths testing the vintage of his blood like appreciative connoisseurs. But still, he remained motionless, [...]Read now -
How to Rig and Fish Bead Eggs
Since time out of mind in rivers around the globe, trout have spawned, laying their eggs in ancient gravels, only to have their efforts and familial dreams devoured by other fish. In the constantly moving world of trout, where currents continually push and pull and food actively seeks to evade capture, the opportunity to [...]Read now -
Why and When to Use Fluorescent and Hi-Visibility Fly Patterns
The year was 1991. The Fresh Price of Bel-Air is on TV and Good Vibrations by Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch is blasting on the boom box as you get ready for a night out on the town. This is not an evening for half measures, so the fanny pack stays at [...]Read now -
How to Hack Your Flies & Multiply Your Fly Box
No matter how diligently we may tie flies through the winter and pack line after line of our favorite patterns into our fly boxes, inevitably we will find ourselves thigh deep in some river looking blankly at a piece of broken tippet and our last "Hot Fly" swimming downstream in the mouth of a big fish. Now before [...]Read now -
Learn to Anticipate the Next Hot Hatch
Being born and raised in the Mid-West, my life was intimately connected to land. From working on farms and ranches during my early years, to selling sweet corn on the side of the road to pay for college, the seasons were marked by their own unique rhythms of planting and harvest. From the [...]Read now -
Rules to Fly Fishing During the Spawn: Keep it Over-Easy
I'll try to keep the egg puns to a minimum, but "Over-Easy" aptly describes the action to be expected when fishing during or around the spawn; you will catch a lot of fish! Like a bunch of frat boys posturing at a bar before close, trout get aggressive and make poor decisions when they are getting ready to [...]Read now