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This week’s Tying Tuesday features three very different patterns for fishing different parts of the water column. If you enjoy fishing dry-dropper tandem rigs, Davie McPhail’s hi-vis caddisfly imitation makes both a great indicator and a tasty meal for trout looking to smack insects off the surface. Next, Matt O’Neal of Savage Flies teaches you to tie a classic wet fly that still brings trout to the net. And finally,…

Hayden Creek Cutthroat trout have proven to be true survivors. Photo: Colorado Parks and Wildlife. One of the country’s rarest trout subspecies is making a remarkable comeback in southeastern Colorado. As Chris Hunt reports in Hatch magazine, the Hayden Creek cutthroat was nearly wiped out by wildfire in 2016, but biologists have made a startling discovery: A native cutthroat trout found only in the Arkansas River drainage of southern Colorado,…

Photo: Alex Stulce After five years and 2,823 posts here at MidCurrent, it’s time for me to turn the reigns over to someone new. I started with MidCurrent back in 2020, before the pandemic. Marshall Cutchin, publisher emeritus and then-owner of MidCurrent, hired me as the News Editor. I was in charge of finding and sharing the goings-on of the fly fishing world. When you realize just how small a…

Destination travel is all the rage right now. Instagram is filled with pictures and videos of anglers in far-flung locales, chasing exotic fish on 12-weight rods, and generally having the time of their life. I’ll admit, a bit of jealousy creeps in when I see those posts. I’d love to be somewhere warm right now. Instead, I’m thawing out from a deep freeze that’s turned everything into mud. At least…

Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie/Flickr Even though fly fishing is a global sport, I think many of us—myself included—forget how much of an impact it has on other people. It’s not just the North American market that dominates fly fishing. In fact, a recent story from The Times in London claims that “fishing, and in particular fly fishing” is Britain’s favorite sport and a “new youthful craze.” The Times goes on to describe fly fishing’s…

This week’s Tying Tuesday features one of my all-time favorite flies, a new smallmouth pattern that’ll work well for trout, and some tips on picking and sizing dry-fly hackle. With spring creeping ever closer, I reckon most of us could use the refresher on the Klinkhåmer, and picking and sizing hackle. Davie McPhail’s videos—and flies—are some of the best available, but I’m particularly impressed with his high-vis Klinkhåmer. Davie uses…

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 far below the historical runs for the basin, which saw 15 to…

Photo: Dom Swentosky/Troutbitten 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 even more impressive feat. He coined the now-common term…

Photo: Jay/Flickr 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 of my best fishing days last year came when…

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 great angling action, humor, and manic energy made him a crowd favorite….

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 brand is welcome at the events, which…

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 extensive Q&A. Their conversation ranges from White’s start…

WRITTEN BY: Lily Cutler The 10th anniversary lineup of readers: (Back row L to R) Amanda Monthei, Bridget Moran, Greg Fitz, Jason Rolfe, Steve Duda, Will Rice, Jesse Lance Robbins, and Anne Landfield. (Front L to R) Jon Tobey and Nick Basaraba. Photo by Dave McCoy Frigid temperatures on Thursday, February 6, kept exactly no one from attending the 10th anniversary of Writers on the Fly at Emerald Water Anglers…

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 name, to say the…

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 mayfly emergers in my…

In the most recent episode of the Orvis podcast, Tom Rosenbauer sat down with Mike Tayloe to talk about preparing for medical emergencies when out fly fishing. Tayloe is an EMT, fishing guide, and wilderness medicine trainer, so he has a wealth of experience to draw from. In addition to his experience, Tayloe also trained Orvis-endorsed guides and lodges. He’s got a firm grasp not only on the content, but…

Photo: Courtesy Dom Swentosky/Troutbitten Streamer fishing is something I enjoy immensely, but I’m also guilty of not getting as much out of it as I could. I find myself settling into predictable rhythms, retrieves, and going back to my tried-and-true patterns. So, when I read this recent piece from Dom Swentosky over at Troutbitten, I was reminded of how much I leave on the table while streamer fishing. If I took the…

Photo: Spend A Day Touring, LLC/Flickr The Big Hole River, in southwest Montana, has been at the forefront of conservation efforts for the past few years due to its rapidly-declining trout population. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (MFWP), scientists from Montana State University, and concerned guides and outfitters have worked together to study the Big Hole and offer potential solutions for this storied fishery. MFWP has just released the results…

One of my least favorite things is getting into my truck while still wet from the river. Whether it’s my waders or wet-wading pants, I know some “river gunk” ends up worked into the seat fabric, and it certainly doesn’t help my truck smell nice. I’ve added seat covers to other trucks, but they were always the on-sale items at AutoZone or O’Reilly’s. They were usually made from a cheap…