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This week’s Tying Tuesday features three patterns for very different purposes, but they all share one benefit: they’re easy to tie. We kick things off with an elegant March Brown Soft Hackle from Barry Ord Clarke, who walks you through the steps to ensure that you’ve created a durable imitation that has plenty of movement in the water. Next up, a friendly AI voice demonstrates an even simpler way to…

 Ben Sittig, a.k.a Huge Fly Fisherman, stars in this informative and humorous video, making use of his Fisheries Biology degree to offer a primer on the kinds of aquatic insects most important to anglers. Fear not: he doesn’t use Latin names or engage in arcane discussions about subtle differences among specific species. Instead, he focuses on the big picture, explaining how to tell a mayfly from a stonefly from a…

USA Fly Fishing Team in the Czech Republic during pre-event practice. Photo via Facebook Today, the 2025 World Fly Fishing Championships got underway in the Czech Republic, with the opening ceremonies. Over the next five days, anglers from around the world will fish five different sectors—four rivers and one lake. Members of the USA Fly Fishing Team are Jack Arnot, Michael Bradley, Cody Burgdorff, Mike Komara, and Devin Olsen. Go…

By Samantha Marx from Johannesburg, South Africa – Fur bearing trout. Very rare.Uploaded by LongLiveRock, CC BY 2.0, Link Anyone who has poked around the fly-fishing corners of the Internet has probably come across the above the above photo, purporting to be a rare species of trout that’s covered in fur. (There’s even a Wikipedia page on this astounding creature.) It’s the piscine equivalent of the jackalope, but where did…

The Bighorn is famous for its large trout and prolific hatches. Photo: Earl Harper, via Hatch Magazine. A few days on Montana’s Bighorn River provides Chris Hunt of Hatch Magazine with some killer trout, as well as perspectives on everything from killing big fish to dealing with other anglers on the river. The number of trout in the river and the possibility of landing a true trophy are the main…

The Umpqua Bug Locker comes in ten different configurations, to accommodate everything from midges to articulated streamers. By Kubie Brown Fly boxes come in hundreds of sizes, shapes, and colors—some fancy and complicated, some plain and simple. There are small metal fly boxes with flip-open doors; large, flat boxes lined with delicate foam and natural moss; and even leather-covered vintage boxes that feel like you’re fishing in the last century….

 Abel Reels x onWater Fish have teamed up to introduce the first-ever custom fly reel powered by industry-leading river-mapping technology. Anglers can now design the popular Abel TR reel engraved with their favorite “blue lines” using onWater’s mobile app—bringing river exploration literally into the palm of their hand. Each reel is built with Abel’s proprietary CeranoTM Chaos Coating, which fuses durable ceramic coating with precision laser engraving. The Abel…

This week’s Tying Tuesday features three super-simple patterns, and one that might cause you to tear your hair out at the vise (but the end result is worth it). We kick things off with a basic and versatile ant pattern from Kypes & Stripes Outdoors. It floats well, is visible on the water, and you can tie it in a wide range of sizes to catch everything from largemouth bass…

 The rivers that flow through the birthplace of modern fly fishing are suffering from too much water diversion and pollutants from rural sewage plants. England’s chalk streams are legendary waters where the likes of Frederick Halford, George Selwyn Marryat, Frank Sawyer, and John Goddard cast their lines, but modern problems have plagued these ecosystems for decades. A new group of well-known UK celebrities are lending their names to a…

Photos: Phil Monahan We recently published our Father’s Day Gift Guide, but as we all know, there are tons of female fly fishers, as well. Writing in USA Today, fly-fishing advocate Angelica Talan recommends 10 essential pieces of gear specifically for women who love to be out on the water. The list includes everything from waders to rods to fly boxes to backpacks, as well as apparel. Click here for…

Mike Connor caught this redfish with a custom-made 7-foot, 10-inch fly rod. Photo by Mike Conner The standard 9-foot rod works fine for most saltwater applications, but writing in Florida Sportsman, Mike Connor makes a convincing case for using shorter rods in specific situations. A short rod can be light, fast, and accurate for when you’re trying to cast in a tight corridor, tuck a fly under the mangroves, and…

You’ve probably been hearing a lot about threats to public lands in recent weeks, as Congress has been debating whether or not to sell off federally owned land to the states. Well, Kirk Deeter of Angling Trade has some pretty strong opinions about this idea: [W]hat sets the American angler apart from almost any other on the planet is that we have millions of acres and thousands of miles of…

Keep Fish Wet—a science-based nonprofit dedicated to helping anglers improve the outcomes for each fish they release—has launched a cool “Mini-Lesson” about best practices for catch-and-release fishing.  The Mini-Lesson is a great way to learn the science behind catch-and-release, and it’s a great teaching tool for explaining the process to others. “Breaking down barriers to access and sharing is at the core of Keep Fish Wet” says Sascha Clark Danylchuk,…

This week’s Tying Tuesday features a Catskill’s classic dry fly, a more modern emerger from the mind of René Harrop, and simple yet bright wet fly, and a buggy nymph from Austria. Although based in Missouri, Andy’s Flies obviously appreciates the slender, elegant patterns of New Yorker Theodore Gordon, and this Ginger Quill will certainly tempt mayfly-eating trout. (Catskills may have some nits to pick, but the trout don’t care.)…

 Yesterday, saltwater fly-fishing icon Stu Apte celebrated his 95th birthday. One of the pioneers of catching tarpon on a fly, Apte built a name for himself through feats of angling heroics (including 44 world records) and endless self promotion. We posted a great profile of Apte by Jim Chapralis back in 2011: Stu Apte’s angling philosophy demands the best quality tackle rigged to the best of his ability so…

Earlier this week, Trout Unlimited released a new film, “Horses and Highwater: Restoring Tincup Creek,” documenting the restoration of the Salt River Watershed and the people who made this incredible project come to life. Located in northwest Wyoming and southeast Idaho, the Salt is a blue-ribbon fishery for native Snake River cutthroat trout and wild brown trout. However, its health has been compromised by degraded and fragmented fish habitat, rapid…

Do you love fly fishing and fine timepieces? If so, check out the remarkable Olmsted and Humboldt GMT watches from Oak & Oscar, a Chicago-based company celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2025. On the sport-specific page of their website, they proudly declare, “We’re an American watch company . . . with a fly-fishing problem.” This is especially evident in their custom trout dials, painstakingly created by artist Tim Johnson (whose…

The lowly fallfish has been disappointing trout anglers for decades. Photo by Jim Leedon/Hatch Magazine Although there have been big changes over the last 20 years in how fly fishers view “trash fish,” there are still plenty of species for whom we feel little romance. In Hatch Magazine, Steven Sautner asks why we feel this way: Among anglers, fallfish almost universally disappoint. Their biggest offense is rising like trout and…

      This brown trout is clearly wild—beautiful, feisty, and fun to catch—but it lives in a river where it competes with native brook trout. Photo: Phil Monahan Fly fishers have long created a hierarchy of trout in the U.S., based on nature. At the top of the pyramid are native species, caught in the waters they’ve inhabited for millennia; next are wild trout, born in the river through…

  The great Tom Rosenbauer is on the other side of the podcast equation this time, as he chats with Hayden Sammick of Backcountry Manifesto about how folks can get started in fly fishing. In typical Tom fashion, he seeks to break down barriers and demystify the sport, explaining that it doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult: “It’s not snobby. It’s not exclusive. It’s just fun.” If you know…