234: 4 Questions for Your Next Fly Fishing Trip

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Your next fly fishing trip may seem like years away in this moment in history, but soon enough, it will be time to plan. It’s never too early to start dreaming about your next trip.

In this episode we discuss four questions to help winnow your options to make the best decision about time of year for your next fly fishing trip. We also discuss our favorite time of year for a trip.

LISTEN NOW TO “4 QUESTIONS FOR YOUR NEXT FLY FISHING TRIP”

The Fly Fisher’s Book of Lists – A Book of Fly Fishing Hacks

Have you not yet purchased our book of lists?

Fly fishing is a lot more than simply learning how to cast.

There are thousands of techniques and hacks that can help you catch more fish. Often, it’s the little things that make a big difference, increasing your enjoyment of the sport.

This book is a must-read for folks who prefer to scan lists and find new ways to catch more fish. Read one list, and, like a handful of peanuts, you won’t be able to stop at one.

Visit Amazon to buy your copy today!

WOULD YOU REFER OUR PODCAST?

We would love a referral from you.

Simply mention our podcast to your TU chapter or fly fishing club or even local fly shop.

If you are a nonprofit, serving the outdoors community, you have our permission to reprint our content in your online or print newsletter with the appropriate credit and links. Thank you for your trust.

Episode 233: Tips for Landing Bigger Fish

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Landing bigger fish is impossible if you simply try to rip in the fish like you would if you were spin fishing.

In this episode we identify several tips that have helped us increase our catch rate when Moby Dick hits our streamer or nymph. One tip is a different mindset, which comes only after one’s heart is broken after the big one got away.

LISTEN NOW TO “TIPS FOR LANDING BIGGER FISH”

The Fly Fisher’s Book of Lists – A Book of Fly Fishing Hacks

Have you not yet purchased our book of lists?

Fly fishing is a lot more than simply learning how to cast.

There are thousands of techniques and hacks that can help you catch more fish. Often, it’s the little things that make a big difference, increasing your enjoyment of the sport.

This book is a must-read for folks who prefer to scan lists and find new ways to catch more fish. Read one list, and, like a handful of peanuts, you won’t be able to stop at one.

Visit Amazon to buy your copy today!

WOULD YOU REFER OUR PODCAST?

We would love a referral from you.

Simply mention our podcast to your TU chapter or fly fishing club or even local fly shop.

If you are a nonprofit, serving the outdoors community, you have our permission to reprint our content in your online or print newsletter with the appropriate credit and links. Thank you for your trust.

Episode 232: Fishing Emergers during a Hatch

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Fishing emergers during a hatch is as fundamental as it gets. While it may seem counter-intuitive to the new fly fisher, it’s a staple of the veteran.

In this episode, we start off with a couple great stories from recent trips when the stars aligned, and we hit a hatch perfectly. But the fish were not hitting our flies on the surface. We had to drop an emerger.

LISTEN NOW TO “FISHING EMERGERS DURING A HATCH”

The Fly Fisher’s Book of Lists – A Book of Fly Fishing Hacks

Have you not yet purchased our book of lists?

Fly fishing is a lot more than simply learning how to cast.

There are thousands of techniques and hacks that can help you catch more fish. Often, it’s the little things that make a big difference, increasing your enjoyment of the sport.

This book is a must-read for folks who prefer to scan lists and find new ways to catch more fish. Read one list, and, like a handful of peanuts, you won’t be able to stop at one.

Visit Amazon to buy your copy today!

WOULD YOU REFER OUR PODCAST?

We would love a referral from you.

Simply mention our podcast to your TU chapter or fly fishing club or even local fly shop.

If you are a nonprofit, serving the outdoors community, you have our permission to reprint our content in your online or print newsletter with the appropriate credit and links. Thank you for your trust.

Episode 231: The Wading Risk of Soft River Bottoms

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Soft river bottoms pose a unique risk to wade fishers.

In this episode, Dave recounts a winter fly fishing experience in which he got stuck in the mud while trying to wade to a run. It was 31 degrees. Dave had no cell coverage. He had gotten wet. And his fly fishing partner was about an hour away. Dave lived to survive the ordeal, but the story serves as a reminder about the risks of soft river bottoms and the importance of thinking more critically about our approach to wading.

There are many ways to die in the outdoors. We all know not to wade into water that is moving too fast, but what about stagnant water with a soft bottom?

LISTEN NOW TO “THE WADING RISK OF SOFT RIVER BOTTOMS”

The Fly Fisher’s Book of Lists – A Book of Fly Fishing Hacks

Have you not yet purchased our book of lists?

Fly fishing is a lot more than simply learning how to cast.

There are thousands of techniques and hacks that can help you catch more fish. Often, it’s the little things that make a big difference, increasing your enjoyment of the sport.

This book is a must-read for folks who prefer to scan lists and find new ways to catch more fish. Read one list, and, like a handful of peanuts, you won’t be able to stop at one.

Visit Amazon to buy your copy today!

WOULD YOU REFER OUR PODCAST?

We would love a referral from you.

Simply mention our podcast to your TU chapter or fly fishing club or even local fly shop.

If you are a nonprofit, serving the outdoors community, you have our permission to reprint our content in your online or print newsletter with the appropriate credit and links. Thank you for your trust.

Episode 230: Montana Outfitter Dave Kumlien on Safe Wading

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Safe wading is rarely the first thought on a fly fisher’s mind as he or she plans for a day on the river. It should be.

In this episode, we interview Dave Kumlien, a Montana outfitter for 40 years, former fly shop owner, and former coordinator of Trout Unlimited’s Veteran Service Partnership. We start out this episode on safe wading by busting a few myths. Some of the common ideas about wading safely are patently false.

Just recently, an acquaintance of one of Dave’s friends lost her life while wading the Yellowstone River in Paradise Valley, Montana. She had a guide. And her husband and son watched her fall and get pulled under as she headed downriver. It’s critical to pay attention to your surroundings as you wade.

LISTEN NOW TO “MONTANA OUTFITTER DAVE KUMLIEN ON SAFE WADING”

The Fly Fisher’s Book of Lists – A Book of Fly Fishing Hacks

Have you not yet purchased our book of lists?

Fly fishing is a lot more than simply learning how to cast. There are thousands of techniques and hacks that can help you catch more fish. Often, it’s the little things that make a big difference, increasing your enjoyment of the sport.

This book is a must-read for folks who prefer to scan lists and find new ways to catch more fish. Read one list, and, like a handful of peanuts, you won’t be able to stop at one.

Visit Amazon to buy your copy today!

WOULD YOU REFER OUR PODCAST?

We would love a referral from you.

Simply mention our podcast to your TU chapter or fly fishing club or even local fly shop.

If you are a nonprofit, serving the outdoors community, you have our permission to reprint our content in your online or print newsletter with the appropriate credit and links. Thank you for your trust.

Episode 229: The Hope of Fly Fishing in the Waiting

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The hope of fly fishing is a day in the not too distant future when our fears have been suspended and we make our way upstream with only the next run on our mind. In this episode, we focus not on the present moment but days gone by when we endured hardship while also making time to fish. We want our conversation to be a source of encouragement as we wait.Maybe that stretch of river that rarely disappoints will be even better months from now.

LISTEN NOW TO “THE HOPE OF FLY FISHING AMID THE WAITING”

The Fly Fisher’s Book of Lists – A Book of Fly Fishing Hacks

Fly fishing is a lot more than simply learning how to cast. There are thousands of techniques and hacks that can help you catch more fish. Often, it’s the little things that make a big difference, increasing your enjoyment of the sport.

This book is a must-read for folks who prefer to scan lists and find new ways to catch more fish. Read one list, and, like a handful of peanuts, you won’t be able to stop at one.

Visit Amazon to buy your copy today!

WOULD YOU REFER OUR PODCAST?

We would love a referral from you.

Simply mention our podcast to your TU chapter or fly fishing club or even local fly shop.

If you are a nonprofit, serving the outdoors community, you have our permission to reprint our content in your online or print newsletter with the appropriate credit and links. Thank you for your trust.

Drowning While Fly Fishing Is Always on the Table

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The first thought of a fly fisher as the river water pours over the top of the waders is losing his or her fly rod.

No, no, no!

The first bodily response to the 55-degree water is hyperventilation, muscle spasms, an adrenaline burst. The next thought, Oh god! And then, again: Rod!

It’s late summer. Steve (my podcast partner) and I inch single file and thigh deep against the heavy current, fly rod in one hand and the other on the scrub brush and rocky ledge on the river’s edge. We have no business wading the ruthless currents of the Yellowstone. No matter how low it seems this time of year. Up ahead fifty yards is a stretch we’ve never fished before. We’re almost there. We make it and start to cast. It’s hopper season, and the cutthroat are naive.

Within a half hour, Steve has moved about 50 yards above me, hidden behind a rock outcropping the size of a small car. I am in the middle of a side channel, casting downstream. I shift my weight too quickly, stumble, and start to flail downstream.

It’s said that drowning is a silent affair. I thrash in solitude and in silence and tumble for what seems to be a hundred yards. It’s probably only ten. I roll over onto some gravel in shallow water and spy my fly rod another five yards downstream, caught on some dead fall. I make it to my knees and lurch forward to grab the rod. It’s still whole.

I gather myself on the sandy bank. I still can’t see Steve.

Re-rigged and Chastened

An immersion in the Yellowstone even on a warm afternoon in late summer is like a surprise bucket of Gatorade after a playoff win. I peel off my waders to empty the water out of my boots and then twist and pull the entire sopping apparatus back on. Chilled and chastened, my adrenaline ebbing, I re-rig my rod and head back into the river. I mention my baptism later when I catch up to Steve, but oddly, not until years later do we discuss the danger of the moment.

On that day, had I drowned, Steve may have not known I was missing for another hour or more. I’m sure my body would never have been found, given how far into the back country we had hiked.

It’s also said that fly fishing is no extreme sport, and I am a physical testimony to that. I couldn’t do anything extreme. For a lifetime, though, I have tromped around in what’s called the great outdoors. That day on the Yellowstone, I had a bit of God’s luck, as some of my father’s cronies call it. Others have not been as lucky.

Last fall in Montana, a fly fisher succumbed to an assaulting current on the Boulder River, which is not much wider than a city street in some places. His fiancée was nearby, and I wonder if she had her back turned to the river or whether she saw him fall, watching as he made his last cast right before the river knocked him downstream. They say he likely struck his head on a submerged boulder, as he struggled to gain his footing.

His body was never found. The locals say it is probably at the bottom of one of the deeper pools on a stretch where the river cascades about a hundred yards downstream.

Almost two months later, Steve and I stopped by Fourmile Campground where the fly fisher had slipped. We had fished all day about a mile below the area. At the exact spot where he ostensibly fell in, the river didn’t seem that all that intimidating, though the current was likely much faster two months earlier. I’m not sure what compelled us to stop.

Maybe as moment of silence for someone who had succumbed to the wild places.

Gift and Risk of Fly Fishing

Drowning while fly fishing is always possibility.

Even with all the disciplines that fly fishers put into place (no wading above the knees or fishing only with a partner or always using a wading staff), the moment we step outside our trucks and into the river, we add to our day a new element of risk. I accept, and maybe even enjoy, the risk that comes with life in the outdoors.

As spring arrives, however, and I anticipate more days on the river, I am reminded once again that fly fishing is both a gift and a risk. Life is truly fragile.

228: The Makings of an Outdoors Friendship

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Friendship makes the outdoors better. At least that’s our perspective, given that our outdoors friendship has lasted four decades. In this episode, we discuss the makings of friendship and how certain kinds of competitiveness can prevent friendship from forming. We also discuss how “idle” friendships can be reinvigorated or restarted again. The old advertising line, “Things go better with Coke” should be reframed as “the outdoors go better with friendship.”

LISTEN NOW TO “THE MAKINGS OF AN OUTDOORS FRIENDSHIP”

The Fly Fisher’s Book of Lists – A Book of Fly Fishing Hacks

Fly fishing is a lot more than simply learning how to cast. There are thousands of techniques and hacks that can help you catch more fish. Often, it’s the little things that make a big difference, increasing your enjoyment of the sport.

This book is a must-read for folks who prefer to scan lists and find new ways to catch more fish. Read one list, and, like a handful of peanuts, you won’t be able to stop at one.

Visit Amazon to buy your copy today!

WOULD YOU REFER OUR PODCAST?

We would love a referral from you.

Simply mention our podcast to your TU chapter or fly fishing club or even local fly shop.

If you are a nonprofit, serving the outdoors community, you have our permission to reprint our content in your online or print newsletter with the appropriate credit and links. Thank you for your trust.

227: A Conversation about Yellowstone Runners

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Yellowstone runners are the big brown and rainbow trout that move up from Hebgen Lake into Yellowstone National Park’s Madison River each fall. In this episode, we discuss Chester Allen’s delightful book, Yellowstone Runners: Chasing a dream fish in Yellowstone National Park during the Madison River’s Famous Fall Run.

Allen is a terrific storyteller while also providing all sorts of fishy information for those considering a fall trip to the Madison. Many of you may have fished the Madison in the spring or summer, but the fall is special.

LISTEN NOW TO “A CONVERSATION ABOUT YELLOWSTONE RUNNERS”

The Fly Fisher’s Book of Lists – A Book of Fly Fishing Hacks

Fly fishing is a lot more than simply learning how to cast. There are thousands of techniques and hacks that can help you catch more fish. Often, it’s the little things that make a big difference, increasing your enjoyment of the sport.

This book is a must-read for folks who prefer to scan lists and find new ways to catch more fish. Read one list, and, like a handful of peanuts, you won’t be able to stop at one.

Visit Amazon to buy your copy today!

WOULD YOU REFER OUR PODCAST?

We would love a referral from you.

Simply mention our podcast to your TU chapter or fly fishing club or even local fly shop.

If you are a nonprofit, serving the outdoors community, you have our permission to reprint our content in your online or print newsletter with the appropriate credit and links. Thank you for your trust.

Episode 226: Top 10 Fly Fishing Lessons of the Year

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Fly fishing lessons happen every time we fish. Every day on the river is the chance to grow in your understanding of how to fish. Every item of gear that you purchase gives you some information about what to buy (or not buy) the next time around. In this end-of-the-year episode, we offer up our top 10 fly fishing lessons from a year of fishing.

One is the importance of where to cast your streamer when fishing smaller creeks. Fly fishing spring creeks have forced both of us to up our streamer chops.

LISTEN NOW TO “TOP 10 FLY FISHING LESSONS OF THE YEAR”

The Fly Fisher’s Book of Lists – The Perfect Book for a New Fly Fisher

Fly fishing is a lot more than simply learning how to cast. There are a thousand techniques and hacks that can help you catch more fish. These accumulated tips and ideas and hacks will make you more proficient and increase your enjoyment of the sport.

This book is a must-read for folks who like to scan lists and find new ways to catch more fish. Read one list, and you’ll read on to the next.

Visit Amazon to buy your copy today!

WOULD YOU REFER OUR PODCAST?

We would love a referral from you.

Simply mention our podcast to your TU chapter or fly fishing club or even local fly shop.

If you are a nonprofit, serving the outdoors community, you have our permission to reprint our content in your online or print newsletter with the appropriate credit and links. Thank you for your trust.