S3:E45 What Fishing Guides Have Taught Us about Ourselves

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Fishing guides are the hardest working folks in the fishing industry. Each year, we budget one guided day on the river, most often float trips, though last year we did a wade trip on the Madison. We’ve accumulated a modicum of experience with fly fishing guides. And we’ve learned a ton about how to fish. However, the guides have also taught us a few things about ourselves. In this episode, we reflect on what the great fishing guides have taught us about our own aspirations and fly fishing chops.

Listen now to “What Fishing Guides Have Taught Us about Ourselves”

Great Stuff from Our Listeners. At the end of each episode, we often include a feature called “Great Stuff from Our Listeners.” It’s the last segment of each episode, where Steve reads one of the comments from our listeners or readers. We enjoy hearing from you, and appreciate your advice, wisdom, and fly fishing experiences.

Do you ever use fly fishing guides? What have you learned from them? Or, what what they taught you about yourself?

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We’d love for you to refer our podcast to a friend, your TU chapter, or fly fishing club. Be sure to pass along our podcast to others.

That is the most simple way to help us grow!

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The Fly Fisher’s Book of Lists

We’ve published a book for regular-Joe-and-Jane fly fishers called The Fly Fisher’s Book of Lists: Life is short. Catch more fish.

One person who purchased the book called it “cliffsnotes for fly fishers.”

To switch metaphors, perhaps it’s more like a handful of potato chips. It’s an entire book of lists. The goal is to help you find practical help quickly and in an easily digestible format!

Buy it today on Amazon for only $15.99!

S2:E50 Our Top 7 Lessons from Hiring Fly Fishing Guides

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Hiring fly fishing guides is core to how we improve our craft. It’s not cheap, and we do it sparingly (about once a year), but we have found great value in learning from the experts. Click now to listen to “Our Top 7 Lessons from Hiring Fly Fishing Guides.”

Listen now to “Our Top 7 Lessons from Hiring Fly Fishing Guides”

Great Stuff from Our Listeners. At the end of each episode, we often include a feature called “Great Stuff from Our Listeners.” It’s the last portion of each episode, where Steve reads one of the comments from our listeners or readers. We enjoy hearing from you, and appreciate your advice, wisdom, and fly fishing experience.

What are some of the best lessons you’ve learned from hiring fly fishing guides? Please post your comments below. We’d love to hear from you!

Download a Podcast App on Your Smartphone

Be sure to subscribe to our podcast feed. You can do that on your smartphone or tablet by downloading a podcast app. The most common app used by 2 Guys feed subscribers is “Podcasts.”

Or you can simply subscribe to the RSS feed here:

Subscribe to 2 Guys and A River2 Guys and A River

To see every episode that we’ve published, click on “Every Episode” on the top navigation.

Our Sponsor

For this episode, we are the Sponsor!

We’ve published a book called, The Fly Fisher’s Book of Lists: Life is short. Catch more fish.

We like to say it is a book of bite-sized snacks. Maybe even like a handful of potato chips. It’s an entire book of lists. The goal is to help you find practical help quickly and in an easily digestible format!

Visit Amazon to get your copy today!

S2:E16 Reasons You Are Not Catching Fish

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Catching fish is not merely about pure skill. Many fishers buy their fly fishing experiences with guides and outfitters. With the latest fly fishing gear, access to a drift boat, and a great guide, any person can catch trout. But for the rank-and-file fly fisher, the one who can’t always buy a fly fishing experience and wants to grow in the art and skill of the sport, there are some problem-solving skills to acquire when not catching fish. In this episode, we discuss seven reasons you’re not catching fish – and what to do differently.

Listen to our episode “Reasons You Are Not Catching Fish”

At the end of each episode, we often include a feature called “Great Stuff from Our Listeners.” We read a few of the comments from this blog or from our Facebook page. We enjoying hearing from our readers and listeners, and appreciate your advice, wisdom, and fly fishing experience.

What have we missed? And where do you disagree with us? We’d love your comments to this episode!

Download a Podcast App on Your Smartphone

Be sure to subscribe to our podcast feed. You can do that on your smartphone or tablet by downloading a podcast app. The most common app used by 2 Guys feed subscribers is “Podcasts.”

Or you can simply subscribe to the RSS feed here:

Subscribe to 2 Guys and A River2 Guys and A River

View some of our most recent podcast episodes on iTunes or on Stitcher, if you have an Android.

Rate the 2 Guys Podcast

We’d love for you to rate our podcast on iTunes.

That helps fellow fly fishers decide whether the podcast is a good fit for them.

Three People to Trust When Buying Fly Fishing Products

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In the (supposed) good old days, there was a wall between church and state. There was advertising. And there was content. And the lines between the two were clear.

An ad was an ad. And a rod review was a rod review.

You could trust that the opinion of the writer wasn’t tainted by the fact that he or she was being paid by the product under review.

When buying fly fishing products today, however, it’s hard to know which is church (helpful and truthful content) and which is state (ads or sponsorships). The lines are blurred, thanks to an explosion of fly fishing brands, and, of course, the Internet.

Whom can you trust when buying fly fishing products?

Just recently I saw two rod reviews in the Trout Unlimited magazine. One was for a Sage rod, the other was a rod-reel combination from Cabela’s.

I wondered, “Why those two rods? Why not a Loomis or a Winston or an Orvis? Does TU have a promotion agreement with Sage and Cabela’s?”

Granted, a print magazine has limited space, so TU can’t possibly publish reviews of all the rods in one edition. But when you read a review of a rod in an online magazine or web site, can you really trust that the reviewer is not being paid by the rod manufacturer? Or receiving a cut from all sales tracked from the review (affiliate sales)?

In today’s cluttered world of unlimited fly fishing products, it’s hard to trust that the information you are getting is authentic and truly unbiased. Of course, that begs the question, “What does it mean to be unbiased?” Nothing is truly free from bias. I know that.

But we fly fishers want truly helpful advice when buying fly fishing products. Consider who I think are the only three people you can trust:

The Gals/Guys at the Local Fly Shop

This includes, of course, the guides at the shop. Yes, if you are flying into an area that you have never fished before and you don’t know the fly shop personnel, then you may need to be more wary. I hate to admit this, but the more “corporate” the fly shop, the less I trust the advice from its staff.

But I love buying at local fly shops. They deserve our business. They are the experts in local waters. And it’s hard to go wrong when you get advice from the folks at the shop.

With rare exception, I’ve found the guides and owners at local fly shops to be a trusted source for product recommendations.

Of course, each shop carries certain brands and may be, for example, the exclusive Orvis or Patagonia dealer in the area. That’s especially true in a place like Bozeman, Montana, with a seemingly endless number of fly shops. So it makes sense that fly shop owners and guides will push their brands. But I’ve generally been impressed at their objectivity. Actually, I’m looking less for objectivity and more for someone who will say, “Given your level of experience, I recommend this. And for this reason.”

Last year, I was looking at a new pair of waders. I was discussing my options with a fly shop owner, and he steered me towards a better brand that was on sale – and that was less than the brand I was looking at.

Of course, my trust-o-meter just went up 10 points.

Your Fly Fishing Buddy

Referrals are how I buy most big ticket items in my life, including cars, fly rods, waders, and shotguns.

I am not like my brother-in-law, who makes my eyes bleed when I think about how much time he spends researching his future purchases. I don’t have the patience. When he conducted a thorough investigation of mini-vans back in 2004 – and purchased a Honda Odyssey – I purchased one as well a few years later.

Why re-invent the research wheel?

It seems next to impossible to conduct a thorough investigation of every product. There’s too many products in the market. Take fly rods, example. Unless you have a year-and-a-half to fish a full day with each rod, how could you possibly select the right rod that works for you?

And even if I were to fly fish one day with every possible rod, I would never be able to make a fully informed, rational selection, much less remember how the first rod felt after trying out the other twenty rods.

If you fly fish with some folks, then ask for their recommendations. See if they will let you try out one of their rods (a risky request, I realize). At minimum, you should try out the rod you plan to purchase at the local fly shop. However, I have not found taking only a few casts at a fly shop all that helpful. I really need to fish with the rod for a couple hours.

That’s not always possible, though.

You. Yourself. Yes, You.

Don’t get caught up in the branding hype of fly fishing brands. Just because a piece of equipment or tackle is not the “top of the line” (as declared by some fly fishing personality or brand) doesn’t mean it’s not the best for you. The stories that brands tell about their products are silly. It’s just a product. It won’t save your soul or help you catch bigger fish. Truly.

The question is, “So does it truly work for you with the budget you have?”

I tend to buy higher-end fly fishing products when it comes to wading boots and fly rods. I start with more expensive products.

But not other gear. For other gear, I tend to look for value – best quality at the lowest price.

I recently selected a Sage One fly rod because the line was being discontinued, and the price was right. I like a good sale. I have now fly fished with the rod for several months, and I feel great about my decision. Somehow, I still seem to catch fish, even though I don’t have one of the more expensive brands.

Buying Fly Fishing Products

No person has unlimited time to research and try out every brand when purchasing equipment. And if you do, you truly have too much time on your hands. I’d rather spend my time fly fishing. You may have the personality for eternally investigating products, but I don’t.

In the final analysis, if you are agonizing between this brand of waders or the next, give it a rest. Ask around, take into account your budget, and then just buy the waders!

And head out to the river as fast as you can.