Eric Rickstad

Saltwater action on the Atlantic Coast is heating up, so it’s time to stock up on baitfish patterns for stripers, bluefish, and false albacore. Perhaps the most famous fly for the salt is the Clouser Deep Minnow–created by Susquehanna River icon Bob Clouser, named by Lefty Kreh, and mutated into hundreds of forms by other tiers. This version, by New Jersey angler and tier Brad Buzzi, is fairly beefy and durable and should work for. . .

Steve from Elizabethton took this great shot that captured an array of colors, both of the trout and the rocks and water. What’s the most beautiful fish you ever caught?

You’ve waited all winter to fish again. You’re finally on the water when you realize… your fly box is pretty darn thin and you don’t have that one pattern the fish want. The only thing more excrutiating than having trout rising near you (or bonefish tailing; or bass foraging) but not having the right fly they’re taking, is your buddy having that right fly and slaying the fish right in front of you. No one wants that. That’s why we’re having our Giant Fly Sale the month of June.  100+ flies are on sale now. Just $1.50 for most trout flies and $2 for saltwater flies and big ugly trout flies. Baetis, PMDs, Adams, Hare’s Ears, WD-40s, Disco Midges, Pheasant Tails, Elk Wing Caddis,  Prince Nymphs, Silver Sides, Albies, Zug Bugs, Flashback Emergers, Brass Ass, Flats Minnows, Woolly Buggers, Ants, San Juan Worms, and many more. Get the picture? Great flies. Cheap.

This week in the podcast, we address the color red in flies, post-flood fishing conditions, and what to do if you only have a few hours to fish. For the main event I give a brief guide to the major aquatic insects, how to identify what’s hatching, and some strategies for fishing different types of insect hatches.

Click the “Read More” button to listen to and comment on this week’s podcast.

Sometimes, the pendulum swings in the right direction. But, according to Mikes Dawes of WorldCast Anglers, it is always swinging one way or the other. Things must have been going well when he caught this huge permit, held in the photo by his guide. 

His guide hefts Mike Dawes’s monster permit photo by Mike Dawes, WorldCast Anglers

Mike wrote this about this gorgeous permit, taken on a fly:

More often than not when fishing for permit with a fly, I find myself thinking, “What am I doing?” I often wonder why my infatuation for saltwater fishing with a fly had to get stuck on permit. What I have learned in fishing for permit with a fly over the past eight years is how quickly the pendulum swings. For the most part,. . .