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Although I do still love the “dead-tree media”—actual printed materials you can hold in your hand—I also dig their digital, online counterparts. Here are three offerings that will help you get a midwinter fly-fishing fix even if you’re stuck indoors.
First, here’s something really new. My friends Mike Conner (former editor of Florida Sportsman and Shallow Water Angler) and Terry Gibson (former editor of Saltwater Fly Fishing)—along with creative director Ron Romano (former Florida Sportsman art director)—have put together the sport’s first tablet-only magazine, Fly & Light Tackle Angler. I will admit that I had never used an iPad version of a magazine, and I was a little skeptical. But once I started paging through FLTA, I was blown away by the interactivity of the medium. Videos play right in the middle of pages, you can go through the steps of the fly-tying sequences at your own pace, the images seem to jump off the page. It was an eye-opening experience, and that was before I really looked at the content.
This publication is clearly built by people who know what they are doing. Although there’s a saltwater focus, there are also articles on freshwater fishing for largemouth bass, casting, conservation, and everything else you’d expect from a strong angling magazine. As the first of its genre, this is a virtual home run.
But. . .there’s always a “but,” right? . . .you do have to pay for content of this quality. An annual subscription (six issues) is $13.99, or you can buy single issues for $3.99. You view the magazine through an app you download from iTunes.
Click here for more information on FLTA.
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The new issue of our favorite Spanish fly-fishing mag, flymage, serves up its usual fare of killer photography, great travel writing, and fly tying. From the giant brown trout of Argentina’s Limay River to the elusive Queenfish of Australia, flymage takes the reader to exotic places, and this issue also features a cool fly-tying article. There’s also an iPad version of flymage, if you’d prefer to view it that way.
Click here to view the latest issue of flymage.
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Finally, far from being about adventure, Angling Trade is all about the fly-fishing industry and offers a casual reader a peak into the inner workings of the biz. Editors Kirk Deeter, Tim Romano, and Geoff Mueller cover all the angles, from politics, to women in fly fishing, to the inspiring made-in-America story of one important fly-fishing manufacturer. This is compelling stuff.
Click here to view the latest issue of Angling Trade.