The Orvis Fly-Fishing Blog celebrates a rich angling heritage stretching beyond a century, with timely articles, tips, photos, videos, podcasts, and the latest fly-fishing news. We keep you informed about the things you want to know, from improving your casting technique to the art and science of tying flies.
Trout Activity Stages, by Matt Supinski from Thomas Harman on Vimeo.
Here’s a short video clip from guide Matt Supinski’s new DVD “Selectivity: Trout.” Supinski puts his years of experience to work, dividing trout behavior into three categories—aggressive/active, selective/reflective, and passive/dormant. As you’ll see, one of the great things about the DVD is that it offers concrete examples, including fantastic footage of feeding trout, of everything discussed.
Read MoreI started working for The Orvis Company five years ago. For each of those five years, taking the fly-fishing school has been on my neglected “things I want to do” list. When a girlfriend of mine at Orvis told me there was an all-women’s fly-fishing school, I felt that was a calling. Sign me up! Let’s get ‘er done. I was excited to take the school to finally see what it was all about.
Our group of women was made up of young and old, experienced and non-experienced, and each had a different story and reason for being there. With our women-only group lead by renowned instructor, Molly Semenik, the pressure of hovering husbands and competitive counterparts was removed for most, and we could calmly learn and ask questions.
Read MoreEditor’s note: For the last couple of months, we have featured entries from Gordon M. Wickstrom’s The History of Fishing for Trout with Artificial Flies in Britain and America: A Chronology of Five Hundred Years, 1496 to 2000. In this chronology, Gordon marks significant events—the publication of seminal books, tackle developments, important social changes, the dissemination of trout species beyond their native ranges, etc.—on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Outfitter Dave Jensen of Fly Fish Alberta sent us these pictures to demonstrate how great this year’s hatches have been on the Red Deer River. “Believe it or not, the Hexes are still hatching here!” he writes. Click “Read More” to see two more great shots from Alberta.
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almost 300 pages of fishing, shooting, and cooking. |
Fans of online magazines should check out the new issue of The Contemporary Sportsman and feast on an astonishing 292 pages of content, including articles on steelheading in British Columbia, casting for tigerfish in Tanzania, and lots more. I like the nice, clean design and the easy-to-read format. The same company will soon be launching a fly-fishing-only title called Backcast, as well. You do have to sign up to read the new issue, but it’s well worth the effort.
Read MoreDuring the dog days of late summer, many trout rivers are running low and warm (although this year’s runoff has Western trout streams in perfect shape), so fly fishermen often turn to warmwater species. Few anglers would argue that the most exciting and fun way to fish for bass and panfish is with a surface pattern, which allows you to see the strike. Traditionally, . . .
Read MoreFor this week’s podcast, the title is “Tom’s Top Ten Tippet Tips”, or just 5T for short (but no short jokes please). In this episode, I review tips on knots, types of tippet, how to attach tippets, when to shorten or lengthen a tippet, how to avoid kinky tippets, and a bunch more.
For the “Fly Box” section of short tips, I talk about some cool, new terms and tips I learned from fishing guides in Colorado and Montana over the past two weeks.
Read MoreWelcome to our eighth installment of “Ask a Fly-Fishing Instructor,” starring our own Peter Kutzer, who works at the Manchester, Vermont, Fly Fishing School. A couple months ago, we asked you to post some questions about your biggest fly-casting problems. Reader “Phil A.” wrote, “I have a problem with power casting and a tangled mess of leader/flies. . .”
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My teenage daughter’s text message said, “You’re stupid for running out of gas!”
I knew she was kidding, but I was stupid. And the real stupidity was that I had run out of gas along Utah’s Provo River with a truckload of fishing gear, but not one fly rod! I had sent a call for help, but it would be over an hour before my wife came to my rescue. With nothing better to do, I grabbed a streamer from the dashboard, pulled a lanyard from the backseat, and slid down the embankment to the river.
Read MoreWelcome to our new weekly roundup of news from across the world of fly fishing. Every Monday, we’ll bring you up to speed on interesting stories, new records, important conservation news, and anything else we think you should know about.
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