Fly Fishing

Sunday’s FF101 class at Orvis Richmond braved the elements to learn to fly fish. photo by Duber Winters

If you haven’t heard about it yet, Orvis is offering FREE fly-fishing lessons through programs called Fly Fishing 101, which teaches fly casting and outfit rigging. These small classes are held at Orvis stores and participating fly shops in 37 states and Canada, so chances are there’s one near you. Graduates can move on to FF201, which includes a short outing on the water for a chance to. . .

Chris Courtney of Arizona experienced a little Michigan Magic on the Muskegon River over the weekend when he brought this monster brown to the boat. photo courtesy Matt Supinski

Matt Supinski of Gray Drake Outfitters sent in this great picture along with a note:

“Check out this Muskegon River brown trout pig! Guide Jeff Bacon got it with our client Chris Courtney from Arizona stripping a chinook salmon parr streamer. The trout was a resident 29-inch, 9/10-pounder, not a lake-run fish!”

The Orvis Home Office in Sunderland, VT

This week, we wanted to shine a light on the tremendous opportunities available within our retail organization. Orvis currently has 50 stores nationwide, with another 20 stores in the UK, and 10 outlets throughout the US.  Many of you may have taken an Orvis trip or experienced a time with one of our guides.  Perhaps you have been a catalog or online customer.

Arkansas guide Jamie Rouse (right) with a true tailwater hog. photo courtesy Jamie Rouse

Jamie Rouse discovered in college that he wasn’t cut out for a “real world” job, so he embarked on a guiding career that took him from Arkansas to Alaska and back again. Over the years, he has learned how to “pursue a wide variety of species in a wide variety of water conditions for a wide variety of anglers.” This knowledge has helped him build Jamie Rouse Fly Fishing Adventures into one of the most respected guide services on the big Arkansas tailwaters: the Little Red, the White, and the Norfork.

Even on a river as popular as the Madison, you can find solitude if you’re willing to walk far from the parking area. photo by Philip Monahan

At the end of April, I and several hundred other Orvis-endorsed fishing guides headed to Casper, Wyoming, for a week’s worth of fishing and camaraderie. As I made my steady descent out of the high country of the Colorado Rockies into the bustling metropolis of Denver, I stared in amazement at the sheer abundance of urban sprawl. I make the drive all the time, and I always find myself wondering where all these people came from and how many more are coming. For most of us in the lower 48, the last couple of decades have been a sobering realization that the good ol’ days of uncrowded. . .

In a recent poll of fly-fishing professionals asking them to identify their favorite searching nymphs, the Prince Nymph was one of the most popular choices. Although some argue that this style of nymph originated with Don and Dick Olson of Bemidji, minnesota, it is named for Doug Prince, a California tier of the 1940s. This pattern works great as a caddisfly nymph, a small. . .