Nick Parish - Current Flow State

A steep canyon on the Deschutes river is the background image for type that states Immerse: A five-week fly fishing intro course from Current Flow State

CFS Update

Immerse: Our free fly fishing intro course

Enroll in our free email course to get started fly fishing this fall.

A rainbow trout rises to eat, its head out of the crystal-clear water

Meditations

Nymphing won't get you the Perfect Eat

On Euro nymphing, the perfect eat, and committing to ‘DFO’.

Close-up of a large mayfly with long tails perched on the back of a hand, dark blurred background.

CFS Update

Have yourself a fishy fall

There's an awful lot of fishing out there as summer rolls away: dig in for a bonanza of events and inspiration.

Underwater shot of a spawning sockeye salmon school over gravel in Bristol Bay, Alaska, with a spotted char in the foreground.

Conversations

CFS Q&A: Rewiring our brains with animal migrations

Take a peek inside the Live Migrations project with creator Tucker Malarkey and discover how it's convening livestream audiences around a digital campfire to help them reconnect with natural rhythms.

Title card for 'Urban Fly Fishing Scouting with Marc Fryt'. Marc stands along the Willamette River in Portland, cherry blossoms and a steel bridge behind him.

CFS Update

Get back in school with a PDX urban scouting mission

Registration is open for PDX urban scouting with Marc Fryt, yours truly joins a podcast, and we squeeze the last drops out of summer.

Snow Peak Portland x Current Flow State "Community Connect" event flyer — angler fishing a mountain lake, Aug 18, 4-6:30pm, 404 NW 23rd Ave, Portland, OR

CFS Update

Current Flow State x Snow Peak

We're kicking off the first of our Community Connect events with Snow Peak this Tuesday evening in Portland!

CFS Update

The dog days are (almost) over

The Deschutes summer steelhead closure looms, PCC Fall Term registration opens this Wednesday, and more

CFS Update

High time for summer adventures

CFS readers out in the world, a possible Portland urban scouting event with Marc Fryt, and more.

Cover of "The Guide to Urban Fly Fishing" by Marc Fryt, overlaid on a black-and-white photo of an angler wading under a bridge.

How To

Six Tips to Start Urban Fly Fishing

"The Guide to Urban Fly Fishing" author Marc Fryt offers some hints to find fish near you, and a special opportunity for the Portland CFS crew.

A fire burns on a butte in the background of the Madison River in Montana

CFS Update

Weathering the fire

Flames across the continent are driving a search for solutions. Habitat restoration, advanced technologies, and a level of tolerance form one possible future.

"Five Flies with Riverhorse Nakadate" title graphic, featuring a portrait of Nakadate over a watercolor river and canoe scene.

Books

Five Flies: Riding range with Riverhorse Nakadate

CFS catches up with the multi-talented angler, musician, filmmaker, and Patagonia Fly Fishing Ambassador to talk Five Flies as he tours the United States to promote his new book, Water Lines.

Grassy pond edge with tall seed heads swaying in front, calm water curving through green hills under a partly cloudy sky.

CFS Update

Crunch time

A carp-scouting outing takes an unexpected twist: My ankle.

Angler lip-grips a largemouth bass at the surface, mouth agape with a small black fly hooked at the corner. Chartreuse fly line, marsh grass, and conifers fill the background.

CFS Update

Those sassy-grassy-bassy days of summer

How I tell it's summer, one essential summertime fishing skill, and the feel-good fish of the season.

Two men posing at dusk with a stringer of fish including one gigantic largemouth bass, one in a red blazer and one in a white tee and red United Airlines cap, Florida, 1980s.

CFS Update

Thanks, Dads

Dad and Grandpa energy, Riverhorse on the gallop, and more in the Weekly Update

Five men sit on a theater stage looking at a photograph of a steelhead caught on a fly. It is a glorious fish.

CFS Update

See what Mother Earth is offering

Ways of walking through a changed world

The Deschutes Access Road alongside the Deschutes River

CFS Update

The CFS Maupin Meetup, recapped

We came, we fished, we won trivia (again!)

CFS Update

Fly fishing is the ultimate sport for hoarders

I joined Rachel Kramer Bussel on the Finders and Keepers podcast to talk fly fishing's peculiar penchant for gear acquisition. Also: Casting session this Friday in Portland, Ribbon Map updates and more!

Conversations

Magic at the edges: Q&A with cartographer Aaron Koelker

We chatted with map maker Aaron Koelker about how he designed the Lower Deschutes Ribbon Map, his creative process, and what he loves about maps.

Amy Hazel, owner of the Deschutes Angler, holds up a rolled Lower Deschutes ribbon map inside her fly shop, grinning, pointing to the map behind her on the wall.

CFS Update

Ribbon map roll-out

Ribbon map mojo and the Maupin Meetup, casual casting practice in PDX, registration for PCC Summer Term, and more

A hand holds an unrolled ribbon map of the Lower Deschutes River against a canyon backdrop, with overlaid text reading "The CFS Lower Deschutes Ribbon Map — On Sale Now!"

CFS Update

Announcing the CFS Lower Deschutes Ribbon Map

The last 100 miles. Six feet long. On sale now!

A fly angler casts at sunset on a mirrored artificial casting pond, with conifers in the background

CFS Update

Putting in work

Got any early season rituals?

Books

Five Flies with Jesse Lance Robbins

The author of the newly-released "The Best Fly Fishing is Everywhere" gives us a glimpse into his fly fishing practice, through the lens of Five Flies

A large stonefly shuck held between two fingers, with the blue Deschutes River visible in the background.

CFS Update

Big things are hatching

This season is going to be huge, on and off the river.

How To

Two minute tips: Start a new leader

It's the start of trout season around this great continent, and probably time you changed your leader.

CFS Update

The spey is strong out here

The Sandy River Spey Clave is a reminder of why the PNW is the North American epicenter of two-handed fly fishing.

A fly tier works under a magnifying lens, threading a hook with the close concentration the craft demands.

How To

Tying flies is good for you

Fly tying offers real neurological, psychological, and motor skill benefits. And a growing number of therapists are putting that to work.

FFI Casting Instructor pre-test evaluation form on clipboard in foreground, an instructor and candidate learning fly casting on a grass field under partly cloudy skies in the background.

CFS Update

Mind in the line

Expect nothing, and other lessons from casting instructor boot camp

Woman practices roll cast on a calm pond at sunset, fly rod raised against a vivid pink and orange sky reflected in still water.

CFS Update

Embrace what's scary

If we're not doing stuff that's scary, we're not learning.

Angler walks along a meadow stream at golden sunrise, sun flaring through mist above a lush green Vermont valley.

Conversations

CFS Q&A: How fly fishing therapist Tony Parmenter integrates tenkara and EMDR therapy

For the second installment of our series on fly fishing and mental health, we go deep with a therapist working at the forefront of nature-based therapy

Film still of a a brown trout nosing up above the surface of a river in golden light to take an emerging Brown Drake mayflay, amidst a hatch of thousands of insects

CFS Update

Hatching into spring

This week's update has us ready for spring with a post-Springsteen glow, featuring a new class offering in Oregon and an epic film of a Brown Drake hatch.

A whitewater river flowing through a pine forest overlaid with bold text reading "The Fly Fishing Prescription" and a humorous CFS prescription pad graphic.

What the research actually says about fly fishing and mental health

Here's the proof: Why fly fishing makes you feel better mentally and physically.

"Fly Fishing Is my Therapy" bumper sticker with wet fly illustrations and mountain silhouette on the tailgate of a white pickup truck.

CFS Update

Hearing "Fishing is my therapy" bothers me more than it should

It's not a replacement for penicillin, or a good therapist, but for the next few weeks we'll be sharing all the proof you need that fly fishing is good for your physical and mental health.

A screenshot from a vintage-looking airplane shows a man leaning out of a small airplane, with the title lettering TOP SPORTSMAN superimposed

CFS Update

Get to know the Top Sportsman

Tarpon-chaser Dick Fisher is looking to catch more than just a silver king. Aren't we all?

Anglers wading the Sandy River below the Stark Street bridge, dip-netting for smelt on a gray winter day.

CFS Update

Abundance, past and future

An unsuccessful smelt season on the Sandy, a celebration of female anglers, and the release of a suppressed report on the state of nature in America

9:49 AMA moss-covered old tire lying flat outdoors, its interior filled with soil and sprouting weeds, with a rusted abandoned vehicle and bare trees visible in the background.

CFS Update

We are busy being born

Private equity is buying Michigan dams, George Daniel gives beginner students advice, salmon and steelhead get a win on the Columbia, and more.

A person in jeans swings in a hammock while looking at their phone

CFS Update

Death to shitty flow

How junk food flow states and being stuck in the machine zone prevent us from achieving excellence in life, and our angling.