Weekly Update
Stand up and tell 'em! 📣
A gentle nudge to find your voice in conservation and activism.
Latest
Industry
Don't get GASed 💨
Snow Peak launches a fly-fishing line, avoiding GAS, we find the safest place on the Oregon Coast to be in a tsunami, and more.
Weekly Update
Meanderings: Following the thalweg from the Willamette to the Seine
First flies, finding the thalweg, good eau in Paris, and some riparian art
How To
Leaky waders and slinky links
Here's another thing to do this winter: Fix your waders. And, while you're at it, get stoked with a visit to one of the fly-fishing film fests, and generally click your heart out with some buttery links.
Industry
Immerse yourself with Kwintesencja
Take fifteen minutes, and be transported.
CFS News
Watersheds and watching flies
Zoom out to conserve, zoom in to observe, zoom over to the Grand Fir tonight to have a drink and a bite.
Weekly Update
Creek Freaks and Trout Whisperers: Advocacy from the Deschutes to the Chattahoochee
100 subscribers, Maupin in May, the DRA's Deschutes fight expands, a new blueprint for anadromous activism, and a club report from ATL.
Meditations
A tale for the turn of the year
Wish 2025 an angler's welcome with some intention setting, saying goodbye to Jimmy Carter, summer meetup dates, and the anatomy of a fly-fishing rig
Books
Remembering Jimmy Carter, our greatest fly fishing president
Many presidents have fished, but few had the soul of an angler.
CFS News
Maupin Meetup 2025
Come one, come all, to the 2025 Current Flow State summer meetup at TroutFest in Maupin, Oregon!
Books
Read By the River, 2024
Sometimes, literally. The five favorite (mostly) fly-fishing books I read this year
Weekly Update
From runway to river
Fly fishing fashion icons, Joe Pera, final slots for winter classes, and more.
Industry
Fly fishing fashion: Streetwear goes streamside
Are kook fits in? Honestly, the only drip I know is when you're wading deep and you dunk your hat.
Weekly Update
Finding your fly lab
Another critical element in establishing your home waters: having a place to test things out. Plus a new book from Robin Wall Kimmerer and the many (gnarly) faces of lamprey.
How To
Avoid this one mistake when buying your first fly rod
How's that for a clickbait title? CFS' first-fly-rod buyers' guide, Winter classes open now, and a push against crude fly names.
Dispatches
Ground yourself on our home planet
Establish The Big Here on the way to finding your home waters. Also, two fun fly fishing films, and registration opening for Winter term class.
Meditations
A time to mend
If you can manage your line, you can manage your life.
Weekly Update
Some lines on knots
When it comes to fly-fishing knot tying skill, it's truly a tale of the haves and the have-knots. OK, ok. I promise not to get things too twisted up here, pun-wise at least.
Weekly Update
So long summer, come winter's hope.
If you start summer steelheading earlier than October, does it get less bittersweet?
How To
Invest in your angling, and your community: Join a fly fishing club
There's a great new documentary out about the wonderful benefits of joining a club. Guess what? Joining a fly-fishing club is even better, and will make you a better angler.
Weekly Update
Remembering John Gierach
Recalling the shaper of a Platonic fly-fishing reality, in his own words
Weekly Update
High-torque and low-torque activities
Digging in on the progression from Aspen Extreme to Trout Bum (RIP John Gierach), Grant Petersen CFS GOAT, SalmonSuperHwy lauded by the White House, and more
Dispatches
Fly fishing in the Italian Alps Part 5: The Packing List
It's not the be-all end-all Ultimate Fly Fishing Destination Packing List, but it's what I wound up bringing to Italy, where the trout fishing is much like at home.
Weekly Update
Fly fishing in the Italian Alps, Part 4: Nude beaches and remote reaches
In Piemonte, on the Sesia and Mastallone rivers, anything is possible with the right attitude.
Weekly Update
Fly fishing in the Italian Alps, Part 3: Young marble giants
Searching for slabs on the Passer river in Südtirol / Trentino Alto-Adige, part of our five-part series on fly fishing in Italy
Weekly Update
Fly-Fishing in the Italian Alps, Part 2: Blowouts, high water, and mystery trout on the Swiss border
Can you help identify this strange trout variant? Salmo truta helvetica?
Weekly Update
Fly fishing in the Italian Alps, Part 1: Decoding access
The first in a series on fly fishing in the Italian alps, on getting licensed in Italy, and the main differences between fly fishing in Italy and the USA.
Meditations
What we give up fly fishing
On Adam Phillips, and finding, and re-finding our identities as anglers
Weekly Update
Hot weather and trout fishing
A few top tips—and one essential piece of gear—can help keep fish safe when the temps get high.
Weekly Update
How to not look like an idiot when you first start learning to fly fish
Three ways to conquer the self-consciousness that comes with beginning fly fishing and start building your fly fishing practice
Meditations
Fly fishing and problem solving
Moving beyond the engineering mindset, and trying to embrace frustration as a key function of learning
Meditations
The Five Permissions: How to be a great fishing friend
Take me fishing. A simple request, a schmaltzy commercial, a pivotal role. Here are five permissions you can give yourself and your fishing friend to create space for connection.
Weekly Update
Forest fires and fly fishing
Do forest fires hurt fly fishing? An update from the Clackamas river fire zone.
Dispatches
Fools rush in: on finding, hooking, and losing a trophy trout
Reflections on an epic face-plant, remembering Bill Walton
Weekly Update
Opening days and opening dreams
Opening up, setting intentions for the new season
Books
The best fly fishing books ever written
Books that will improve your fly fishing. A definitive list of the best fly fishing books, from beginner guides to technical methods, from entomology to romantic lore and conservation. And, of course, great writing.