Newsletter
Rigged for spring
it's the May edition of Leaders, our links roundup, featuring a bevy of great PNW events, primers on fish handling, and an intro to Trout Spey.
Tools
Essential fly fishing tools, equipment basics, gear guidance, and the practical items that make your time on the water more effective and enjoyable. You probably need less gear than you think. Photo by Logan Kuzyk / Unsplash
Leaders
Hands off, or hands-free?
Yet sometimes you have to get a little dirt on your hands.
Writing
This season's most essential piece of fly-fishing gear
The dirt-cheap wonder-tool any angler can use to become legendary.
Technique
Fly-fishing with indicators: When and how to use them
All about indicators, floats, suspenders—whatever you call the thing every other angler calls a bobber.
Technique
Fly presentation and drag-free drift
You've rigged up your rod, landed your cast in the right place, your fly is on the water...and, it's waterskiing. Tactics and tips to maintain a drag-free drift that's irresistible to fish.
Gear
From reel seat to tippet: understanding the anatomy of a fly-fishing rig
The knee bone connects to the thigh bone...the thigh bone connects to the hip bone...digging into all the things that attach to your fly rod, from reel seat to fly line to tippet.
Gear
How to buy your first fly-fishing rod
There's one mistake I want to help you avoid when you buy your first fly rod.
Gear
The ultimate guide to fly fishing knots
The do's and do-knot's fly fishing knot tying. Find out what you need to know, what you don't, and how to build your skills and have confidence in your fly fishing knots
Gear
Fly-fishing gear: What's essential, what's optional?
Here are the four pieces of gear you really need to get started fly-fishing
Gear
That great fraternity of fishing idiots: Why fly rod warranties matter
There are more ways to break a fly rod than there are to catch a fish. A warranty can help get you back out on the water, but there are nuances to what they cover.