Win a free copy of Pheasant Tail Simplicity
Announcing our Pheasant Tail fall giveaway, a member Q&A on tenkara and creative woodworking projects, tariffs bite the fly fishing industry, and a Leaders roundup of must-reads from around the fly fishing world
Ahoy gang!
We've got a jam-packed newsletter today, because an awful lot's going on. Let's get right to it:
Pheasant Tail Fall continues
Pre-orders of Patagonia's new Pheasant Tail Simplicity book have started rolling out and arriving in mailboxes. I've gotten a few notes from readers about how high quality the book design is. They're right: It's a really well-designed effort. The quality of photography is exceptional, and the layout of the book makes it easy to go from one pattern to another in order, jump around to the patterns that match your tying needs, or just learn about how to fish the flies and enjoy the stories the trio of authors brings.
Here's a look inside:
Some Pheasant Tail Simplicity layouts straight from my tying table
Win a copy of Pheasant Tail Simplicity
In case you're on the fence about coming out to our book chat, this should sweeten the deal.
Patagonia Books was kind enough to send me a free copy. And I'd like to give it away to one of you. All you have to do is tune in to our discussion. You don't even have to pretend you read the book! All attendees of the Read By the River virtual book club event on Sunday, November 2nd will be eligible for the giveaway.
Join us to discuss this great book, and maybe win your own copy!
CFS Member Q&A with Chuck Grimmett
I had a blast sitting down (virtually) this week with CFS member Chuck Grimmett, an upstate New York angler plying his trade in the Croton Watershed and Catskill region.
Dig in for a discussion touching on tenkara, fly tying, Chuck's fly fishing-related woodworking projects, and the ethos around connecting adjacent creative projects with our fly fishing practice.
Tariffs bite the fly fishing industry
Tariff fallout hit hard in the fly fishing industry this week, with famed outdoor retailer Orvis announcing a massive pullback in its apparel business and imminent closure of half its U.S. stores, 31 retail locations and five outlets in all.
Combine that with an Angling Trade report stating fly shops making pre-season orders are seeing huge price increases due to those same tariffs. "The net result is that dealers are being asked to pay what sometimes amounts to dollars per dozen more for certain brands of flies, and thatβs sending shockwaves through the fly retail world."
It's long been a maxim that tying flies doesn't actually save you money (you sometimes wind up spending more in materials) but this may be the thing that tips the calculus back toward simple homemade flies. Did I mention we're here for you in that department enough times yet?
We called every Orvis store around the country to manually verify which stores would be closing, which would be staying open, and how employees were dealing with the change.
Leaders β°
Mindset π§ββοΈ
How do we become re-enchanted with the world, when it is saturated with technology? Award-winning memoirist Karl Ove Knausgaard grapples with his own relationship with understanding technology in a long piece for Harper's. One clue: Taking the responsibility for shaping our own tools. (link)
Speaking of a world saturated with technology, the earliest TV fishing shows to the hyperreality of Instagram, it's always been time to reinforce that fishing media isn't reality. Due West Anglers asks, "Would fly fishing be better off without social media, and the social media personas that represent fly fishing?" I think so. Read this for a thought-provoking perspective on what gets posted, and why, and an introduction to the Hunt Quietly ethos. How we square spreading the stoke with responsible angler education is a big knot to untangle. (link)
Environment β°οΈ
The first radio-tagged Chinook salmon have moved past the former dam sites and are returning past the Link River Dam fish ladder into Upper Klamath Lake and the Williamson River, writes Lee Juillerat for the Klamath Falls Herald and News. Nature returns. (link)
Boyce Upholt writes a beautiful paean to the life-giving aliveness and fundamental power of the Mississippi River, part of Reasons to be Cheerful's ongoing package of coverage of the big river. "Perhaps we will design better engineering β and have a brighter future here along this river β if we acknowledge its existence as a living, willful being." (link)
Tools π£
Maupinites Marty and Mia Sheppard are some of the most sought-after guides working today in Oregon, from their work on the rivers to their efforts to organize community. Geoff Mueller, writing for gear manufacturer Farbank (Sage / Rio / Redington) welcomes Marty and Mia as Rio Ambassadors and talks with the couple about everything from the steelhead ethos to conservation to rod and fly selection. (link)
Across the Hall of Oregon Eminences, when Jeff Perin of The Fly Fisher's Place in Sisters talks, we listen. Every week. Seriously: His weekly fishing report is the buggiest must-read of the week for us, not just for the hot beta but also for his storytelling. Here, he details seven knots he uses regularly and the anglers who brought him to them. (link)
Technique π€Ί
Can you tell I have chrome on the dome? My personal goal for the next six to eight months is to spend more time fishing for steelhead than I have in previous seasons. Over at Midcurrent, Kubie Brown takes a great look at beginner five tricks to help you catch more west coast steelhead on swung flies. (link)
Meanwhile, in anadromous angling far from home, the Skwala Lounge takes a trip to Iceland's Holkna river, where a pressured resource and a storied history makes for a precise system for fishing for Atlantic salmon. (link)
Conservation π²
Meet Michael Boren, the new Undersecretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) at the U.S. Forest Service. Turns out he's a billionaire with a history of aggressive opposition to the mission of the agency he now runs. Western Watersheds Project details the fox's history prior to appointment guarding the hen house. (link)
And things are not good on the Yakima. "After three years of drought, the Washington Department of Ecology is enacting what it calls an unprecedented halt to surface water use as local water resources effectively ran dry on Oct. 6." Kendra Chamberlain at Columbia Insight has the news. (link)
Community ποΈ
Fashion brand Boden took a few arrows this month on account of a fall campaign that featured gratuitous glory shots of dead salmon and this great piece of riverside apparel. Methinks it needs a few more pockets for fly boxes and the like to be a truly functional piece of gear, what do you reckon? Are we seeing a pushback in the latest fly fishing fashion trend?
π₯ My favorite video this week is courtesy YETI, which opens an portal between Japan and Jamaica and tells the story of Naoki Ienaga, whose quest to bring dub reggae 45s to Tokyo brought him to Kingston. It wasn't until he started fly fishing for tarpon, though, that he really felt one with Jamaican culture. This one is definitely worth a watch for a pick-me-up. (link)
In case you missed it
Here's what else we've been writing recently:
Nick Parish
What do a legendary surfer, Hollywood director Christopher Guest, and zen archers have in common?
Nick Parish
Learning to cast a fly rod like Harry Potter uses his wand.
Nick Parish
Are Grateful Dead collabs the sign that outdoor brands have jumped the shark? A look at Simms latest, and the value of high-quality gear.
Nick Parish
Challenge yourself to go beyond the bobber.
That's it for this week! Current Flow State is a weekly newsletter from me, Nick Parish.
How expensive will flies have to get before you start tying? Tell me on Bluesky π¦, Instagram πΈ, YouTube π₯, or the Fishcord π¬.
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