A close second would be, “What (or how many) fly patterns do I need to have to be successful most of the time? Those are both valid queries, and ones which reflect the quintessence of fly-fishing. On ...

If you find yourself stumped by picky trout with any regularity, it’s probably time for you to learn how to fish a soft hackle fly. These time-tested patterns are characterized by their wispy, “buggy” ...

In theory, fly-fishing is a simple sport: Pick a body of water, choose a fly-fishing rod, select your “fly” (or bait), tie a secure knot, cast your line and, hopefully, land a fish on the other end.

As I embark on my fifty-first season of fly-fishing and fly tying, I find the many changes that have altered these pastimes over that timespan to be nothing short of mindboggling. And of course they ...

The earliest recorded reference to fishing with an artificial fly, he says, comes from Macedonia around 3,000 years ago. A description of a simple fly from those ancient times, made from red wool and ...

I don’t know if you’d consider it a clinical condition or not, but I have a long-standing predisposition for old, soft hackle wet flies and Catskill-style dry flies. The logical result, no doubt, of ...

Tired of the same old dead drift? Got eyestrain from watching a tuft of yarn bouncing through the waves? Too much lead weight got you down? Then we’ve got just the deal for you. It’s called fishing ...

Grasshoppers, crickets, ants, beetles, bees, dragonflies, cicadas… There’s a whole mess bugs classified as terrestrials. No matter the insect, when a breeze blows any of these land-based trout snacks ...