Photo by Alex Smith on Unsplash Watching some gentlemen fish Utah’s wintery waters yesterday reminded me of one of winter’s lesser-known gear priorities. When you’ve packed all the seasonal clothing you’ll need, only one thing remains to help you counter the cold. The right hook disgorger. Yes, you did read that correctly. Many of us, I suspect, won’t appreciate the need for a winter-appropriate fish hook remover until we’ve had to dip our hands into icy water before handling a netted fish. We know why we do it, of course, but if observing ‘best practice’ soothes your conscience, it does not ..read more

It’s hard to say who’ll like this video the most. Those who love the Griffith’s Gnat, those who overdo it when working with resin, or those who judge a fly as much by how long it lasts as by how many trout it claims. Taking care of the latter detail, they’ve added streamer materials to the pattern at Fly Fish Food, and embedded the hackle in a nibble-proof body of resin-encased Shimmerbou, instead of the conventional peacock herl. Counter-intuitive, maybe for a fly traditionally tied light, minus ribbing. Then again, resins come in different types, and some tyers swear by them, even for dry fl ..read more

Easily the longest chain of correspondence in my time at Trout Fisherman was triggered by some unconventional thinking on fish welfare. Working with a doctor and keen fly fisher at a fishery in northeast England, I reported his views on reviving a netted trout. While he stressed that this was just his opinion and he’d be welcome to hear what others thought, he said he had reservations about the traditional method of holding the fish in the water and moving it gently to and fro to get water flowing through its gills. It had occurred to him that if this rocking motion was out of sync with the t ..read more

Pic courtesy of Mobilus In Mobili on Flickr.com I come to this story a little late (such is the way of things with Flipboard) but it’s still a sad one. You fought so hard in the War of Independence, America, please don’t let some good old British snootiness creep in through the back door. The Hamptons and upper-crust New York, from what I read, might be lost causes but I’d like to think the rest of your country remains too egalitarian to start getting its waders in a bunch over Euro nymphing, or tight-line nymphing, as it’s often called in the US. Not so, according to Outdoor Life. Euro Nymphi ..read more

[This post contains Amazon affiliate links. You buy, I get commission. This is not an instruction, just a regulatory warning.] This video is one of the most pleasing unions of fishing scenery and high-def I’ve seen in a while but I also like the teaching format. Fly fishing is one of those pastimes that, if you wait until you’re pretty savvy before you hit the water, you’ll never get there. To any novice, I say learn what you need for your first trip… The gear to take with you Two or three high-percentage fly types An idea of where to cast them Just bumbling around in a largely alien world m ..read more

Image by lookstudio on Freepik Every now and then, you get a reminder that there are people out there for whom the global economic downturn is proving as horrific as a summer breeze. The kind of people who hand over £250 for a pair of sunglasses, for example. That’s the going rate for fly fishing sunglasses at one well-known manufacturer, which has decided to celebrate its 40th anniversary by putting the ‘cost’ into Costa. But hey, good luck to them and their ‘legacy brought to life’. If $329 is what the market will stand then that’s what they’re entitled to charge. Based on irritating experie ..read more

Image By stockgiu With the Orvis blog offering 3 Tips for Fly-Fishing in Warmwater Reservoirs recently, my mind turned to the question of fishing for trout in hot weather, now that the dog days of summer are upon us. Many commercial ponds in the UK roll down the shutters at this time of year. Warm still water and listless fish don’t make for a great business plan. If that has fed a notion that our sport enters an unofficial close season when July arrives, though, we need to snap out of it. Granted, our favourite fish, cold-water species as he is, may not be in the absolute pink, but if the tro ..read more

Pic: Eric Moreno Lesson 1 from a fruitless day’s fishing. Preparation should start with the question, “Now what kind of place am I fishing today?” And not with the statement, “This is a lovely rod: I haven’t fished this in a while. I’ll take this one…” It was a five-weight. And I’m fishing a commercial stillwater. Any thoughts of daintily picking them off around the margins as the day cooled and dusk approached, died a death as I parked in front of a lake that wore a pale grey collar and sat some 10 feet lower than I ever remembered it sitting before. We’ve got a leak in the far corner, the ow ..read more

A brief diversion from fly fishing, to announce a new product for those of you who fish baits and lures. Full disclosure: wearing my copywriter’s hat, I just put the Kickstarter page together for the guys launching the Hook&Roll lure retriever, so it would be a poor show if I didn’t give their efforts a mention here. They’ve come up with a lure retriever that improves on those that went before; allowing you to retrieve snagged lures more than 30 metres away, with a device they claim is ruthlessly effective in dislodging snagged or jammed lures. I had initial reservations over the price, b ..read more

Image by photogramma1 This is one of those areas where that famous British snobbery still shows its face. Not everyone buys into the minimalist philosophy of fly fishing; the happy wanderer with a modest bag slung over his shoulder. Some fly anglers – often those with competitions to win – prefer the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink philosophy, and they and their 27 fly boxes are therefore understandably wooed by the famous tackle boxes with which Shakespeare is synonymous. Now these boxes are big but you’d never call them the elephants in fly fishing’s room, I suspect, were they exclusive to f ..read more