I get asked the question all of the time what's my favorite place to fly fish? Some may find it weird but I always have a hard time answering that question. I've had the opportunity to fly fish so many unique and beautiful places in my life that there's no way I could settle on one place as my sole favorite. If you're wanting a quick answer, a much better question to ask me would what's my favorite hatch to fly fish. I'd have no problem giving you a straight answer on this question. If I could spend all my time traveling around and planning out my fly fishing for one specific hatch it would be ..read more

By Louis Cahill Tired of hooking big fish just to lose them in the fight? This came up the other day when I was fishing with a buddy. Like too many anglers, he’d been losing big fish, one after the next, over the same simple mistakes. It was a ‘face-palm’ moment when I pointed it out. In part because he actually knew better than to do any of these three things, and did them any way. I’m not ragging on my buddy. I’ve seen plenty of anglers make these same mistakes and suffer the consequences. Simple habits you can get away with on the average fish become huge disasters when you hook a trophy. H ..read more

A few weeks ago, I chose to do something I never would have done, when I first started guiding. I made a point to accept an invitation from one of my local competitors to go fly fishing together. In the past, I would have passed the invitation up, thinking the competitor was trying to learn secrets of mine, or worse, had a hidden agenda aimed at harming my business, but that wasn't the case at all. For a welcome change, we set aside all the nonsense of us worrying about being competitors, and for the first time, we genuinely got to know one another. We spent the day working our way up a beauti ..read more

SO THE OTHER DAY, I NOTICED I RECEIVED AN INTRIGUING EMAIL FROM ONE OF OUR GINK & GASOLINE FOLLOWERS, COMMENTING ON MY ANGLER POSITIONING POST. It just so happened to be Chris Dore who sent the email, a very popular fly fishing guide from New Zealand. We hit it off pretty quick, he said he loved the blog and we immediately began replying back and forth to each other about trout fishing techniques and tactics. I'd ask him a question on how he would handle a specific scenario and he did the same. I soon realized the knowledge he was providing me was invaluable, and I requested that he w ..read more

Are you finding yourself struggling to get long drag-free drifts on the water? If the answer is yes, you may be holding your rod tip too close to the water during your drifts. When your rod tip is positioned too low, you're putting unnecessary fly line on the water that you in turn have to manage in order to maintain a drag-free drift. As soon as this unwanted fly line hits the waters surface, it's immediately subjected to the surrounding currents. Depending on how fast the current is at your feet, the less time it will take for it to be pulled downstream and begin effecting your drift. Eventu ..read more

Have you ever set the hook on a fish, and the next thing you know, you've got your arms spread apart in the shape of a giant slice of pizza, leaving you unable to reach the fly line with your rod hand? Do not be ashamed if this happens to you every now and then on the water. You're not alone, I promise. Many fly anglers do this regularly, and the reason they get themselves in this situation is because they're letting go of the fly line in their rod hand when they set the hook. You can completely eliminate this problem on the water if you make sure you keep a solid grip on the fly line with you ..read more

By Louis Cahill An energized fly line is crucial for a good cast and a good presentation. The act of casting a fly line is really just a matter of transferring energy. We often use the word throw, as in, "Throwing big streamers," but that isn't an accurate description of what we're doing. Hopefully not anyway. Fly lines don't careen through the air like a golfball. They unroll in tight graceful loops. Right? It's the difference in particle motion and wave motion. We can hit a golfball pretty accurately but once that ball leaves the club we are out of the equation. We no longer influence it's t ..read more

Tarpon fishing at dusk, is probably one of the toughest times of the day for a saltwater fly fisherman to get a hook up. With the sun low in the horizon, it puts 80% or more of the water in complete glare. The only good viewing area left to spot cruising fish is just a small circle of water surrounding the boat. Anglers need to be ready to make super quick shots at fish if they want to have any chance at all of getting an eat. Check out these three fishing tips I learned from fishing with Capt. Joel Dickey. Tip #1 - Reel up all that excess fly line on the Reel This isn't the time to have all o ..read more

As we work through fall, and move our way into the winter months, midges will start making up a higher percentage of a trout's daily diet. Midges may lack the high caloric value of their larger aquatic friends, but they more than make up for it with their year-round availability, and high densities on the water. Veteran trout bums understand the important role that midges play, especially as a mainstay food source for late fall and winter trout. Tiny midges don't pack a lot of weight on trout, but they do supplement trout enough to help slow up winter weight loss, until the smorgasbord of food ..read more

By Jason Tucker This is a question that pops up every week wherever social media may be found and a lot of times the answer you get is “NO!” But it’s not that simple so I’m going to offer you some pros, cons and tips including cautionary nuggets from my own experience. I would encourage most fly anglers to get into fly tying with some caveats. If you’re getting into fly fishing you may have noticed the price of flies- around $2 a pop for even a simple egg pattern, and quickly climbing. Most well-tied dries will run $3-$5 and those beautiful big pike and muskie patterns can run up to $24 a fly ..read more