American Fly Fishing

Departments

Sarasota Snook, FL

By Mark B. Hatter

Captain Ladd Stevens cut the engine 100 yards from the target, jumped to the poling platform, and pushed into the current, telling Jon Robertson, “Grab the 7-weight with the shrimp fly.” To me he...

Goldie

By Kip Vieth

It is nice when everything comes together. New fly patterns usually arise from efforts to solve an angling mystery or conundrum often born from frustration. On days when fish after fish refuses...

Threadfin Shad: A Movable Feast

By Pete Elkin

Dorosoma petenense. Can we be honest here—yet another dusty Latinate pretension for a common baitfish? Just as I reached for the mental snooze , part of the genus tag nudged an old memory of...

Capture Your Catch

By Joe Janiak

Between print publications and the rise of blogs, e-zines, and social media sites like Instagram and Facebook, fish photography is ubiquitous. And nearly every angler carries a camera whether a...

Evolution of the American Trout Fly

By Mike Valla

Mary Dette told me recently, “We found some things in our basement, after the flood. They’re pretty caked in mud, but they will surely...”

Croton, Hardy, and Rogers Ponds, MI

By Kevin Feenstra

Michigan’s famous Muskegon River is widely known for its steelhead, salmon, and resident trout. The glamorous stretch of the river, from Croton...

Masters of the Bench: Russ Hampton

By Steve Schweitze

It’s a good thing the world is two-thirds salt water, because without it, Russ Hampton would have to find another hobby. The variety of fly fishing...

Rapid River and Lakewood Camps, ME

By King Montgomery

Maine hosts dozens of sporting camps, some more than a century old. And some of these storied waters that gave up 10-pound-plus brook trout in...

Fish Food: Hexagenia

By Bob Linsenman

Some considerable number of years ago, I was driving eastward through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and listening to a local outdoor radio host review the fishing prospects for Lake Gogebic and...

Bowman Creek, PA

By Tom Gilmore

Bowman Creek flows through the North Mountain range in Pennsylvania’s Luzerne and Wyoming Counties. Though popular with anglers from the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre region, this productive...

Penobscot River, ME

By King Montgomery

The West Branch Penobscot River begins its journey just above Moosehead Lake and ends 50 miles later in the river’s main stem near Medford...

Early Stoneflies

By Don Roberts

Early-season stonefly hatches are more about what they’re not than about what they are. This is not the time to go online and madly scroll through vaunted, seasonally prescribed fly patterns. Nor is it the...

Sea Isle City, NJ

By Pete Barrett

Southern New Jersey’s pristine coastal marshes are an amazing contrast to the densely populated suburbia of its northern counties and nearby Philadelphia and New York City. Looking west...

Innovative Fly Tier: Blane Chocklett

By Beau Beasley

I’m a veteran paramedic, which means that I’m the guy you want by your side when you’re having a heart attack. Whereas others panic in a crisis, I...

Green Drakes

By Jene Hughes

Green Drake. The name looms larger than life in fly-fishing insect lore. In the past two years alone, Green Drakes have appeared in 50 articles I’ve edited, even though their hatches...

Winter Trout, GA/NC/SC/TN

By Bill R. Chiles

By the time Christmas rolls around, many streams in trout country are locked up in snow and ice, or the air is so frigid that fly lines freeze in midcast like a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Innovative Fly Tier: Garner Reid

By Nick Carter

What is familiar can grow mundane. Sometimes creating a little separation from the commonplace can be like kneeling down to blow on smoldering embers.

Soaring Eagle Lodge

Bounty on the San Juan River, New Mexico
By Toner Mitchel

One of the most significant moments of Larry Johnson’s life occurred on a bluebird autumn day in Farmington, New Mexico.