Another year is in the books, our fourteenth. As is our annual custom, we're taking a look back at which Hatch Magazine stories captivated readers the most this past year. Typically, the most read stories are a healthy mix of gear-focused coverage, tips and HOWTO pieces, conservation journalism, and plain old fly fishing stories. This past year was no exception with reader favorites ranging from talk of fly rods, fly lines, and books, to climate change impacts on fish populations, wild trout, fly casting, as well as some very unwelcome, somber news.
- Review: The Believer by David Coggins
- Ask the instructors: A fly fishing Q&A
- Scientific anglers debuts all-new Magnitude clear fly lines
- Orvis intros 4th generation Helios fly rods
- Junk shop fly rod
- 50 million anglers
- The truth about false casting
- Have we taken our love for native trout too far?
- More Pacific salmon are showing up in Arctic waters
- Beloved author John Gierach passes away at 78
David Coggins' most recent book, The Believer has been one of the best selling fly fishing-related books of 2024. Given how well Coggins' latest offering has been received, it should come as no surprise that James Joiner's review of the book has been one of the most read stories of the past go-round.
When you assemble a wealth of knowledge like that of the instructors at the School of Trout — folks like Bob White, Tom Rosenbauer, Kirk Deeter, Todd Tanner, Hilary Hutcheson, Tim Romano, Pat McCabe, Karlie Roland, Jeff Currier, Craig Mathews, Brant Oswald, Steve “Mac” McFarland and John Juracek — for a series of questions on all things fly fishing, you're going to have more than a few people eager to hear their answers.
Clear fly lines aren't new, but Scientific Angler's first serious foray into the arena is and their new Magnitude clear lines — which promise to finally offer anglers a transparent line without all the usual tradeoffs — piqued a lot of anglers' interest.
Orvis's latest incarnation of its flagship Helios rods was a highly anticipated release and anglers were unsurprisingly eager to learn the details of these new rods, especially given the Vermont-based company's bold claims about accuracy and performance.
"God it was ugly. An ancient fiberglass fly rod leaned awkwardly in the forgotten corner of a vintage/junk shop. It looked like a seven-footer; clearly home-built by someone either just learning their craft or perhaps giving up on it. Uneven wraps and too few guides clung to a rust-colored blank. A dozen grimy cork rings had started to unglue, losing their battle to stay unified as a grip. I picked up the rod ..."
Climate change is in the headlines constantly these days and anglers are seeing its impacts on the water with increasing frequency. When some of fly fishing's most prominent personalities assembled on film to send anglers a message about those impacts, readers listened.
Celebrated casting instructor John Juracek has a message for anglers about the conventional wisdom regarding false casting: it might not be very wise.
Certainly the most controversial story of 2024 and one of the most hotly debated stories ever published in Hatch Magazine, Chris Hunt's musings on whether we should begin to embrace wild trout even when they swim in waters where they are non-native produced visceral reactions from readers.
For years now, pink, chum and even sockeye salmon have turned up in subsistence fishing catches by natives in the northern Yukon and Northwest Territories. But, until recently, these catches were considered rare and credited simply to fish that literally got lost at sea. But new research by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Fisheries and Oceans Canada suggests that climate-driven circumstances are providing an avenue for the expansion of Pacific salmon into western Canada at an increasing rate.
2024's most read story was also its saddest. The fly fishing community lost one of its most celebrated authors and personalities this past year when beloved author John Geirach passed away. Anglers across the world lamented John's passing, mostly by sharing stories and personal anecdotes on how his work impacted their lives and their angling. John will be sorely missed, but thankfully we'll all have his prolific life's work to revisit time and again.
Comments