Articles

The Silent Spotter: Fly fishing films are good again

A different kind of fly fishing hero

by Chad Shmukler - Tuesday, Jan 7th, 2025

Photo: Arian Stevens.

If Off the Grid Studio’s newest film, The Silent Spotter, is a tale of things to come, then I’m happy to report that fly fishing films are good again. If reading that leaves you scratching your head, thinking to yourself that fly fishing films have been good all along, I’ve got news for you: no, they haven’t. Yes, there are exceptions. And I’ve missed more than a few.

Book Review: Calling After Water

A fun, yet serious, book

by Spencer Durrant - Monday, Jan 6th, 2025

Photo: Hatch Magazine.

Writing well about fly fishing isn’t easy. To pull it off, you have to avoid the usual tropes and clichés and you can’t afford to come off pretentious. That’s a difficult line to walk, because while our own experiences are important and dignified to us, will they matter to anyone else?

A northern Rockies adventure

Fly-out fishing the wilds of British Columbia

by Chris Hunt - Wednesday, Jan 1st, 2025

Photo: Earl Harper.

It shouldn’t have been as easy as it was, but, considering how few flies these massive rainbows see over the course of a season, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Sure, the river looks plenty fishy, and its features are Rocky Mountain-typical: long runs, undercut banks and then a stretch of aquarium-clear water that flows quietly among the willows until it dumps into one of several lakes as it courses south and west. But, as the first sizable, deeply striped rainbow gulped a size 12 Adams cast kind of nonchalantly to the bank, I did a double take.

Review: Winston Pure 2 fly rod

Will Winston's new incarnation of its dry fly specialist please light line aficionados?

by Spencer Durrant - Friday, Dec 27th, 2024

Photo: Spencer Durrant.

The first time I cast a Pure 2 was a blustery spring day in Twin Bridges, Montana. I was there to interview Hank Haen, Winston’s new Design and Manufacturing Engineer, for my podcast (everyone has a podcast these days). When we finished, he casually asked if I wanted to cast a “sweet little prototype rod” he’d been working on.

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