Articles

Tips for tying tiny flies

Why going really small is sometimes necessary and how to tie the flies to do it

by Spencer Durrant - Monday, Jan 10th, 2022

Photo: Ryan McCullough

As any angler should know, we’re in a business where size matters. We’re taught that streamers the size of mops (sometimes the entire mop) are a necessity if you’re after monster trout. Dainty dry flies are for eager, happy cutthroat and brook trout tucked away in mountain streams. The mid-sized flies are the nympher’s domain, all sleek and streamlined to sink quickly and stay in the strike zone for the longest time possible. If that’s all an angler knew about fly sizes, they’d be in good shape. Those flies do their job, and for that reason, they’re the most popular.

Natural movement

And why it matters to your fishing

by Todd Tanner - Saturday, Jan 8th, 2022

Photo: Earl Harper / Harper Studios.

It wasn’t there, and then it was; an electric blue flash out on the far horizon. The ocean’s surface was dark and relatively smooth under a bright mid-day sun, while the lighter blue sparkle was so tiny that it was literally hard to see. We were standing on the deck of a beach-side house high up over the Pacific, watching the swimmers and surfers down below us, when that blue flicker first caught my eye.

Scratching the silver itch

Sometimes the run comes, sometimes it doesn't

by Chris Hunt - Thursday, Jan 6th, 2022

Photo: Chris Hunt

The waterlogged, wrist-thick cedar branch probably came to rest on the gravel bar as the tide retreated. It’s a big tide on Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island — 15-foot fluctuations between high and low aren’t unheard of. But there it sat, this salt-soaked branch coated in sea slime and a few barnacles. It was heavy and sturdy. Just what I needed. I lifted the branch—about the size of a police baton—and brought it down swiftly on the head of the silver salmon I’d spent the last 20 minutes fighting, killing the fish instantly.

Dinner.

The double haul

Questions and answers

by John Juracek - Tuesday, Jan 4th, 2022

Photo: John Juracek

I spend a lot of time teaching fly casting, and the double haul frequently arises among students as a topic of discussion and questions. Many of the questions are ones that arise time and again. So, for anglers that might be wondering about the double haul and whether it’s worth incorporating into their fishing, here are some answers.

The 10 most read articles of 2021

Reader favorites from the past year

by Hatch Magazine - Sunday, Jan 2nd, 2022

Photo: Earl Harper / Harper Studios.

Remember when 2020 came to a close? When most of us eagerly put that pandemic-spiked year into the rearview mirror with zeal, assuming that 2021 would mark a return to all things normal? When we'd gather with friends, return to traveling the country and the globe, and work and play just as we had before a novel coronavirus showed up and turned life upside down? Well, that didn't exactly go to plan. But, at the same time, it didn't entirely not go to plan, either. Life did begin to return to normal—even if it happened more gradually than most of us would have liked or expected.