This conversation is all about luck on the water. Do we rely on it? Do we surrender to it? Do we look for it? From the beginning, luck and fishing were intertwined. It became part of our anglers’ lore. And while good luck has surely saved countless fishing trips, bad luck continues to doom the best laid plans of a fisherman.
This Troutbitten Skills Series and these platforms are an effort to pass along the idea that fly selection doesn’t have to be regimented or complicated. Instead, see flies for what they have in common. Find their similarities rather than their differences. Choose the elements that matter most to you. Find the components of a fly that create enough of a distinction to be the keys to a platform, and build around that idea.
It’s time for the big-meal dry fly platform: hoppers and stoneflies. With this platform, we substitute subtlety for buoyancy. Hackle is traded in for rubber legs, and dubbing is often replaced by closed-cell foam. In this episode, we break down this big-meal platform. We’ll look at a parts list, cover some pros and cons about material choices, and look at the particulars of the platform itself.
A dry fly emerger is one that has part of the fly underneath the surface. It’s a highly effective form (meaning tout eat it) because it matches the most vulnerable state of things that trout see.
In this episode we cover the dry fly platform of emergers. We look at what they are, how and why to use them and the differences in styles within this platform. We cover some history about how emerger design got to this point and what the future might hold.
On Saturday, March 28th, Troutbitten will host a live podcast at New Trail Brewing Company in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Join us for good times and an important conversation. With your ticket purchase, your first drink is on the house, and we have a sticker for you. Also, part of the proceeds benefit Clearwater Conservancy. Here are the details . . .
The Troutbitten Podcast is available everywhere that you listen to your podcasts. ** Note ** The Podcast Player, along with links to your favorite players is below. We’re here to talk about approaching the river — approaching the trout — to put our boots in the best...
Fly tying is more popular than ever. With the prevalence of high quality materials and excellent videos showing how to build flies, more fly anglers choose to tie their own patterns than ever before.
All of us at Troutbitten have been tying our own flies from the beginning, so we each have preferences for the tools we use. That’s what this podcast episode is all about. We discuss the essentials, like vise, scissors and a bobbin, along with some other tools and gear that each of us considers invaluable for tying materials to a hook.
The tools come first. And the quality of those tools can either help or hinder the process . . .
We’re here to clear the air about common myths in fly fishing. These misunderstandings change the way people fish, often without reason.
Most of what we bring up is well engrained into the fly fishing field of knowledge. Basically, most of you out there listening will have heard nearly everything we bring up. Maybe too, you’ll have a different take on things, and some of these won’t be myths to you at all. That’s good. Because you really should trust yourself and your own time on the water more than anyone else.
I asked Devin to go in deep about competition nymphing styles, while specifically considering the rules and restrictions imposed on competitors. We consider whether those rules about flies and leader restrictions are helpful or hurtful for the common angler . . .
The Troutbitten Shop Early Winter Sale ’25 is here, with all leaders, hats, stickers and apparel back in stock.
For our State of the Union 2025, my wife, Becky, joins me for a lighthearted look at what’s going on in the Troutbitten world. We talk about the upcoming leader sale in the Troutbitten Shop (December 1st). We talk about the book, the In Deep series, podcast plans, shop changes, a live podcast event, a Troutbitten Film Festival and the the New Trail Troutbitten beer.
Becky and I also read a few listener comments.