Spring Issue on Stands Now!
The Spring issue of Fly Fusion is now available on newsstands, and it arrives with a clear purpose: Season Opener: Solving Spring’s Toughest Trout. This issue leans into the nuance of early-season fishing, where success is rarely accidental and often earned through attention to detail, timing, and restraint. From Gary Borger’s reflective journey in First Season, which traces how early encounters shape an angler for life, to Jim McLennan’s Please, Sweat the Small Stuff, readers are reminded that spring rewards precision over force. April Vokey highlights the overlooked window of opportunity in The Quiet Advantage of Spring, while Frank Brassard challenges convention in When a Fly Learns to Breathe, exploring how movement and imperfection can outfish technical perfection.
Beyond the core features, the issue is layered with insight across every corner of the sport, from stillwater strategies to fly tying, culture, and conservation. It is a season defined by transition, where trout behavior, water conditions, and angler mindset all shift at once. This issue is built to meet that moment, offering not just tactics, but perspective. Pick up your copy on newsstands now and step into the season with a sharper eye and a more thoughtful approach.
The Best Cast of My Fly-Fishing Life
By Al “Doc” Mehl
All things considered, when it comes to casting a fly, my school chum Chuck Monninger was the best I’ve ever known. Even though it’s been 50 years, I still remember one Chuck Monninger cast like it was yesterday. On East Elk Creek in western Colorado, Chuck was demonstrating fly casting to our mutual friend (and then-novice fly angler) Bear Miller.
Kirk Deeter's Lesson on Presentation
By Kirk Deeter
Excerpt from the winter issue: “Presentation. Well, that’s simple. Trout like to eat insects that are hapless and drifting at the whim of the river current. The dun dry fly has just shed its shuck and is most vulnerable as it dries its wings before taking off. You must spoon-feed those duns to trout, and even a bit of subtle micro-drag can kill your chances. Likewise, spinners have mated, fallen and are essentially dead when they hit the water. Trout know this. Spinners should drift at the whims of the currents.
Orvis Introduces the Ratio Reel
The Ratio Reel is built for moments when big fish enter the ring and the outcome matters. The carbon-stainless drag system has precision-engineered surfaces that deliver smooth, consistent pressure with zero startup inertia.
Birthdays and Boat Ramps
By Derek Bird
I’m always a little stressed when I pull up to the boat ramp with my dad. I’m eager to get my gear set up, and in doing so, I’m trying to avoid as many people as possible. My dad, however, appears to be there to connect with as many people as possible. To be sure, he loves fly fishing, but he might love talking about it with random strangers even more. Read More
On Candy Bars, Fly Fishing, and the People Who Shape Our Sport
The fly-fishing world is filled with incredible people who believe in the sport and what it does for the soul.
Some are well known. Others work diligently behind the scenes.
They are the people running CNC machines late at night, the engineers designing and building the gear, the marketing geniuses who create the memorable ads, videos and stories that bring it all to life.
A Fishable Feast: Fly Fishing and Eating Your Way Around the World
A Fishable Feast: Fly Fishing and Eating Your Way Around the World is more than a fly-fishing book.
From crystal-clear trout streams to sunlit saltwater flats, untamed jungles and rushing mountain rivers, this beautifully crafted volume by acclaimed author Kirk Deeter and Matthew Supinski explores the cultures, cuisines, geography and history that make fly fishing such a rich and meaningful pursuit.
Featuring a foreword by Tom Rosenbauer, the book blends storytelling, destination and culinary exploration into a global celebration of the angling life.
Kirk Deeter's Lesson on Fighting Fish
By Kirk Deeter
Excerpt from the winter issue: “A seasoned guide is used to saying things like ‘tip up’ and ‘let ‘em run’ over and over again. And in most cases, that’s really solid advice, in so much as the goal is to avoid having the fish make a run and break you off. But the truth is that a 9-foot fly rod is a lever that helps the fish as much as it helps the angler.
The Old Man and Me
By Derek Bird
There’s a scene in “The Equalizer” starring Denzel Washington where his character, Robert McCall, is sitting in a late-night diner and he’s reading Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” A young lady looks over and sees McCall reading the novella and says, “He ever catch it? The fish.”
McCall chuckles and says, “Yes.”
She says, “Happy ending.”
McCall replies, “Not exactly.”
Then he explains that after he fights the fish, the old man ties it to the boat to bring it back to shore but sharks come and eat the giant marlin before he can get back to shore.
The young lady replies, “What a waste…why didn’t he just let the fish go?”
McCall responds, “The old man’s gotta be the old man. Fish gotta be the fish. Gotta be who you are in this world, right?”
Six Wet Flies to Swing with Confidence
By Skip Morris
The Attractor-Fly Angle
On the first count, that flies must always resemble the natural feed of fish, innocent elemental logic (so, teenage logic) was at work. That logic does add up: Want a fish to eat your fly? Make your fly look like what that fish eats. What I didn’t yet understand is that fish have little regard for logic or for fly fishers’ adamant beliefs; consequently, attractor flies really do work. Under the right circumstances (which I can only ever determine by trying one) attractor flies can far out-fish imitative flies, can be simply deadly. These right circumstances are, in my experience, fairly common. And one such deadly attractor is the elegant Alexandra. —Excerpted from the Summer 2025 issue of Fly Fusion.
Morris makes the case clearly: sometimes suggestion, motion, and presence outperform strict imitation. When trout refuse the dead drift but continue to show, a swung wet can change everything.
Here are six classic patterns, from bold attractors to quiet naturals, that deserve a place in your swing rotation.
SITKA Launches Fish Collection
SITKA officially stepped into the world of fly fishing this month with the launch of SITKA Fish.
Known for building system-driven hunting apparel, the well-known Bozeman-based brand is applying that same technical discipline to the water. The new gear launch centers on a focused lineup built around quality and the realities of fishing hard across a full season.
Abel’s Most Advanced Reel Yet
Abel Reels has released their first all-new reel since 2021’s Rove, and it marks their biggest push yet into high-capacity, large-arbor performance for fresh and saltwater. The SDX is their largest, fastest, and most advanced reel, designed for anglers chasing permit, tarpon, GT, steelhead, salmon, and bluewater species like tuna and marlin. It is not a casual upgrade. It is a purpose-built tool for moments when everything is on the line.