Articles

Final 2014 Photo Contest Reminder: 1 Week Left

by Ben Kryzinski - Friday, Oct 24th, 2014

Each year, come October, we start beating the photo contest drums pretty loudly. The reason is simple: each year we offer a list of prizes comprised some of the best fly fishing gear our there -- and this year is our biggest year yet by far -- and we want to make sure we reach as many readers as possible to insure that everyone gets a crack at it. And, there's more in it for us that just getting to give away some truly killer gear. In the process of doing so each year, we get to assemble a great collection of fly fishing photographs for everyone to ogle for years to come.

Only one week remains to enter your best fly fishing photographs in our 2014 photo contest for a chance at over $3,000 in prizes from Orvis, Smith Optics, Cheeky Fly Fishing and Scientific Anglers. If you haven't entered yet, or haven't entered your limit of 5 photographs, head to the official contest page to do so.

Rig Up Faster with Loon's New Rigging Foams

by Ben Kryzinski - Thursday, Oct 23rd, 2014

Loon Outdoors Rigging Foams

We've written plenty about the idea of slowing down while on the water, praising patience, thoughtfulness and observation. And while we stand by these recommendations, the simple fact remains that flies which aren't in the water can't catch fish. Given such, we all still strive to maximize the time we spend fishing. Loon Outdoors' latest product, its new Rigging Foams, is designed with that goal in mind, seeking to help you get more of your flies into the water, more often.

Rigging Foams are simple accessories that are built to allow you to tote along pre-rigged fly combinations in an organized, easy-to-handle manner. Whether you pre-rig multi-nymph rigs, dry dropper rigs, multi-dry rigs or whatever else your pleasure is, the rigging foams provide a stackable, re-usable organization system to store your pre-rigged fly setups in a tangle-free manner and access them quickly and easy when you're ready to start fishing them.

5 Tips for Better Streamer Fishing

by Chad Shmukler - Monday, Oct 20th, 2014

Photo: A.J. Swentosky

Once anglers achieve success with streamers, they often focus intently on fishing big flies. The reason is simple and well known: big flies catch big fish. There's also a rush that comes with streamer fishing that doesn't come with other brands of fly fishing. Streamer fishing is distinctly different than dry fly fishing and nymphing and in most respects is more dynamic and varied terrain. Unlike these other tactics where following a few basic rules can lead to consistent success, the streamer fisherman needs to approach the water with a more predatory, evaluative eye in order to produce results.

Streamer fishing is about the world of swimming prey. Whether that prey is smaller trout, baitfish such as minnows, sculpins, leeches or something else entirely -- it swims. And imitating a swimming creature requires a different skill set and approach than imitating a drifting or floating one. Beginner streamer anglers will often try to apply the rules of the dry fly and nymphing worlds to that of the streamer fishing world and end up frustrated when the results don't come.

Hawks and Doves

by Todd Tanner - Friday, Oct 17th, 2014

As the elections of 2014 approach, I have a question for you. Are you a hawk or a dove?

Hawks are vigilant, passionate and protective. They tackle problems head-on and advocate for strong, direct action. That’s true across the board, whether we’re talking about military hawks, fiscal hawks, foreign policy hawks, deficit hawks or conservation hawks.

Doves usually fly in the other direction. They’d rather discuss a problem than do something concrete about it. They want to study a situation, and then, once they’ve studied it, study it some more. They’re worried about the possible consequences of their actions, and they almost always favor a more passive approach.

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