Ben Kryzinski's blog

Ever come back from a weeklong fishing trip excited to show everybody all of the wonderful photos you took, only to find that none of them look quite the way you expected them to? Don't worry, you're not alone. The ability to capture the moment on the water with your camera isn't about how fancy (and expensive) your camera is, it is about having the right skill set. Photographers make pictures, not cameras.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday, over the last decade or so, have evolved from above-average sale events to firestorms of buying and selling where store goers clamor for some of the best deals and prices of the year. They've become veritable consumer holidays, where all other pursuits are set aside and attention is turned almost solely to purchasing. But with the growth of these consumer bonanzas, the landscape has become increasingly crowded and difficult to navigate, and having a game plan before setting out can be the secret to success.

Soda Butte Creek in Yellowstone National Park is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful trout streams in the entire world. Throughout its reaches, anglers can fish for cutthroat and cutthroat-rainbow hybrid (cuttbow) trout, and its upper reaches holds brook trout that rise eagerly to dry flies. Soda Butte is a healthy, vibrant fishery. But the presence of brook trout, an invasive species, has many worried for the troubled, native Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

For many of us, digital image capture has become an integral part of our outdoor excursions, whether to fish, hike, bike or what have you. This is due mostly to technological advancements that have made image capture cheaper, simpler and more affordable. And each of these technological these leaps has forever changed the way we record and share the memories we create when we're out in the wild. The latest of these -- even if it is more of a hop than a leap -- may be the Lily Camera which, since its introduction a few weeks ago, has made a massive splash.

If you're compulsive about filling out March Madness brackets and a fisherman, Cheeky Fly Fishing may have mixed up your all time favorite cocktail. Cheeky's fifth annual March Madness: Road to the Final Fish pits 64 different species of fish against each other in a college hoops-style bracket and gives entrants a chance predict which fish will end up in the sweet sixteen, elite 8, final four and so on down to the "final fish." As in past year, Cheeky will donate all proceeds from the event to benefit The Bonefish and Tarpon Trust and Casting for Recovery.

Up for grabs for the entrants with the best brackets is a horde of prizes from the likes of Patagonia, Sage, Fishpond, YETI, Post Fly, Kast, Loon Outdoors, Montana Fly Company, Kast, ARC, a whole host more and, of course, Cheeky Fly Fishing. Prizes range from big things like rods and reels to smaller items like boxes of flies and apparel.

For years, we've been building our own loops into sink tips via whipped loops, allowing us to hit trout and steelhead streams with sink tips of many different weights and lengths. Typically, we use different colored thread to help distinguish tips of different weights. The loops are relatively easy to build and when reinforced with UV knot sense are actually quite strong. While these loops have generally worked well, they often don't turn out as nice and neat as we'd like, and the thread wraps take a beating over time and have failed on us on more than one occasion. The alternative to whipped loops is welded loops which, while many anglers think can only be created by the manufacturer at the factory, can actually be made very easily at home.

A new video by RIO highlights the process and, with RIO's recent addition of colored (by weight) InTouch Level T sink tip material, has us a bit giddy about the idea of revamping our sink tip arsenal with vast array of color-coded tips in varying lengths with neat, manufacturer-quality welded loops.

Earlier this week, we announced via social media the prizes for the second week in our 5 Weeks of Fly Fishing Stocking Stuffers giveaway. For those of you that missed the details on social media, this week we'll be giving away a set of Goat Head Gear Sole Spikes to five winning anglers.

If you're not familiar with Sole Spikes, now is a particularly good time of year to remedy that. Sole Spikes are perhaps best though of as premium wading boot studs without the premium price tag and paltry stud count that typically accompanies packs of high-end studs. With winter conditions setting in across the country, wading conditions have become treacherous not only in our streams but increasingly so along their banks. So, if your boots aren't already studded up, they probably should be.

One of the lesser known features here on Hatch Magazine is the ability to buy prints of any of the photos we showcase here and adorn your home with some beautiful fly fishing art. Or, better yet, if you're looking for a fly fishing gift that will be appreciated for many years to come, this may be it. And we're not talking about junky prints. These are meant to be permanent pieces of art in your home, office, fly shop or whatever you'd like to decorate with great fly fishing art. Each of the photos we showcase is available as a standard print, large poster, fine art photographic print, a canvas gallery wrap and more -- all printed on high quality papers, canvas, frames and more by the experts at Bay Photo.

To browse the available printing/purchase options, just head to our photography section and browse any of our recent photography collections, such as the examples above which are from Matt Jones' collection titled "In Search of the Golden Dorado". As you view each collection, you'll see a shopping cart option in the upper right hand corner on your screen. Simply click on the shopping cart to see all of the available buying options including examples of what your selected photo will look like when printed.

This year's photo contest is by far our biggest yet, with over $3,000 in prizes up for grabs. The grand prize winner will walk away with a big prize pack that includes an Orvis Helios 2 fly rod, a Cheeky Fly Fishing reel, a pair of Smith Optics ChromaPop sunglasses and a Scientific Anglers Sharkwave fly line. Three other winners will also take home a mix of prizes from Cheeky, Smith and Scientific Anglers.

Perhaps the best part of all the prizes - including the grand prize winning pack -- is that the winners can customize them as they see fit. Looking to put a bonefish outfit together? Pair the Orvis Helios 2 8-weight with Cheeky's Mojo 425 reel, a Scientific Anglers Sharkwave saltwater line and a pair of Smith Optics ChromaPop sunglasses with blue mirror lenses designed to perform on the flats. Or maybe it's time to refresh your trout setup, or build a roosterfish arsenal? You can do that too.