AT News: The Stoics Would Have Loved Fly Fishing
In teaching others, we teach ourselves.
Flies That Flutter
Last week over at the Skwala Lounge, Kelly Galloup was spinning Madison River yarns about a giant shop trout that beached itself trying to eat a water snake (or maybe it was a western terrestrial garter): “This thing just starts smashing his head into the rocks. He looks like he’s trying to kill himself. A water snake comes out of the rock he’s smashing, and that fish chased it out of the water. He dry docked himself. You know how you see killer whales do that?”
No, they couldn’t catch the brown in the following weeks, even with an articulated, 17-inch fly. And that’s the thing about really big, apex fish–they never do exactly what you think they’ll do, even when running through your entire catalog of options. You learn this lesson as a guide and through many years of painful on-water lessons.
These enormous creatures don’t get this way by acting like everything else in the river.
Loss Is the Prerequisite for Winning
Back in the early 2000s when I used to spend a lot more time knocking on neighbors’ doors in South Park and fishing hidden creeks with my son, we had a favorite ranch on the Platte where the river meanders its way through a valley of beaver ponds, cottonwood bottoms and overgrown hay meadows. The fish are wild and respectable and, every so often, astonishingly large.
If you hit it perfectly, late June was a great time to find (slightly) off-colored water, mid-day drakes and every fish in the stretch looking up. On one of these bluebird afternoons, Charlie and I had worked our way through the lower end of the property, finding an eager-to-voracious mix of fish in all the places you’d expect: drafting cutbanks, sweepers and the occasional piece of discarded farm equipment.
The lower river also has one run in particular that I always saved for my son, because it had all the characteristics of a (bigger) fish lair: bumpy water, deeply undercut banks, lots of wood at the tailout and overhanging trees. A clean inside gravel bar also removed a sizable portion of the casting and fish-landing challenges for an athletic, but still learning, eleven-year-old. This is the run Bob White paints to hang above your mantle and titles “Moneymaker.”
As we crept up to the foot of the run, there was a slightly sterile and disconnected feel about the water–bugs were everywhere, but not a single fish was picking off the drakes. Because no one had fished here in forever, it was nearly impossible to believe it was fishing pressure. We basically were the fishing pressure during a few weeks every summer.
To add insult to injury, I could even see risers in the run above. Charlie wondered, “Where are the fish?” and I replied, “Someone either dropped Rotenone in the river by accident, or there’s one big fish. And he’s never eating a dry fly, unless it’s a hopper or beetle. We’re going to feed him something he wants and has never seen.”
That’s always the apex predator plan.
So, I pulled off the dry fly leader, Duncan looped three-and-a-half feet of 12-pound tippet, greased the fly line and dug out a fly I’d never used before in Colorado. I told Charlie, “Cast it to the top of the run, right in the middle, and let it sink and flutter. When it stops, hit it. That’s all you have to do.” Charlie made the twenty-foot cast, let it sink and somewhere in the middle of the run the fly line stopped. I yelled strike, Charlie hit the fly and it stopped. He blurted out, “Snagged,” and then the snag turned downriver and headed for the wood.
The fish went directly into the sweepers, even amphibiously swimming over two or three logs to bury himself deeper in the bank. I also grabbed the fly rod to help stabilize the situation, but we were getting our asses kicked by a nine-pound brown. The fish thrashed under the bank, broke the fly clean off at the shank and it was over in six seconds. Charlie dropped the rod in the river, collapsed in the grass and started sobbing. After fifteen minutes of crisis management, I reeled up the line, got him cleaned up and called it a day.
On the drive home, and after he had time to collect himself, he asked, “Dad, how did you know that fish was there?” I said, “Sometimes, you just have to believe that anything is possible…”
Later that evening at the cabin, he still wondered, “Can we go back next week and find him?”
I don’t think he gets a do over, but sure, we can try…
Play the Hand You’re Dealt
I suspect the beauty and appeal of fly fishing, like so many other outdoor pursuits, arises from its ability to help construct a personal narrative around a lifetime of singular and irreplaceable moments, while also acting as a single thread that draws them together over time.
Summers with a child before they grow up and move on, an A-frame cabin you once owned, the neighbor’s ranch and river that was sold to an out-of-state developer–all are understood as the middle chapters in a long and winding story.
Friedrich Nietzsche, the well-known German philosopher and writer, spent some of his sizable brain power later in life mulling over a self-improvement concept that centered on the Latin phrase amor fati, which translates to “love of fate” or the “love of one’s fate.”
Predating the modern (wellness) concept of living in the moment by nearly 140 years, he argued that humans should reject the resignation, regret and bitterness that often arise in response to life’s many challenges, and accept (even enjoy) the cards you’ve been dealt. You weren’t put here to pay penance or endure punishment, and even if you do, your suffering and disappointments are more likely catalysts for growth.
“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it–all idealism is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary–but love it” – Friedrich Nietzsche 1
This is the Bill Belichick school of stoicism and NFL (entropy) training: bad play calls, weather, unexpected injuries, poor officiating are all going to occur and impact your game, whether you plan for it or not. The only thing you can control as a player is your reaction to the conditions and the speed at which you adapt.
Pull yourself up, dust off the uniform and get back in the game (in coachspeak).
We Just Have to Believe
When he wasn’t running Keeler Brass, my grandfather used to spend summers at a small log cabin overlooking the Baldwin River in Michigan, just upstream from the confluence with the Pere Marquette–some of the Lower Peninsula’s finest trout water back in the late 60s. He also was one of the greatest fly fishermen I have ever known.
I won’t spend any valuable time unpacking the history of his sporting life, but the reason he is still relevant today is more about the way he approached the process of fly fishing, and less about the hewn walls and doors he covered with giant wooden cutouts of the fish he took from the river. Unlike his brother, Cam Steketee, who filled his upstream cabin with expensive, exotic animals from every corner of the earth, my grandfather’s saw cuts were traced with pencil, trimmed from available plywood, memorialized with the fish length, fly, river and time of year, then nailed somewhere in the basement. They were there to read and consider, not lavish. The relevant details were retained, the affectations discarded.
On the water, he approached the rivers and fish with a similar self-discipline and utility. He only fished with a few fly rods, tied five patterns (an Adams, Female Adams, Joe’s Hopper, Hex spinner and Muddler Minnow), approached every run from downstream and only threw flies at feeding fish.
Of course, he had miles of the Baldwin and PM to himself and a handful of others, but the point is about how he had winnowed an approach to a highly complex problem–hooking large, nocturnal brown trout–down to the fewest number of variables. He understood that once you removed the discussion of rods, reels, lines and flies from the equation, the only thing left to consider was your cast, approach and the available conditions (weather and water). Finding fish was about hydrology and timing, hooking them was about honing skill, landing them was about experience.
He’s also one of the few anglers I’ve ever known who could “make a fish eat” out of thin air–or water, as it were. I’ve known a handful of others who’ve brushed up against the idea, but never in a pragmatic and predictable way. Maybe in his years of not thinking about the sterile mechanics of this sport, he was finding ways to pattern and hone the less visible clues to this largely unknowable mystery.
In today’s terms, you wouldn’t understand his process as luck or mysticism or magic; it’s probably easier to interpret as a study in the often private places we inhabit. He simply knew more than everyone else about these northern hardwood forests, because he was willing to strip away the everyday banalities and distractions back home and construct a singular point of reference around the river.
This wasn’t a place to socialize, daydream or lose yourself. It was a place to work and learn, a laboratory to test theories, an opportunity to deliberately carve the shape of a lifelong journey. 2 And all the knowledge, wisdom and humility that you built between the banks as the seasons passed were yours to hold or eventually hand down to others.
I think he would say, “In teaching, we teach ourselves.” And that was the point of it all. 3 – Andrew Steketee
Backeddy Wet Wading Socks
Skwala rolled out their Backeddy Wet Wading Socks ($59) this summer and they’re definitely worth the price of admission. It’s the little things that matter–like designing a smart pair of wading socks that drain reliably (or at all), fit ergonomically (for left and right) and are well built and durable. Made with 3mm perforated neoprene to drain water, so your feet and ankles “don’t marinate all day.” Brands that are well run generally deliver, or even overdeliver, with their more unassuming product offerings. I believe it was Charles Eames, the well-known designer and architect, who said, “The details are not the details. They make the design.” Well done. Everyone should grab a pair.
Recent News
Lack of water reality is settling in. From The LA Times: Trump administration releases long-awaited 10-year plan for dwindling Colorado River. “The Trump administration has released its long-awaited 10-year plan for dealing with worsening water shortages along the Colorado River. Instead of ordering the most drastic water cutbacks it could have imposed, the administration chose to take more of a wait-and-see approach. The plan allows for harsh water cuts if they’re deemed necessary, requiring California, Arizona and Nevada to cut up to 3 million acre-feet per year–up to 40% of the combined allotments. But as The Times reported last week, state and local officials say for the first two years, the Trump administration is accepting an offer the three states made to reduce what they take from the river by about half that amount–3.2 million acre-feet between now and the end of 2028. So the Southwest has for now, avoided the harshest possible water cuts.” There’s zero mention of climate change and what that means for year-to-year water retention, which should surprise no one. Nothing says transparent problem solving like kicking the can down the road for two years, so somebody else can clean up the mess.
Sci-fi water ideas (water harvesting) are becoming more relevant: Can Harvesting Water from the Air Solve the Global Water Scarcity Problem? “‘Imagine if there was an off-grid system that could produce 300,000 to 500,000 litres of water per day, in the desert, sourcing it only from the air,’ says Magnus Bach, VP of business development at technology company Atoco. ‘That would be pretty amazing.’ Aptly, Bach is outlining Atoco’s vision from the company’s offices in Dubai, UAE–one of the most water-scarce countries in the world, which also has one of the highest rates of consumption per capita. The company, according to Bach, is closing in on making its dream a reality. This summer, it plans to deploy 3m prototypes of its atmospheric water-harvesting technology in south-western US and the Middle East during a second testing phase, initially producing hundreds of litres of water daily from both on and off-grid machines.” Probably time to start thinking about how we can start to beta test some of these technologies in the arid west.
Omar Yaghi is definitely going to help solve climate change. Do you part and learn about MOFs (and COFs: covalent organic frameworks) from Omar and have your fragile eggshell minds melted…
More on water harvesting from the Financial Times: Home water harvesting is being supercharged by Nobel Prize-winning tech. “Ahbstra says its power lies in its use of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)–cutting-edge nano materials with a huge internal surface area which can, among a range of abilities, extract water from the air even at 10 per cent humidity, promises the company. Pioneering research into this ‘new form of molecular architecture,’ sometimes described as molecular Lego, won a trio of scientists the Nobel Prize last year. [Hashem] Arouzi and chief technology officer Richard Perkin explain how particle reactors within Ark’s eight drums cycle air through the MOFs to maximise performance and increase harvesting capabilities; four drums extract water, while the other four capture it. This is a nascent field; Ahbstra believes Ark is the first commercially available MOF-based water-harvesting solution on this scale–the only plug-and-play system on the market. Yet dozens of companies are in the race to monetise MOF tech. Atoco, founded by Omar Yaghi, one of the Nobel winners, is testing MOFs in both on and off-grid systems, the latter using waste heat from data centres or other sources of ambient thermal energy such as geothermal.”
From Amanda Eggert of the Montana Free Press: Mining Projects Could Shape the Headwaters of Iconic Montana Rivers. “Located about 90 miles to the southwest of Avon as the crow flies, the West Fork drainage of the Bitterroot River is a forested, steep and generally quiet pocket of the Bitterroot Basin popular with anglers and elk hunters. It’s also ground zero for a proposed rare-earth element mine generating a groundswell of local opposition due to a variety of concerns, ranging from polluted waterways to the potential that radioactive waste would be transported along a key travel corridor. Last December, an estimated 700 people packed into a meeting the Ravalli County Commission held to discuss the Sheep Creek project. Opposition to U.S. Critical Materials’ proposal was so intense that within four days of the meeting, U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke and U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy did something members of Montana’s all-Republican federal delegation rarely do: they urged the federal government to pump the permitting brakes. ‘Montana knows better than anyone there’s a right and wrong way to mine,’ Zinke said in a statement following the county commission meeting. ‘Fast tracking a mine with overwhelming public opposition and bypassing the mechanisms that allow for transparency and accountability is the wrong way to do it.’ Zinke and Sheehy argued Sheep Creek isn’t a good fit for the FAST-41 list given opposition from the Ravalli County Commission and other Bitterroot Valley residents. Still the project remains on the list, which confounds Philip Ramsey, manager of MPG Ranch and the unofficial point person for scientific analysis of the Sheep Creek project.”
Poor striper recruitment from ASGA: The Future of East Coast Striped Bass Fishing. “Spend enough time on social media during the 2026 striped bass migration and you’ll inevitably consume a dominant narrative: the striped bass fishing is better than it’s ever been! Massive trophy fish are being landed from New Jersey to Maine. Anglers are touting their once-in-a-lifetime trophy bass–and rightfully they should. The health of a fishery cannot be measured by a handful of memorable catches or a few weeks of exceptional fishing. Fisheries are built on age structure, recruitment, spawning success, and management decisions that often take years to reveal their consequences. A fishery like Atlantic striped bass relies on abundance and opportunity throughout the entire length of the coastwide migration spanning from the tributaries of Chesapeake Bay to northern Maine. Looking only at the largest fish while ignoring what ‘lies beneath the surface’ risks mistaking the final chapters of a successful generation for the beginning of a healthy future.”
From The Brand Report: Salomon Is Opening Flagships and Filling Foot Locker Walls. What does this have to do with fly-fishing brands? Everything, if you’re a legacy manufacturer or newcomer, trying to thread the needle between DTC and specialty retailer efforts. “The flagship program looks like a premium brand climbing; the Foot Locker launch looks like a technical brand cashing out its cool. Both readings assume a single ladder, with prestige at the top and reach at the bottom, and a brand that must pick a rung. Salomon’s July says it is not picking a rung. The flagships are the working end of a strategy with a name, its epicenter strategy: concentrate on a short list of culturally decisive cities and become part of each one’s culture, until mindshare in the places that set taste turns into demand everywhere else. The Foot Locker wall sits outside that strategy, as the channel built to convert the demand the epicenters manufacture. The name has a lineage, the mechanics are visible on the streets of New York right now, and the open question in the sequence is one every fast-growing premium brand will eventually face.” Sage, Winston and Scott aren’t headed to New York City, Los Angeles and Paris (fly fishing has different flagship epicenters), but the thinking is highly congruent.
Flylords ran an interview with new Winston owner Lance Robertson last week, and the social media reactions, when everyone found out he had spent a career in oil and gas, were mixed-to-vitriolic (that’s an understatement). From the interview: “To go from an oil and gas executive to owning Winston is quite the career change, but it’s exactly what Robertson wanted. ‘I get to learn all new things,’ Robertson said. ‘On a personal level, that was a big part of the motivation. I wanted to do one more thing, but I wasn’t sure what it’d be, because when I get way outside of my normal lane, that’s when I learn the most.’ After Robertson’s company was sold, he had both the time and means to be thoughtful about his next path. ‘My wife and I, prior to that sales process, had been working on where we wanted to spend our time when we retired,’ Robertson said. ‘I would say, for 15 years, we’d been drawn more and more into the Mountain West. We love the vistas, the fly fishing, we love the people in Montana. They’re just really normal, old-fashioned, family-values centered (people).’” The paint isn’t even dry on the hire and the “new” brand iteration is already being torn down by the torch and pitchfork crew. Let it play out and see where Winston lands in a few years on conservation, river access and public lands–they already make superb fly rods. Meanwhile, put the phones down, have a beer and grant the new leadership some room to breathe.
From Nick Mott and the Montana Free Press: Why the Fate of Salmonflies Offers Clues to the Future of Yellowstone Fisheries. “[Jackson] Birrell is one of the small smattering of scientists paying attention to the underwater entities we all tend to overlook, and how we can better grasp their little-understood plight. These bugs are a lens into the world of the unsung and the taken-for-granted, but also a much larger picture. Aquatic insect communities show us the history of abuse on our waterways, as climate change and development take their toll. According to the data Birrell is collecting, changes in these invertebrate populations in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem could portend monumental shifts in fisheries, economies and ecosystems. ‘On our fisheries, especially in Montana–the Madison, the Yellowstone, the Gallatin–the fishing is still awesome,’ Birrell says. ‘The bugs are still diverse, the hatches are still really good. But what we’re starting to see is early warning signals of more changes to come…’”
From Science on the Fly: Dr. Zhongqi Chen discusses climate change, fish adaptation and why a two-degree water temperature shift is a game-changer for wild trout. “One of my favorite fish is Columbia River Basin redband trout. I have spent many years working with and fishing for them, both in the lab and in the field. They are the inland form of rainbow trout. They have been heavily affected by human activities. Major dams have blocked many populations from reaching the ocean, while smaller dams have reduced habitat connectivity. Introduced rainbow trout have also caused hybridization in some places. But redband trout are also incredibly tough. Some live in high-desert rivers in places like Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada, where summer water temperatures can get very warm, close to the upper limits for salmonids. That makes them really interesting from a thermal tolerance perspective, which is what I am most interested in. They are also probably my favorite fly-fishing target. Part of that comes from fieldwork: my project took me into very remote desert river systems where most people would never expect to find trout. You look at the landscape on a 100°F day and think, ‘There can’t possibly be fish here,’ and then you find these beautiful native trout surviving in those harsh environments. That combination of physiology, conservation, and personal connection makes redband trout special to me.”
ASA has announced the results of their 2026 Special Report on Fishing. “In total, 57 million Americans, roughly 18% of the U.S. population, went fishing in 2025. While up nearly 25% from a decade ago, total participation is down from 57.9 million in 2024–the first year-over-year decrease since 2021. ‘In 2025, fishing continued to bring Americans together, connecting people to the outdoors, sustaining families and strengthening the communities and economies that depend on it,’ said ASA President and CEO, Glenn Hughes. ‘While trendline data still shows growth in the past decade, keeping anglers engaged in fishing continues to be a struggle, with 19 million people dropping from the sport in 2025–the highest rate of ‘churn’ on record.’” This is the identical retention data we highlighted a few weeks ago from Dan Coe at The Brand Report: Your Brand Doesn’t Have a Reach Problem. It Has a Frequency Problem.
Fly-fishing Media
Against Claudefishing. Chris Best, the CEO of Substack, is going down fighting over the prospect of AI infiltrating his precious ecosystem: “It’s getting harder to tell what’s real on the internet. This is less true on Substack, and we aim to keep it that way. As a first step, we’re launching a feature with Pangram in the Substack app today. Going forward, you’ll be able to scan text to see how much of it was likely written by hand or with AI assistance. More on that in a moment, but first let me explain why this matters. There is an increasing share of text on social media that is generated by AI–as much as 40% on some platforms, according to Pangram’s estimate. This is a big change. Many people complain their feeds are filled with soulless slop. Others don’t yet realize when they are reading something written by no one.” This is all fairly well intentioned, I guess, until you bump into cases of false positives, when real writing is being flagged as machined for any number of reasons (use of em dashes, citation formatting etc.). This happened to a few pieces we published last week, which were 100% human output. The “scan for AI text” product rollout feels like a poorly organized beta at this point, which is bad for media brands, writers and Substack. This would all be a lot easier if everyone simply wrote their own words. Is that too much to ask in 2026? And more on the Pangram CEO, Max Spero, and his co-founder, Bradley Emi, in the New York Times (courtesy of Matt Labash): “Pangram, an A.I. detection start-up, promises near-perfect accuracy in sniffing out writing and imagery that wasn’t made by humans. It’s raising some big questions along the way.”
Foster Huntington on the creative landscape for writers, photographers and filmmakers: “As cliché as it sounds, creativity–especially from a commercially viable perspective–is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s about creating a body of work, learning from your mistakes, adjusting, and moving on. I have very talented friends who are great sprinters creatively but get discouraged and look elsewhere. This is the really hard part, and it requires discipline. If you’re a writer, write every week. If you’re a filmmaker, force yourself to make films and put them out regularly. If you’re a photographer, always have a camera with you, and make sure to stop and take photos whenever that little part of your mind tells you to. A friend of a friend once rode a chairlift at a film festival in the Rockies with Werner Herzog and asked him what the one piece of advice he’d give a young filmmaker was. ‘Physical stamina. This business is all about stamina.’”
From Todd Tanner: How Far Should You Lead a Rising Trout? The answer is, of course, it all depends. “The faster the current, the more you need to lead the fish. If your fly lands 18 inches in front of a trout and the water is really moving, your fly will be past the fish before it has a chance to react. The opposite also applies, of course. In slower water, you can land your fly closer to the trout–as long as your cast doesn’t spook your quarry. In general, the deeper the water, the further upstream you need to cast. The fish has to see your fly, and then it has to have time to swim to the surface before it can take your fly. At the same time, the converse is also true. In shallower water, you can place your fly closer to the trout.”
Tom McGuane on the Wet Fly Swing Podcast: Dean River, Tarpon, Spey and a Writer’s Journey. “I was sort of a terrible student. I didn’t want to be indoors. And I really wanted to dedicate myself to either literature or fishing, or both at the same time, I hoped. And now that I can look back on many birthdays, I think I’m pretty happy with the fact that that’s what I’ve done with my life. I’ve fished and written–apart from the main things like family life, dog life and bird hunting, and all those other things that you can do. But those have been my passions, and that hasn’t changed.”
Bentley Zylstra of the Revelry Collection shoots a small, intimate film about his 71-year-old grandfather, John Allen: The Kenai River King. “Alaska is one of the last places in the United States where a person can pretty much be free and do what they want, most of the time.”
GT and F Series
We’ve been fishing a few stellar Scott Fly Rods this summer: the GT 8-foot 10-inch 6-weight and the F Series 6-foot 6-inch 3-weight (fiberglass). The F Series is an older rod, meant for brushy creeks, bank sippers and bow-and-arrow casts; the GT is a newer gun (yet, still with a ton of feel) for big dries, float trips in the wind, maybe a lake session. They cast and fight fish beautifully, but maybe more importantly, will make you slow down to achieve that finer stroke. These aren’t cheap fly rods ($695 and $1,095 respectively), but I’m sure if you calculate the value as a measurement of enjoyment + skill development per outing, they pay for themselves pretty quickly (and more so over time). You also could spend the same kind of hard-earned money on more marketed brands, but a bunch of these rods couldn’t cast their way out of a paper bag. Most people who fish Scotts, Winstons or if you’re lucky enough to get your hands on a Montana Brothers 9-foot 4-weight, never come back to the highly regurgitated pack.
Gear Buzz
Last week, we stopped by the Yakoda world headquarters in Louisville, CO to meet with co-founders Justin Fuller and Jason Faerman and to learn more about their American-made brand and core products. The Convertible Utility Pack and the original Yakoda Gear Transport are two standout pieces, both designed to be simple, functional and incredibly durable from a multi-layer composite fabric called X-Pac (originally a sailcloth). What drew them to the material was its high strength-to-weight ratio (incredibly light), UV resistance, waterproofness (100%), and structural rigidity that can provide stability and definition to the bags, even after beating them up. We also grabbed a pair of Guide (Boot) Laces with a flat paracord construction for wet wading this summer and fall–these highly durable laces, which come in a bunch of different colors, highlight their utilitarian design philosophy: build something once to last. Don’t even get us started on the number of wading laces that have completely failed and snapped 6 weeks into a boot testing workup. Is it really that hard to design laces that will last the life of the boot?
From the Skwala Lounge: Streamer Size Matters, But Bigger Isn’t Better. “Streamer fishing went from oddity to arms race seemingly overnight. One day (circa 2007 or so), Woolly Buggers and Mickey Finns were considered ‘big.’ Then trout anglers started buying eight-weights, so they could cast quadruple-articulated, gerbil-esque concoctions, cooked up through a performance enhancing stew of PBR and Copenhagen. Bigger streamers meant bigger fish–at least, that was the theory. Turns out, the formula isn’t that simple. Shocker. Kelly Galloup embodies and serves as the de facto figurehead for the streamer insurgency. He wrote the book on modern streamer tactics and has spent decades testing, refining and occasionally abandoning theories around what moves big fish. We recently sat down with him to discuss the history and trajectory of streamer fishing and get his thinking on what works, what doesn’t and how to consider size when selecting a fly.”
GearJunkie went to ICAST: The Biggest Winners From the ICAST 2026. In fly fishing “St. Croix won best Fly Fishing Rod with its new Imperial series (they also won in the Freshwater Rod category with the redesigned Triumph Freshwater). Together, the two awards made St. Croix one of the few brands to leave the 2026 Showcase with wins spanning distinctly different fishing categories, from mainstream freshwater spinning and casting gear to dedicated fly tackle.” Bajío’s Dark Blue Camo Matte Cocho sunglasses also took home a best in category for eyewear.
Flylords reviews tarpon reels (they’re expensive, but necessary). “When it comes to tarpon reels, two things are important: start-up inertia and repeated drag settings. Start-up inertia comes down to how seamlessly and smoothly your line comes off the reel. You want a reel that instantly engages the drag in a smooth manner so that it does not break off a running tarpon. The next measure of a good reel is drag repeatability. Every new tarpon reel will perform out of the box, but you need a reel with a durable and repeatable drag system. This means delivering the same drag output after 10, 20, or even 100 fish are hooked and fought. A drag that weakens over time is not worth the money.” The lineup: Hardy Fortuna Regent (best overall), Mako Tournament (runner-up), Orvis Ratio (best value), Redington Grande (best budget), Tibor Gulfstream and the Abel SDS. Tarpon are giant reel-destroying machines–you’re probably smart to go with a trusted commodity like the Hardy, Tibor or Abel. Makos are also incredibly impressive reels, but expensive. Whatever you choose, get out your checkbook.
From Field Mag: The Nine Best Fishing Shirts for Men & Women of 2026. “Sport-specific garments are a quick ticket to a marginally enhanced experience outdoors; whether it’s a pair of flexible rock climbing pants, a breathable running hat, or an airy hiking shirt. To the non-angler, a shirt (or any fishing apparel) made specifically for catching fish on the fly or by conventional tackle may seem truly superfluous–surely the fish don’t care what you wear. But for anglers, wearing a proper fishing shirt designed specifically for a day on the water adds one part style and two parts utility, boosting morale and, more importantly, the odds of finding a fish in the net.” It’s hard to beat the Patagonia River Rambler Hybrid Sun Hoody ($135)–there probably isn’t a perfect fishing shirt, but this one has a pile of smart design options.
Joe Conrad, reel designer for Sage, talks with the So Fly Fishing Podcast. Based out of Sage’s research and development facility on Bainbridge Island, Washington, Joe Conrad specializes in fly reel design and plays a key role in bringing new products from concept to reality. Most recently, he worked on Sage’s new Shift series. “A wise man once said that [fly reel design] is split in thirds: the function is a third, the sound is a third and the aesthetic is a third. So, taking all of that into account–all of the senses and the work that’s required.”
Boating News from SCS
From The New York Times: Eddie Smith, the 83-year-old owner and CEO of Greenville, North Carolina-based Grady-White Boats, turned down a (potential) $400 million sale of the company and gave it away to charity. “Back in 1968, Eddie Smith Jr. bought a fledgling boat maker based in Greenville, N.C. It was a risky move. The company, Grady-White Boats, was in trouble. But Mr. Smith turned it around, and now the maker of high-end recreational fishing boats designed for coastal waters pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. Along the way, Mr. Smith kept full control of the company, never taking on outside investors or selling stock to the public. Now, Mr. Smith, who is 83, has made one last big move: He renounced a potential $400 million payday and pledged all of Grady-White’s future profits to charity.” Eddie cited Yvon Chouinard’s 2022 Patagonia move (“earth is now our only shareholder”) as the direct inspiration for his decision. If you want to be remembered, stand above the fray.
Attention upper Colorado River users: The river is currently unsafe and unnavigable. Info from our friend Jack Bombardier of Confluence Casting (as of July 20th, 2026): “Upper Colorado River users should treat the Red Dirt Bridge section, between Pinball and Horse Creek, as unsafe and unnavigable until further notice. A short, hard rainstorm triggered two major debris flows that changed the river in a hurry. The first came through Jack Flats and dumped a massive amount of woody debris into the Colorado. The second problem area is at Red Dirt, where wood from Jack Flats combined with additional flow out of the Posey Creek drainage. The result is a serious obstruction. High water tore out a stout bridge that had spanned the creek, then carried it into the river. It is now blocking most of the right channel. Two ATVs were apparently on the bridge when it washed out. One is still strapped to the bridge, upside down in the river. The other is upright, dry, and, in one of the stranger details in a very strange scene, apparently ready to roll.”
Paddling Magazine reports that the Boundary Waters Canoe Area closed as wildfires spread across northern Minnesota. The U.S. Forest Service moved to evacuate campers as fires burned in Superior National Forest and inside the BWCA. Lightning, wind, heat, smoke, remote camps and 1,900 affected campsites make a bad mix. Canoe country is not supposed to smell like a campfire unless somebody earned it with wet cedar and a bad lighter.
The Boat That Waited Too Long. “Some boats are just boats. Others follow you around for most of your life. For Dean May of North Fork Ranch, an Adirondack guide boat was the latter.
Dean first fell in love with guide boats while attending college in the Adirondacks. At the time, owning one felt impossibly out of reach. He settled instead for a wood-and-canvas canoe he later hauled west, but the guide boat never really left his mind. ‘When we started North Fork Ranch, it was still my dream to have a guide boat,’ Dean says. ‘I finally could afford one and literally had it shipped from Vermont. It was a dream come true.’ Then life happened. Running a ranch. Raising a family. Building a business. The boat waited patiently while the years slipped by. Now, at retirement age, Dean finally found the time to put the boat on the water only to discover something difficult: the dream had outlasted the body that once imagined it. ‘My knees and body can no longer accommodate this dream,’ he says.”
Tim Linehan with five tips for better boat ramp etiquette. Number four: “Do the busy work before and after, not during. Rig your rods in the parking lot. Offload your gear after you’ve pulled off the ramp. There is no need to tie up the ramp for your busy work.”
Fly-fishing Jobs
Henry’s Fork Anglers: Marketing & Digital Media Manager (Last Chance, ID). “For 50 years, Henrys Fork Anglers has been helping anglers experience some of the finest fly fishing in the world. From our shop in Last Chance, Idaho, we’ve built a reputation for exceptional guiding, knowledgeable staff, and a genuine passion for the sport. As we look toward the future, we’re searching for a Marketing & Digital Media Manager to help tell our story. This is a unique opportunity to combine a passion for fly fishing with a career in marketing, media, and content creation. You’ll lead our digital presence through social media, podcast production, email marketing, content creation, and e-commerce while helping strengthen one of the most respected brands in fly fishing. This is a full-time, salaried, year-round position with benefits.”
Snake River Angler: Fly Shop Retail Staff (Jackson Hole, WY). “Snake River Angler is seeking a few enthusiastic, knowledgeable and customer-focused fly shop retail professionals to join our team in Jackson, Wyoming. This role is ideal for someone passionate about fly fishing, the outdoors and delivering exceptional customer experiences. You’ll assist anglers of all skill levels, provide expert gear recommendations, and help create a welcoming, community-driven shop environment.”
Head to flyfishingjobs.com to search for more listings.
Music
Glen Hansard, the Irish singer-songwriter of The Frames and the iconic, indie movie and soundtrack Once, has died from injuries related to a motorcycle accident. If you haven’t listened to his timeless writing, do yourself a favor and do so–a tough loss for music and the Irish music scene in particular. From Pitchfork on the Once project that eventually won an Oscar for Best Original Song, “Created on a $150,000 budget, Once is a romantic drama in which two strangers in Dublin are drawn toward one another through music. Director and former bassist in the Frames John Carney asked Hansard to compose the film’s music and ultimately cast him in the co-lead role opposite Irglová after his original casting choice, Cillian Murphy, struggled to hit the songs’ notes. Hansard and Irglová were both musicians but non-actors, and their subdued acting choices were later praised by critics for lending a humility and credibility to Once’s plot. The movie went on to gross over $20 million worldwide.” – Andrew Steketee
The Shape of the Journey: New & Collected Poems, Jim Harrison (2000).
Letters from a Stoic, Lucius Seneca (2017).
 | A guest post by
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Great stories, and great info on a variety of topics in this issue. A little something for everyone.
Did you go back and was big brown still there? Enquiring minds want to know!