Tight Lines, Loose Algorithms – Gen Z Anglers and Social Media
The invention of social media has been a demarcation line in fly fishing…
I recently wrote a piece for the Spring 2026 issue of TROUT magazine about David Coggins, author of The Believer and The Optimist. While the general theme was the tradition of fly fishing, social media was a discussion point:
As David says in The Believer, “Fly fishing, in its best form, will always be slower, and thank goodness it will never be efficient.” Key phrase there, “in its best form.” With one look through #flyfishing on Instagram, I’m inclined to think that the best form is slipping away. One post with the hashtag is a fifteen-second video with five million views. It shows an angler making a single cast in front of a school of trout, catching the largest of the bunch and landing it with ease. It fails to show the hike to the alpine lake, the multitude of blind casts, the dozen different flies they tried, or the hundreds of hours spent fishing without catching. Suddenly, the #flyfishing video has nothing to do with fly fishing and everything to do with instant gratification and social media clout.
It’s no secret that fly fishing has been changed by social media–everything has. It’s also no secret that everyone has something to say about it. Barrels of ink have been spilt on the topic in magazines, forums and comment sections. But what does Gen Z, the social media generation, think about social media and fly fishing?
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