Stories & Essays

Ed Engle has a wonderful little story in a Boulder, CO newspaper, in which he makes the case for fishing dry flies. It's fun to catch big fish on nymphs, Engle says, but he gets the most joy these days from fishing dry flies. Coming from someone who helped popularize many new nymphing tactics, that's an interesting statement. You can read his story here.

If you've never gone fishing for grayling, you're missing out, according to Chris Hunt over in Hatch Magazine. Hunt's latest story details one of his favorite trips chasing grayling in the north woods, and you can find it here.

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, Phil Monahan wrote this fun little story that touches on how anglers never forget their first love - fish. You can read the story, and look through some wonderful photos, here.

In this short story over at The Flyfish Journal, John Barratt takes us back in time to when fly fishing was still an underground activity in Idaho. It's hard to imagine such a time, but it existed, and Barratt does an excellent job of painting that world for us. You can read his story here.

If you're pining after some great fishing stories to get you through the rest of winter, you need to read this one from Louis Cahill. He spins the yarn of catching his favorite bonefish. You can read it here.

Fly fishing isn't always about public tailwaters or backcountry excursions. Sometimes, the best days are when you know a friend who knows a guy, and you get to fish private water. That's the case with this recent story from Louis Cahill over at Gink & Gasoline, where he shares his experiences fishing Horse Creek Ranch near Cheyenne, Wyoming. Read the...

If you're even mildly interested in steelhead, you need to read this wonderful story from Joseph Jackson in Fly Fisherman Magazine. He tells of the Situk River in Alaska, its steelhead, and his own obsession with catching them. Read the story here.

This recent post over on the Loon blog details some New Year's Resolutions to help you become a better angler - and human. Loon always seems to strike the right balance between enjoying fly fishing and reminding us of the importance of conservation in their written communications, and this blog post is no different. You can read it here.

The folks over at Hatch Magazine do a great job of putting out quality content. They just released their recap of the most-read stories from 2022, which features everything from commentary on whitefish to a discussion on the best fishing hats. You can read through all of Hatch's best here.

The folks over at Field & Stream are highlighting their most-read stories of 2022. This one, by Matthew Every, recalls how his life changed when he moved to a small town in the Catskills in upstate New York. You can read it here.