Troutbitten

For our Season 13 Intermission, my wife, Becky, joins me for a look at what's going on in the Troutbitten world. We talk about the upcoming leader sale in the Troutbitten Shop (December 6th). We talk about upcoming podcast and video plans, books, fly rods and more. ResourcesSHOP: Troutbitten | Category | Leaders VisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten Facebook Thank You to Pre-Roll Ad Sponsors:SkwalaandOrvisThanks to TroutRoutes:Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership athttps://maps.troutroutes.com Thanks to SkwalaUse the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order athttps://skwalafishing.com/

I fished for two decades before I finally realized that not every river, not every creek or stream has big fish. For most of my early days of fishing, I thought there was a different class of fish in some of my favorite waters that I simply never encountered. And I liked to think that if I fished certain ways at certain times, I would finally catch those fish.But many years later, after more experience and after finally fishing all of the ways that are supposed to help you find the biggest fish — night fishing, streamer fishing, etc. — I also met many like minded anglers and became friends with enough obsessed fishermen whose stories and accounts I could trust. And I realized, no one catches big trout out of some of these waters.Why do some rivers hold big trout? This is a topic that has come up between all of us on long drives, around the tailgate, and on long walks along the riverbank. Why is it that some rivers just do not have any size to the fish, and then, maybe just the next valley over, not only is the average size larger, but the top tier fish is bigger too?We're here to talk about it . . .ResourcesREAD: Troutbitten | Wild vs Stocked -- The Hierarchy of River TroutPODCAST: Troutbitten | The Hierarchy of River TroutPODCAST: Troutbitten | Why We All Love Big TroutVisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten Facebook Thank You to Pre-Roll Ad Sponsors:SkwalaandOrvisThanks to TroutRoutes:Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership athttps://maps.troutroutes.com Thanks to SkwalaUse the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order athttps://skwalafishing.com/

Tonight we’re here to talk about why we fish. It’s a simple question. Why do we commit so much of our free time and efforts, our thoughts and our daydreams . . . to fishing?Why, after all these years, do we keep coming back?Why, when we could do hundreds of other things — with three hours on a weekday evening or every daylight hour on a Saturday, from dawn to dark — why do we choose to lace up the boots and string up the fly rod?In all the seasons of this Troutbitten podcast, we’ve often said that fishing, for us, isn’t about hoping to get lucky out there. It’s about making something happen. And surely, the act of fishing is a wonderful draw. But as I talked with the Troutbitten guys a few days ago about this topic of why we fish, it was clear their most important answers really didn’t have that much to do with the actual fishing.So what we’ll talk about tonight are more of the intangible qualities of fishing. It’s what I think many anglers imagine when they decide to pick up a rod and venture into the woods. Yes, all of us are quickly captivated by the details, the flies, the flows, and the tactic necessary to catch trout. But perhaps for most anglers, it’s that elusive, almost transcendental experience that draws us in today, yesterday and tomorrow. And it’s the same natural pursuit that brought us all down to the water from the beginning.We’re here to talk about it.ResourcesREAD: Troutbitten | How To Stay in the Fly Fishing Game for a LifetimeREAD: Troutbitten | We WadeREAD: Troutbitten | Lost Fishing FriendsVisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten Facebook Thank You to Pre-Roll Ad Sponsors:SkwalaandOrvisThanks to TroutRoutes:Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership athttps://maps.troutroutes.com Thanks to SkwalaUse the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order athttps://skwalafishing.com/

We’re halfway through Season 13, and tonight we have a discussion that’s been on our backburner for quite a while -- barbed hooks or barbless, and does it really matter?Should we always fish barbless? Maybe not. The answer isn’t that simple. So the Troutbitten guys are here for a conversation and a few thoughts about barbs on hooks.Each one of us has fished for long enough that we’ve used both barbed and barbless flies. We’ve also used barbs on lures and bait hooks, because we all grew up fishing in different ways. Some anglers who jump right into the fly fishing game — especially for trout — are exposed to a another sentiment. So their reference points are different. And like anything else, what might seem almost outlandish to one person can seem like no big deal to another.So . . . barbed hooks or barbless? And does it really matter?ResourcesREAD: Troutbitten | Are We Taking the Safety of Trout Too Far?READ: Troutbitten | Category | Catch and Release SafelyREAD: Troutbitten | Fight Fish FastREAD: Troutbitten | Nymph Hook Inversion and the Myth of the Jig HookPODCAST: Troutbitten | How To Handle a Trout - S1, Ep2VisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten Facebook Thank You to Pre-Roll Ad Sponsors:SkwalaandOrvisThanks to TroutRoutes:Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership athttps://maps.troutroutes.com Thanks to SkwalaUse the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order athttps://skwalafishing.com/

Every angler needs a set of flies to call their own. Among the thousands of patterns, options and choices out there, eventually, we sort out a handful of confidence flies.Our faith in these flies gives us conviction when choosing them and tying the knot. We’ll fish THIS fly in THIS water. That’s what will catch the next trout. And if it doesn’t, then we’ll change something — maybe the water type, maybe the presentation, maybe the rig. Or maybe we’ll reach for the next confidence fly.Some anglers have a dozen go-to flies. Others might have fifty patterns, and some carry just a few. But a good set of confidence flies is adapted for the angler, for their water, for their season and their preferences. Most importantly, these flies catch trout.But how do we find the right flies? How do you find your confidence flies? That’s our topic for tonight, season 13, episode 4.The Troutbitten guys join me to break all of this down.ResourcesREAD: Troutbitten: Category | The Troutbitten Fly BoxREAD: Troutbitten | Troutbitten Confidence Flies -- Seventeen NymphsREAD: Troutbitten | Pattern Vs PresentationVisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten Facebook Thank You to Pre-Roll Ad Sponsors:SkwalaandOrvisThanks to TroutRoutes:Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership athttps://maps.troutroutes.com Thanks to SkwalaUse the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order athttps://skwalafishing.com/

What's right and wrong? That's what ethics really boils down to. Certainly, there are nuances about how much space to give other anglers on the river or how long we should hold a trout out of the water for a picture. But doing the right thing and being an ethical angler is probably best achieved by asking ourselves one question: Does this action makes things better or worse? And are you helping or hurting the woods, the water, the fish and other anglers?The best ethics probably happen when no one is looking. And holding ourselves accountable to do the right thing is a reward based in the satisfaction of self-discipline.There is no handbook for ethics in fishing, of course. And much has been written and discussed on the topic through the years. In this podcast episode, the Troutbitten crew holds a philosophical discussion about ethics in fishing. It's not a list of concrete examples or rules. It's an interesting, thought provoking conversation.ResourcesPODCAST: Troutbitten | The Ethics of Guiding -- More Harm Than Good?READ: Troutbitten | Category | Catch and Release SafelyREAD: Troutbitten | A Fisherman's Thoughts On Spot Burning VisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten Facebook Thank You to Pre-Roll Ad Sponsors:SkwalaandOrvisThanks to TroutRoutes:Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership athttps://maps.troutroutes.com Thanks to SkwalaUse the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order athttps://skwalafishing.com/

The Troutbitten guys are here to talk about two flies. Why do we fish two dry flies, two streamers, wets or nymphs? Why don’t we? Why might we fish with just one fly instead? Multiple fly rigs are a common solution to fishing problems, but extra flies on the line can certainly create more issues than they solve.The one or two fly debate, across fishing styles -- this is our topic. What works, when and why? What’s the upside? What’s the downside?ResourcesREAD: Troutbitten | Tangle Free Tandem RigsREAD: Troutbitten | Q&A: Why Do Multi-Nymph Rigs Tangle, and How to Avoid ItREAD: Troutbitten | Three Styles of Dry Dropper VisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten Facebook Thanks to TroutRoutes:Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership athttps://maps.troutroutes.com Thanks to SkwalaUse the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order athttps://skwalafishing.com/

The full Troutbitten crew is back for season thirteen. In this fall and early winter season, our theme is casual conversations. After three years of podcasting, we've recorded many episodes that go deep into the weeds on one specific topic. We've also dedicated full seasons to the Skills Series format, where a topic like night fishing or tight line nymphing is broken into multiple episodes to try and cover it well. But this season, we're ready to hit record and just riff on a topic.For episode one, our topic is . . . Why do we catch trout in patches? Because when we get to the end of the day, we often look back to remember catching three trout in one spot, then nothing for a while. Maybe we missed two and landed five in another spot. We had three at the best undercut bank and another handful at the tailout . . . but in between, there were often long periods of inactivity. Why is that?That's our topic for episode one.ResourcesREAD: Troutbitten | Find Feeding FishREAD: Troutbitten | Cover Water, Catch TroutREAD: Troutbitten | Cherry Picking vs Full CoverageVisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten Facebook Thanks to TroutRoutes:Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership athttps://maps.troutroutes.com Thanks to SkwalaUse the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order athttps://skwalafishing.com/

For this final episode in the dry fly skills series, we work through some scenarios that anglers frequently encounter. Because, just like nymphing, fishing streamers and fishing wets, we fish dry flies for many different reasons and in many different ways.We addressed some of this in episode one, and in this final episode, we complete the bookend by thinking about how things layout and going through some strategy and thought processes. Now that we’ve spent a good bit of time on leader design, fly selection, casting, building in slack, we consider these four scenarios:Head HuntingFishing TerrestrialsSmall Stream StuffWorking a HatchMy friend, Matt Grobe, joins me to put a cap on this Dry Fly Skills series.ResourcesREAD: Troutbitten | Category | Dry Fly FishingREAD: Troutbitten | Two Ways to Spat a Terrestrial Dry FlyREAD: Troutbitten | Twelve Small Stream Fly Casting TipsVisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten Facebook Thanks to TroutRoutes:Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership athttps://maps.troutroutes.com Thanks to SkwalaUse the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order athttps://skwalafishing.com/

In the last couple of weeks we  talked a lot about choosing the next fly, when to change, and what informs our decision about what to change to — basically, how do we develop that next theory about what fly, water type and presentation style we want to test.Last week we talked about watching how trout are rising to naturals, how they are taking our fly or even how they’re rejecting it. That information goes a long way. It’s often the predominant factor for choosing an appropriate fly style — a low rider, an emerger or maybe one that rides high and rolls on the surface.So when you fish long enough, you start to notice these kinds of details, and like anything else worth pursuing, you realize that there’s an endless world of data out there for you to pick up on. The trout are telling us a lot — even by not rising. We learn by not catching trout too. If you get a great presentation in a spot that you know holds trout, but no trout eats it . . . fair enough. And you start to consider the next adjustment.It’s all a lot of fun when you realize that good fishing isn’t luck. It’s attention to detail with an open mind and a willingness to dive into the mystery.This podcast is all about rise forms and hook sets.My friend, Matt Grobe, joins me for this discussion.ResourcesREAD: Troutbitten | Category | Dry Fly FishingPODCAST: Troutbitten | Set The Hook! All About Different Hook SetsREAD: Troutbitten | Hook Set Direction --  DownstreamVisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten Facebook Thanks to TroutRoutes:Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership athttps://maps.troutroutes.com Thanks to SkwalaUse the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order athttps://skwalafishing.com/