Troutbitten

We night fish with many different fly types: surface patterns, mouse emerges, streamers, wet flies, nymphs and Harvey Pushers. And all of these flies can be presented in two very different ways — drifting and swinging.There’s a lot of variety within these two categories. There are many ways to do both. And every fly type may seem to have its best or most effective presentation, drifting or swinging, but when that’s not working, the first and easiest thing to do, before changing the fly type, is to simply change the direction the flies are fished, from swinging to drifting or vice versa.Drifting is fishing the flies with the current. Swinging is fishing the flies against the current. In this episode, we consider the differences between the two and the advantage of each.Resources READ: Troutbitten | Category | Night FishingREAD: Troutbitten | Streamer Presentations -- The Death DriftREAD: Troutbitten | Streamer Presentations -- The Deadly Slow SlideREAD: Troutbitten | Night Fishing for Trout -- Drifting and Swinging FliesREAD: Troutbitten | Night Fishing for Trout -- Backstory: Drifting and Swinging FliesPODCAST: Troutbitten | An Introduction to Night Fishing for Trout -- S3, Ep14 VisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten FacebookThanks 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 this second part of the Night Fishing for Trout Skills Series on Troutbitten, we consider light. First the naturals, like moonlight and starlight, then we discuss city lights and other artificials, like our own flashlights and headlamps. Lastly, we’ll discuss the use of glow-in-the-dark stuff, like fly lines, indicators and more.I'm joined by my night fishing friends, Austin Dando, Trevor Smith and Josh Darling.Night fishing always comes down to what we can see and what we can’t. Of course we use our other senses. And yes, those senses are heightened, and we often rely on feel more than our limited sight in the relative darkness.But it is not pitch black out there, especially when we attain and then preserve good night vision. So we navigate the evening from shadows and outlines, pitching unseen flies beyond the visible perimeter and tracking those flies through the feel of a line in our hand, by sensing the load on our rod tip and by sometimes following something that glows in the dark.Light affects the fishing, but it also affects the fish. And while trout seem to prefer darker nights, they might also feed better with a few stars in the sky for a nightlight.ResourcesREAD: Troutbitten | Category | Night FishingREAD: Troutbitten | Night Fishing for Trout -- Moonlight, Starlight and City LightREAD: Troutbitten | Night Fishing for Trout -- Headlamps, Flashlights and Glow in the Dark StuffPODCAST: Troutbitten | An Introduction to Night Fishing for Trout -- S3, Ep14VisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten FacebookThanks 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/

Three experienced night fishing enthusiasts, Josh, Trevor, and Austin, join the podcast to discuss the motivations and rewards of fishing after dark. They explore the best places to catch trout at night and share insights into the gear and tactics required. The podcast delves into the mysterious and imaginative aspects of night fishing, the challenges faced, and the unique strategies needed for success. From fishing on merger seams to exploring different tactics and techniques, this podcast provides a comprehensive guide to the captivating world of night fishing for trout.

We’re in between podcast season, and it's time for an update about what’s going on with Troutbitten. My wife, Becky, joins me to talk about the past, the present and the near future.The summer Troutbitten Shop leader sale launches on Monday morning, July 31st. All Troutbitten leaders will be back in stock: Harvey, Standard, Thin and Micro Thin Mono Rigs, Full Kits and Standard Sighters. Also in the shop are new hats and tee shirts in collaboration with New Trail Brewing Company.My Guide Schedule for fall of '24 has been full for a while now. And my spring season is a little over half booked up. I will open dates for fall '24 on September 20th, next month. Bill and Austin will have available dates for this fall pretty soon. So if you are still looking for a date this fall, be in touch.The Troutbitten YouTube channel continues to grow fast. I've spent a lot of time learning to film and edit, and I'm working on a Fish and Film series that should be out by the beginning of October. These are first-person-style videos that also mix in other camera angles. These are videos that simply show the fishing and the experience of being on the river, highlighting the decisions made to be versatile and to meet fish on their own terms. Josh Darling and I will continue to publish videos every other week. Those videos are in one of these categories: Troutbitten Tips, Fish and Film, Troutbitten Fly Box, Fishing the Mono Rig. The Troutbitten Podcast continues with Season 8, beginning on August 20th. This is a six part Skills Series covering Night Fishing for Trout. After that, we’ll take a couple weeks off until Season 9 of the Troutbitten Podcast begins on October 15 and runs until Christmas time.ResourcesSHOP: Troutbitten | The Troutbitten ShopGUIDE: Troutbitten | Troutbitten Guided Fishing TripsVIDEOS: Troutbitten | Troutbitten VideosPODCASTS: Troutbitten | The Troutbitten Podcast VisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten FacebookThanks 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 Troutbitten regular knows about Sloop. We’ve referred to our friend on nearly every podcast, especially in the last few seasons, as it’s become a running contest to see how we can sneak in a Sloop John B reference.So we’re excited to have John here. Because what we all find so rewarding about this life on the water are the friendships. We form deep bonds with people because they are . . . fishermen. Because they too are captivated by the trout, by the places trout take us and by the refinement of tactics required to catch a wild trout.Our friends are at the heart of it all. And really, that’s what we’re adding in tonight — another friend, and possibly the deepest friend to Troutbitten, if we consider how all this started. Sloop tied it all together from the beginning.Here are good stories and fun with our friend, John Burgos (Sloop).ResourcesREAD: Troutbitten | How It StartedREAD: Troutbitten | Fishing With FriendsVisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten FacebookThanks 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 back for the annual airing of grievances, here to call out what's wrong in the fly fishing industry.Some of our grievances are lighthearted silliness that doesn't really matter, but it’s fun to roast or to call out. But there’s another kind of grievance too. Because a lot of the stuff going on in the fly fishing industry isn’t really good for anyone — or maybe it’s only good for a few. Because the industry — and by that I mean you, me, the fly fishing companies, and all the media around it — picks up trends. Then it pushes and pulls anglers in that direction. And sometimes, what is served up doesn’t benefit the average angler. It’s not helpful.So there are problems. And this episode is for highlighting some of the worst. Because it's fair to call balls and strikes, and because it helps to acknowledge that things could be better and try to make a change.Resources PODCAST: Troutbitten | The Airing of Grievances, S3, Ep13VisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten FacebookThanks 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/

This episode is about big trout -- what they mean to us, why we chase them, and how catching a top tier wild trout often leaves a bookmark in the story of our fishing lives.We love big trout because they give us the shakes. Because they elude us. Because they are rare. And because fooling a top tier trout serves as an accomplishment that we know comes from persistence and from knowledge gained over seasons of fishing.Time. That’s what it always comes down to. Because big trout don’t show up every day. The rarity of the occasion often puts the capstone on a special trip, and these fish serve as icons in our history. They’re something to look back on, to share with trusted friends, or divide part of our life into what occurred before a big fish and what happened after.Because pursuing legendary fish takes us on a journey like none other, leading us into places unimagined and providing moments that bring a vibrancy to our daily life.READ: Troutbitten | The Shakes, and Why We Love Big TroutREAD: Troutbitten | What Does It Take to Catch a Big Trout?READ: Troutbitten | Some Days Are Diamonds, Some Days Are RocksREAD: Troutbitten | Wild vs Stocked -- The Hierarchy of Trout in PennsylvaniaVisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten FacebookThanks 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/

“That’s Not Fly Fishing.” How many times have you heard this at the bar or seen someone write it on social media? When the way you are fishing isn’t up to someone’s standards, when it doesn’t align with their own preferences, it seems that this frequent argument comes out easily — That’s not fly fishing!Of course, there is no single definition for what fly fishing is. The fly rod is a tool. Flies are the bait. And how anglers choose to use them is where personal creativity comes in. It’s that inventiveness and room for imagination that makes fly fishing so attractive to us in the first place.How can we do things better? How can we use these tools to catch more trout?Every angler draws their own lines for what fly fishing is. And this episode is not just for talking through what fly fishing might be and where each of us might draw the lines. Instead, we’d like to acknowledge the absurdity of the lines themselves — the decisions we make about what is fly fishing and what is not.How can someone be so adamantly against tight line tactics, but gladly fish a bobber and split shot all day? This makes no sense.How can you be all in on tungsten beads but claim that adding split shot makes it not fly fishing?Likewise, how can you be against a ball jighead on a streamer but have a full box of dumbell eyes? Is it because Bob Clouser told everyone it’s okay?These absurdities, and these questions are what we’re here to talk about tonight. There’s a lot to this one, and we have plenty of conversations with a full house.ResourcesREAD: Troutbitten | Where the Lines Are DrawnREAD: Troutbitten | Fly Fishing the Mono Rig Q&A -- Lines, Rigging and the SkepticsREAD: Troutbitten | No Limits -- Use Every Type of Weight AvailableVisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten FacebookThanks 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/

This episode is a brief pause in season seven of the podcast to share something that I published to Troutbitten in the early years. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of emotion and activity. The days were filled with energy and adrenaline, as my youngest son's Little League baseball team won the league championship. They battled through two weeks of playoffs and took the title in the last series, where every game was decided in the final inning.I've coached Little League for nine years, and this was my last. My youngest son is twelve, and this was his senior year of Little League.To see it all end in such dramatic fashion was a gift. But the biggest emotions, from caring about something so deeply, are always a gift, whether that's in victory or defeat, love or loss.When the Knights were on the edge of winning or losing the championship series, the day before the final game, I kept thinking about an experience I had with one of the largest trout I've ever lost. Years ago, I wrote that into a story on Troutbitten.This episode is a l reading of a story that I first published on July 15, 2015, titled, This Is The End.It's also a little about baseball.ResourcesREAD: Troutbitten | This Is The EndREAD: Troutbitten | Some Days Are Diamonds, Some Days Are RocksREAD: Troutbitten | Category | StoriesVisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten FacebookThanks 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 the best way to carry your gear? Should you use a vest, a chest pack, hip pack, sling pack or something else?How you choose to carry gear is a personal and situational choice. It has everything to do with what you need to carry, and how far you like to walk. Do you need to carry extra layers and a raincoat, and how many tactics do you want to be ready for? Streamers, nymphs, dry flies and wets . . . or just dries?We have more choices than ever before, but it pays to think about efficiency when selecting a carrying system. Because a big part of being versatile on the water is having easy access to whatever you need, right when you need it. We Cover the FollowingBest to have one system or many?Carrying a net, water, and other heavy itemsMinimalist setupsThe disaster of a sling packThe benefit of everything up frontStorage and convenienceLarge pockets or many pocketsWhat about getting wet?. . .  and much moreResourcesREAD: Troutbitten | Pack or Vest? Why I'm a Vest GuyREAD: Troutbitten | 100 Day Gear Review -- Simms G3 Guide VestLISTEN: Troutbitten | PODCAST -- The Efficiencies that Waste Your Fishing TimeLISTEN: Troutbitten | PODCAST -- The Versatile AnglerVisitTroutbitten WebsiteTroutbitten InstagramTroutbitten YouTubeTroutbitten FacebookThanks 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/