The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast

This week we have a great interview on redfish (and also speckled trout and snook) with Captain Dave Hunt from Florida.  In the Fly Box, we also talk about grayling, brass and tungsten beads, and about the question of whether the term 'dry fly rod" is valid today.  Plus I tip our listeners off to an exciting new development on the web--but you'll have to listen to find out!

In the fly box this week, we talk about where fly tying materials come from, getting wet flies to swing deeper, fishing logs, and fishing small flies under water.  In the main topic, we discuss different kinds of trout and how to fish for them--hatchery vs. wild, and pressured trout streams vs. remote trout streams.  We've had some great suggestions for podcast topics lately so keep them coming

This week I have a special guest, Brian O'Keefe, who owns the fantastic electronic magazine called Catch Magazine, along with his business partner Todd Moen.  Brian has been in the fly fishing business as long as I have, and he's one of the best fly-fishing photographers out there.  He's traveled all over the world to photograph some of the most exotic fly fishing locations, as well as plenty of cool places closer to home.  We ramble a bit about the old days, but the podcast is mainly about tips for the novice fly-fishing photographer.  This podcast is longer than usual so I left out the usual Fly Box section, which will return next week.  Lots of good questions these days so I have a good list of topics to cover!

The main part of the podcast this week is 10 Tips on Fishing Caddis hatches, some tips I’ve learned over the years for successfully (sometimes!) fishing caddis hatches.  Caddisflies are one of the most abundant aquatic insects in trout streams, and the fishing can range from incredibly easy to downright frustrating.  But trout almost always love to eat them so we need to pay attention.  Also in this podcast we talk about bedraggled flies, tailwater insects, and one of my favorite subjects, using roadkills for fly tying.

This week I discuss a frequently requested podcast this time of year--how to set up your fly-tying area.  I talk about what you need to get started and what tools and threads you should begin with.  I also discuss storage and lighting and magnification and about how to stay organized.  In the Fly Box section we have another tip for essential safety items in a fishing vest or pack, and the difference between Blue-Winged Olives and PMDs and Pale Evening Duns.

We posted an episode a few weeks ago on how to best stock your dry-fly box. We had a number of requests for one on nymphing. Let us know what you think of this list!

In this episode Tom gives his list of what you could get that angler, and angler-to-be at the last minute!

This week we range in topics from toilet paper to bass leaders, but the main topic is one that is frequently requested: How to make sense of the thousands of patterns of dry flies into a reasonable number that will cover most of the hatches you encounter. I offer 10 tips on slimming down your fly box (or filling it up, depending on where you are in the game) plus my favorite dozen dry flies.

Welcome to another installment of "Ask an Orvis Fly-Fishing Instructor," with Peter Kutzer. In this episode, Peter explains the differences between the parachute cast and the pile cast, both of which are slack-line casts that can be useful when you're fishing across conflicting currents or to a fish downstream. To make a parachute cast, you stop the rod high and keep the tip up while the fly and front of the line land on the water. This gives you a belly of line between the rod tip and the water. As your fly drifts downstream, you lower the rod tip, feeding line into the drift and maintaining contact with the fly. To make a pile cast, you shoot the line high again, but this time, you drop the rod tip to the water's surface in front of the fly, dragging the line downward. This causes the line to land in a pile, so the fly can dead-drift freely.

This week we do a podcast I've been looking forward to--an interview with a couple of top fly-fishing guides about what it's like to be a guide and how to get into guiding. Learn about how a guide prepares for their day, what they agonize over, and enjoy a few wild stories along the way.