The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast

In this week's podcast I announce the winner of the Podcast Suggestion Contest, who won a signed copy of my latest book Essential American Flies.  The topic is sure to be a crowd-pleaser to most of you--targeting bigger trout. In the podcast I give you 10 suggestions for targeting the biggest trout in a pool or in a stretch of river.  There were lots of great suggestions in the podcast contest, and I used a couple for the short Fly Box section at the beginning of the podcast:  How to cure the fall blues after a tough fishing season, and how to pack for a business trip where you might grab a few hours fishing.  Plus a terrific tip on rigging dry droppers on our podcast request line from a listener in Georgia.

This week I interview George Daniel, past competitor in Team Fly Fishing USA and now head coach. The subject is European nymphing styles like Czech nymphing, Polish nymphing, French nymphing, and Spanish nymphing. I've had a number of requests to talk about European nymphing so I called in one of the top American experts on these techniques. You'll learn the differences between these styles and under which conditions you use them, as well as how to rig for these very effective styles of catching trout and grayling on nymphs. These techniques are great to have in your bag of tricks when standard strike indicator and dry/dropper techniques aren't working.

In the podcast this week, I go on a minor rant about the ethics of crowding on today's trout streams, and pretty much tell you if you don't like the crowds, take a hike (literally).  I do give some suggestions on how to handle crowded situations if you have no other choice, but there is almost always another choice.  And in the main part of the podcast, I share with you some fall fishing secrets. We have touched on this subject before, but since the last time I have received some more tips from all of you that I really shoudl share. I also announce a very special contest for the best suggestion for next week's podcast.  The prize is an autographed copy of my new book, The Orvis Guide to The Essential American Flies, which is a large format book with spectacular color photos

I'm always confused by the science and physics of tides and how they vary and how they influence fish in salt water.  So I went right to the best source I know on all things saltwater related--Dr. Aaron Adams, director of Bonefish Tarpon Trust and one of my favorite fishing buddies.  Fishing with him is like fishing with Mr. Wizard (excuse me for dating myself here) and Aaron does not disappoint in our interview.  He takes the sceince behind tides and makes it clear and digestible to those of us who just like to fish in salt water.  There are some specific tips for fly fishing related to tides as well, and Aaron suggests some ways that fly fishers in particular can use tide predictions to have more success on the water.  It was a fun podcast for me as I learned a ton. In the Fly Box,  I also answer a listeners question about how and why tailwater rivers are different and some tips on fishing them.

This week I discuss a dozen tips for taking difficult risers. We're not always fortunate to find consistently rising fish, but when we do it's a chess match that can be the most fascinating aspect of trout fishing. There are many tips to finally fooling a difficult riser, and surprisingly few of them involve choosing the correct fly. We also have Fly Box short items on some questions that came up from listeners regarding last week's podcast on small stream fishing. And by popular demand, we'll continue our sections on great fly-fishing books and cool products you might have missed. Test your wits with my quiz on difficult rises here.  

In this week's podcast, we explore the world of small stream trout with 5 detailed tips (mainly because I was too lazy to organize more--actually there are probably about 20 tips included) that cover everything from what rod to use to how to find your own small stream. There are tens of thousands of tiny trout streams in the United States, many of which never get fished or are fished infrequently, so it's a great place to get solitude and return to the essence of fly fishing. I also introduce two new items to the podcast, and we're looking for your feedback on these: a selected book of the week and "products you might have missed", a short section on handy fishing products that you might not have heard about. And, of course, we answer several questions in our popular "Fly Box" section I am thrilled the podcast has grown so much, but I'm having a hard time keeping up with emails. I still want to hear from you, though as that is how we get material for the show! For podcast suggestions. please use the online forum at orvis.com/podcastfeedback or our voicemail line at 802-362-8800 Thanks for listening!

Steelhead are one of the most glamorous and frustrating fish you can catch with a fly rod.  They are similar in behavior and fighting ability to Atlantic salmon, but whereas our fly fishing traditions for Atlantic salmon came from a more aristocratic background, fly fishing for steelhead evolved via a more populist tradition.  Where can you fish for steelhead?  What techniques work best?  Are the fish from the Great Lakes a true steelhead or just a big rainbow trout, and how do fishing techniques for them differ?  And how many steelhead can you expect to catch in a day's fishing? (in my experience, you should expect to catch zero and be pleasantly surprised).   Listen to this week's podcast and get some tips on steelhead fishing, and then visit our podcast forum to add your thoughts or suggest future steelhead podcast topics, as this is not the last of our steelhead podcasts for this season.

In this week's podcast, I'm joined by Dave Perkins, an old fishing and hunting buddy and also vice-chairman and one of the owners of Orvis.  Dave , like me, is a spring creek fanatic and we talk about how spring creeks differ from freestone trout streams, what to expect on them, and where to find them.  And of course we also discuss our favorite flies, leaders, and rods for fishing these very special trout streams.  If you've never fished a spring creek, it's time to try one.  And even if you never intend to fish one, the tips we give will be very helpful any time you find selective trout sipping in clear water.   In the Fly Box this week, we talk about why trout live in some streams and not in others, how to make a downstream presentation, and some tips on light-line rods.

For this week's podcast, the main event is Tom's Top Ten Tippet Tips, or just 5T for short (but no short jokes please).  In this episode, I review tips on knots, types of tippet, how to attach tippets, when to shorten or lengthen a tippet, how to avoid kinky tippets, and a bunch more.   For the "Fly Box" section of short tips, I talk about some cool, new terms and tips I learned from fishing guides in Colorado and Montana over the past two weeks.

Tom is out of town for a couple weeks, so he asked Pete Kutzer of our Ask a Fly Fishing Instructor video series and Brett Ference from our Double Barrel Podcast series to sit in. We asked our Facebook and Twitter fans to  suggest topics for them to cover and received over 130 suggestions! Here are the topics they chose: - How should a beginner go about choosing waders? - Tips for fishin gfrom a float tube - Is 7 years old too young to start a child fly fishing? - When choosing a new rod, what should I consider? - How do you best hide new fishing gear purchases from your spouse? We also had A LOT of questions on fishing warm water, so Brett and Pete spend a lot of time on this topic.