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fly fishing, story, brown trout, stillwater, coho, smallmouth bass, carp, wiper, striped bass, how to fly fish

Story From The Road: A Year Spent Avoiding the Familiar

What happens when all of your favorite spots were suddenly black listed? A year chasing new water

2025: Yearly Round-Up

essential reads

2025: Yearly Round-Up

Highlighting the essential reads from 2025's lineup of fly-fishing articles from the brains at DWA

fly fishing soft hackles, pheasant tail, india hen, golden pheasant tippets, fly tying, saddle, partridge, grouse, grizzly, wet fly, wetfly, flymph

Active vs Passive Flies

Incentives for tying and fishing soft hackles: exploring how to activate your nymphing

indicator nymphing, fly fishing, euro nymphing, stoneflies, caddisflies, mayflies, stonefly, caddisfly, mayfly, hatch, perdigon, copper john, zebra midge, split shot, tailwater, freestone

macroinvertebrates

Why Do Bugs Drift?

Past Secretaries of the Interior

department of interior

Past Secretaries of the Interior

fly fishing guide not god, bad guides, problems with guides, how to deal with bad guides

If Guides Aren’t Gods….

Continually frustrated with guides? I feel ya… but solutions exist if we can all come to the table

topical science, conservation, and fly fishing articles

Article Roundup

fodder for future small talk, anecdotes for anglers

Thingamabobbers, New Zealand Strike Indicators, Football Indicators, Oros, Airlock, strike indicator fly fishing, indicator nymphing

indicator nymphing

Indicator Selection and Drift Success

Not all indicators are created equally, and each has its advantage, and disadvantage.

UK fly fishing for mullet, highlighting cool new fisheries

overcrowding series

British Bonefish: Mullet on the Fly

showcasing UK anglers chasing mullet on the fly, a cool new fishery

Adding Triggers to Fly Patterns: Subliminal Messaging for Trout

Adding Triggers to Fly Patterns: Subliminal Messaging for Trout

Fly tying: We might carry a lot of patterns, but if none match the searching terms outlined by trout, then what good are they?

Conservation Concept: Extinction Panic Explained

conservation concept Featured

Conservation Concept: Extinction Panic Explained

What's the deal with extinction rates?

fly fishing competitions, FIPS, tactical fly fishing, tightline nymphing, euronymphing, french nymphing, spanish nymphing, czech nymphing

The Role of Competition in Fly Fishing

debating the effects of competitive angling

fly fishing alpine lakes, cutthroat trout, single hand spey fly lines

Sneaky Good Lines for Alpine Lakes

Why make life harder on yourself when fishing alpine lakes?

fly fishing dry flies, hoppers, attractors, purple chubby, chernobyl ant, color theory of attractor flies, gary lafontaine

Fly Color and LaFontaine's Color Theory of Attractors

Our final dive into the maddening world of LaFontaine's color theory of attractors

Which hopper fly is the best fly pattern? Color combinations for chubby chernobyls, dave's hopper, morrish hopper and others

The Colorful World of Grasshoppers

Fly tying: What are the best colors for tying and fishing grasshoppers. Check out our breakdown.

fly fishing Clear Creek, Colorado

geography Featured

Who Claims the Title as Headwater State?

How does water move across the West? Which state is the West's true headwaters state?

Special Bulletin

Special Bulletin

Breaking news from the due west newsroom

fly fishing dragonfly nymphs, stillwater fly fishing, lake fly fishing, dragonflies, streamers

The Stonefly Equivalent of Stillwater

Everybody loves stoneflies, but what about big bugs in stillwater?

Releasing a Rainbow trout from the San Juan River Tailwater, New Mexico. Fly Fishing

conservation concept

Conservation Concept: Shifting Baseline Syndrome

Grandpa might have been right after all: The fishing just ain't what it used to be...

fly fishing for carp, blind casting for carp, denver south platte, woolly bugger, egan's chartreuse headstand

Blind Casting for Carp

What is the best approach when water is too murky, or you can't see any fish? Chances are slim, but never hopeless...

Flies and Lines for Drop-Offs

Flies and Lines for Drop-Offs

Losing flies on drop offs? Not catching anything? It might be your choice of fly line..

USGS Gauging Station on the Dream Stream, South Platte River, Colorado

Tracking the End of Runoff with Hydrographs

when to expect clear conditions after runoff?

fly fishing story about alpine trout, nighttime walleye, rip-rap, headlamps, clouser minnows, balanced leeches, and chasing fish

Story From The Road: Rip-Rap

A story tracing spring bites from alpine trout to nighttime walleye. Rip-rap, headlamps, and the alchemy of chasing fish on the fly

cutthroat caught below Twin Lakes on the Arkansas River, Colorado

cutthroat history

A Lesson From History: The Extinct Yellowfin Cutthroat

The Southern Rockies used to be home to multiple subspecies of cutthroat trout, including the Colorado River, Rio Grande, Greenback, Bonneville, recently rediscovered San Juan, and extinct Yellowfin cutthroat. You may well know about the recovery of the Greenbacks...