Author: failtefishing

The late Bob Popovics, legendary saltwater fly tier, might be honored on the Fly Fishing Present with regards to Edison, New Jersey on Jan. 24 – 26. The American Museum of Fly Fishing will honor Popovics with the 2025 Izaak Walton Award posthumously on Saturday, Jan. 25. The occasion is scheduled to start out at 5 p.m., and also will characteristic a tribute movie and some visitor audio system.

Popovics was a famend striped bass angler and fly tier, and lived in New Jersey. He was injured in a hit-and-run in late 2024, and finally died from accidents sustained throughout that occasion. He was 75 years outdated.

As Lynn Burkhead wrote in Fly Fisherman Journal upon Popovics’ passing, “To name Popovics a legend could be an understatement, particularly in case your world of fly fishing entails the style of salt within the air, a freshening breeze rolling inland off the surf, and the sight of baitfish panicking and fleeing by the tens of millions as wave after wave of hungry striped bass slash into the melee and seagulls wheel about and cry noisily overhead as they seek for leftovers.

“That was the sandy turf that Popovics prowled higher than simply about anybody did for many years, a expertise generated by many hours of roaming a distant stretch of Jersey shoreline not too many miles south of New York Metropolis’s huge sprawl.”

Popovics pioneered the usage of epoxy and silicone in baitfish imitations, a observe that has little doubt bled over into each different fly fishing area of interest since. He wrote books and contributed regularly to Fly Fisherman Journal, and invented the Surf Sweet, Bob’s Banger, Cotton Sweet, and lots of extra well-known saltwater flies.

You may learn extra about Popovics right here.

Skwala, the Bozeman-based attire firm, has launched their newest product, the RS Outpost Jacket. It is a bomber, do-it-all chilly climate piece meant to be used in essentially the most excessive environments.

Skwala makes use of the identical 150 grams of 3DeFX+ insulation discovered of their Fusion 3/2 Puffy to supply heat within the Outpost. On high of that, they’ve coated the insulation in a totally waterproof shell with taped and bolstered seams. You’ll additionally discover a pass-through pocket that lets you attain your waders with out eradicating the jacket, in addition to a wicking inside liner to maintain moisture away out of your physique.

Basically, Skwala mixed the perfect options of their Fusion 3/2 Puffy and RS Jacket to supply one thing that’s each waterproof and insulating. The RS Outpost will take away the necessity for 2 layers, particularly on windy days when a water-resistant shell can mood the wind’s chew.

Adjustable cuffs, a instrument docking station, and 7 pockets spherical out the technical options on the RS Outpost. There’s just one zippered inner pocket, however there are two fleece-lined, zippered hand warming pockets, as nicely.

“The RS Outpost Jacket represents the top of innovation and design for our workforce,” mentioned Kevin Sloan, Skwala Founder and CEO. “This jacket can be a favourite of anglers who prefer to nonetheless get after it within the colder months.”

Per a press launch, the RS Outpost Jacket has been rigorously examined over the previous two years in essentially the most excessive circumstances and by a few of the business’s most demanding anglers and guides. This jacket has confirmed its skill to ship unmatched efficiency and sturdiness, making it a vital addition to any cold-weather fly fishing equipment.

The RS Outpost is obtainable now on-line and can be obtainable quickly at Skwala retailers. The jacket retails for $649.

Catching marlin, sailfish, and swordfish on a fly rod is likely one of the pinnacles of the game. It’s a number of onerous work, and normally prices a good sum of money, as nicely. Nevertheless it’s in these envelope-pushing endeavors that we’re capable of make among the greatest leaps ahead in fly fishing.

Jeremy Block is the primary particular person to ever doc catching a broadbill swordfish on fly deal with, and in late 2024, he could have clinched one other first. He boated a swordfish that clocked in at 100 kilos, 15 ounces. Block caught this fish off the coast of Kenya, at night time. If licensed by the Worldwide Recreation Fish Affiliation, this catch will grow to be the world-record swordfish caught on a fly rod, and the first-ever swordfish in extra of 100 kilos to have been caught on fly deal with.

This was all reported by Peter Cotezee in Marlin Magazine. 

The present world file is an 89-pound swordfish caught by Fouad Sahioui in 1998.

You may learn a first-person account of the catch, from Jeremy Block, right here.

The 2025 World Youth and Girls Fly Fishing Championship shall be held in Idaho Falls from July 12 to July 19. The competitors will happen on the Snake River, Henry’s Fork, Hebgen Lake, Heat River, Sheridan Lake, and the Gray’s River. This may give visiting anglers a real style of the fishing obtainable within the Idaho Falls space, and disperse fishing stress to numerous rivers as properly.

In line with the Put up Register out of Idaho Falls, Glade Gunther, who’s captain of Fly Fishing Crew USA, spoke to native Trout Limitless teams final week to ease any considerations locals had in regards to the impression of such an occasion on their fisheries.

“We attempt to do our best to care for the fish,” Gunther is quoted as saying. “In fact, we take pleasure in catching the fish, however we wish to be sure that we care for the fish and put them again in simply as good condition as we discovered them.”

There can even be an schooling symposium surrounding the opening ceremonies of the competitors, to assist educate extra anglers in regards to the worth of catch-and-release and greatest practices for trout dealing with.

You’ll be able to study extra in regards to the occasion right here.

New York Metropolis in all probability isn’t excessive on any listing for vacation spot fly fishing. Sure, there’s loads of nice fly fishing outdoors of the Huge Apple, however do you know there’s an honest fly fishing tradition there, too?

Jared Zissu, writing for Sports activities Illustrated, takes us by way of the “surprisingly various” fishery in New York Metropolis, in addition to its native fly store, the City Angler.

“The reality is, you will have a couple of choices, however be ready to back-cast over a crowd of curious spectators or dodge the occasional park ranger,” Zissu writes. “In the event you’re up for the problem, although, it may be a uniquely rewarding expertise.”

That problem ranges from chasing carp, bass, and bluegill in Central Park. Carp are the trophy species there, and Zissu says they current nice alternatives for dry fly fishing like “trout in Montana.”

You’ll additionally discover some fishing simply offshore, particularly when the striped bass are shifting. Bluefish and black sea bass are additionally choices, and you’ll fish for them in view of La Guardia Airport, which isn’t one thing you get to expertise daily.

I’ve made it to New York Metropolis twice in my life, and even lived there for a spell. If I ever return, I’ll need to pack a fly rod and go meet these Central Park carp.

You possibly can learn Zissu’s total story, and be taught extra in regards to the fly fishing choices simply outdoors of New York, right here.

For the previous 5 or 6 years I’ve been an ardent supporter of the chest pack because the premier technique to carry and retailer deal with whereas on the water. I’ve by no means appreciated sling packs, backpacks are too unwieldy, and all of the vests I’d worn in my earlier fly fishing years weren’t nice for my again, neck, and shoulders.

My present chest pack is on its final leg of life, although, and I’m not enamored with the opposite choices available on the market. So, I made a decision to revisit the fly fishing vest, principally to see if any modifications had been made within the years I give up sporting them.

I’ll have an in-depth have a look at a number of new vests popping out shortly, however within the meantime, I’ll simply say this: fly fishing vests have made some first rate leaps prior to now decade, and I feel I’m switching to 1 full-time.

Decrease Profile

The principle cause I’m stepping away from chest packs is my love affair for hen wings and all the opposite unhealthy meals that’s led to me placing on just a few (learn: approach various) kilos. The vest is a decrease profile technique to haul my deal with to the river, and I really feel much less like a doddering hippo than I do when sporting a chest pack.

On prime of that, my fly line has much less alternative to catch on the vest because it’s nearer to my physique than the chest pack. It’s already led to noticeably fewer situations of grumbling and complaining whereas choosing fly line off zipper pulls or tippet caddies.

Elevated Storage

A chest pack is nice for anglers who wish to take a minimalist method to the water, since they’re so typically smaller than vests or slings. However even with that minimalist method, you continue to want some spools of tippet, cut up shot, indicators, spare leaders, floatant, nippers, your fishing license, and a few flies. Vests have extra storage room than chest packs on common. It’s a bit extra organized, as nicely, because of the bevy of pockets on a vest in comparison with a chest pack.

Mild and Breathable

Once I was nonetheless utilizing vests, the fabric was thick and didn’t breathe nicely. Sure, there have been some mesh vests available on the market then, however they had been both cost-prohibitive, lacked sufficient storage, or the mesh was of poor high quality that seemingly wouldn’t stand as much as lengthy days on the water. Of the vests I’ve lately been attempting, all of them are mesh-based and splendidly mild and breathable.

I’m excited to place these vests to extra use within the coming months and see if my inclination to ditch chest packs seems to be the suitable transfer.

Lani Waller wants no introduction for steelheaders, as he was one of the revered steelhead anglers and lecturers earlier than he handed away in 2024. His massive venture was a movie sequence about catching steelhead, which is broadly considered the most effective instructional movie sequence ever produced. Along with that, he wrote just a few books and contributed to Fly Fisherman Journal and Wild Trout and Salmon Journal. 

The final venture Waller labored on earlier than he died is a group of 11 essays entitled Grasshopper Bridge. The parents over at Fly Fisherman Journal have your entire ebook out there without spending a dime obtain, and also will be releasing a brand new chapter from that ebook for the subsequent 10 weeks.

You’ll be able to learn the primary one, and discover your entire ebook for obtain, right here.

This week’s Tying Tuesday is trout targeted, however that is additionally the time of 12 months that trout fishing actually slows down, and many people are spending hours on the vise in preparation for subsequent season. You’ll discover an important stonefly dry on this week’s assortment of tutorials, together with a hex sample, and a sculpin that I believe seems lethal.

Sure, it’s winter, but it surely’s by no means too early to start out tying for subsequent season. The parents at Fly Fish Meals agree, since they simply launched this new Foam Queen stonefly imitation made type a completely new kind of froth. It’s from MFC and this Excessive Rise Foam is available in tons of sizes and colours, but it surely’s supposedly extra sturdy than some other foam available on the market. Regardless, it is a nice stonefly sample, and it’s not too laborious to tie, both.

Up subsequent is Davie McPhail’s tackle the Hexagenia Limbata, one of many world’s largest mayflies. This sample in all probability isn’t for the faint of coronary heart, but it surely’s laborious to think about a greater match for these huge ol’ bugs. Shoot, a smaller model would possibly even work properly for Inexperienced Drake hatches, too.

Lastly, we’ve the Micro Jig Sculpin from Spirit Fly on YouTube, a channel I don’t suppose we’ve featured earlier than. I like fishing sculpin patterns this time of 12 months on tailwaters, and this seems like a incredible tie.

I’ve had the pleasure of documenting many cutthroat restoration efforts over the previous decade, principally in Utah, the place I grew up. However this latest story from Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is likely one of the most attention-grabbing cutthroat conservation tales I’ve ever heard.

Rachel Gonzales wrote the story for Colorado Outside, and I extremely suggest you learn all the factor. What she builds as much as is the primary remedy of its sort to make use of brook trout to assist restore native cutthroat populations.

How is that doable, you ask? Don’t we all know that brook trout out-compete cutthroat, actually forcing the native fish out of the water? Sure, we do. And we all know that whole eradication of brook trout is often solely doable via rotenone therapies—poisoning a river or lake.

However the scientists over at CPW determined to consider issues in another way, and lately hatched a plan to inventory YY brook trout in creeks throughout the Williams Fork River headwaters. By stocking YY male brook trout, biologists make sure that each offspring these fish produce is male. Stocking these “Trojan Brook Trout” right into a river that’s inhabited by each cutthroat and brookies will ultimately create a inhabitants of male-only brook trout. With none females round, the brook trout will ultimately die out, leaving the cutthroat to take again their historic native vary.

It’s an revolutionary approach, and one which doesn’t require a piscicide like rotenone. This retains genetically pure populations of cutthroat trout—the fish which might be present in Williams Fork headwaters—alive and never depending on a hatchery to reclaim them.

Once more, Gonzales does an exquisite job together with her story, and I counsel you learn the entire thing right here.

4 years in the past, a gaggle of sixteen children filed a lawsuit in opposition to the state of Montana, alleging the state has violated its structure by prioritizing fossil gasoline growth over the well being and security of Montana residents.

Based on Hatch Journal, that case made all of it the best way to the Montana Supreme Court docket, the place the justices dominated in favor of the children. This ruling affirmed a earlier lower-court ruling that additionally sided with the children.

As you’ll be able to learn in Hatch, the plaintiffs “alleged {that a} provision added in 2011 to the Montana Environmental Coverage Act (MEPA), aimed particularly at stopping local weather change-related impacts from being taken into consideration throughout environmental feasibility and allowing critiques performed by the state, was unconstitutional. That provision barred state environmental critiques from taking into account ‘precise or potential impacts past Montana’s borders,’ including that ‘it might not embody precise or potential impacts which are regional, nationwide, or international in nature.’”

Montana’s state structure contains wording that ensures its residents to a clear and wholesome setting. The plaintiffs thought, and the state Supreme Court docket agreed, that the MEPA provision violated the structure. That provision received’t be authorized after this ruling, which implies Montana legislators should think about local weather change when making environmental and allowing choices.

How a lot of a distinction it will have in policymaking continues to be to be seen, nevertheless it possible opens the doorways for additional lawsuits if folks or teams really feel Montana’s legislature isn’t following the principles laid forth within the state structure that Montana should present a wholesome and clear setting.

Montana governor Greg Gianforte (R) responded to the choice. He was quoted by PBS as saying “This choice does nothing greater than declare open season on Montana’s all-of-the-above strategy to power.” Much like different Western states, Montana’s official place is a promotion of each fossil fuels and renewable power inside its borders.