2 Guys and a River

Midsummer fly fishing tips include taking a siesta in the middle of the day and trying your hand at catching trout with a size #22 Trico imitation. In this episode, we discuss a few of the changes that come when fishing in the dog days of summer. Be sure to add your midsummer fly fishing … Continue reading "243: 7 Midsummer Fly Fishing Tips" The post 243: 7 Midsummer Fly Fishing Tips appeared firs...

Parents, both mothers and fathers, play an inordinate role in the belief systems and destiny of their children. This weekend is Father’s Day Weekend, and so we wanted to share the lessons from our fathers while hunting and fishing in the great outdoors. In this episode, we select three lessons each (six total) that our … Continue reading "242: Outdoors Lessons from Our Fathers" The post 242: Outdo...

Dry fly fishing is one of the great joys of the sport. One key element of success is where you cast your dry fly. It’s both art and skill. In this episode, we identify the eight places where you should cast your dry fly. None of this is new, but the episode is a good … Continue reading "241: 8 Places to Cast Your Dry Fly" The post 241: 8 Places to Cast Your Dry Fly appeared first on 2 Guys and A R...

Like all of life, fly fishing has become increasingly complex: Just try to sort through the dizzying array of fly fishing rods before you purchase your next one. In this episode, we discuss our aspirations to simplify our fly fishing experience. What might that look like for you? LISTEN NOW TO “SIMPLIFYING YOUR FLY FISHING … Continue reading "240: Simplifying Your Fly Fishing Experience" The post...

Fishing a new creek or river for the first time is exciting. But there’s also an intrigue of fly fishing a familiar place, a stretch that you’ve fished for years. In this episode, we recount a recent fly fishing trip to a spring creek that we’ve fished many, many times. There’s an intrigue of fly … Continue reading "239: The Intrigue of Fly Fishing a Familiar River" The post 239: The Intrigue of F...

The best all around fly rod is up for debate. The answer is, of course, it depends. Many fly fishers have more than one rod, but if you had to choose, which would be the best all around fly rod? In this episode, we make a case for the nine-foot, five-weight or nine-foot six-weight rod … Continue reading "238: Best All Around Fly Rod for Normal Folk" The post 238: Best All Around Fly Rod for Normal...

Fly fishing success means different things to different people. For many of us, just a day on the river is success. In this episode, we identify six lists from our book “The Fly Fisher’s Book of Lists” and discuss their merits. One list that we discuss is “8 Adjustments to Make When Fishing Spring Creeks.” … Continue reading "237: 6 Lists for Fly Fishing Success" The post 237: 6 Lists for Fly Fish...

Stalking trout is a basic concept of fly fishing, but yet it’s often not part of the curriculum of new fly fishers. In this episode we identify six practices for stalking trout and tell a few stories when we found success for our efforts. Stalking trout is especially important on smaller freestone rivers and spring … Continue reading "236: 6 Practices for Stalking Trout" The post 236: 6 Practices...

Flies that work anytime and anywhere are essential to your fly box. Yes, there may be some specialty flies that work only during specific hatches, but more often than not, the basics are pretty much all you need (most or at least much of the time). In this episode we discuss two dry flies, two … Continue reading "235: Flies that Work Anytime and Anywhere" The post 235: Flies that Work Anytime and...

Your next fly fishing trip may seem like years away in this moment in history, but soon enough, it will be time to plan. In this episode we discuss four questions to help winnow your options to make the best decision about time of year for your next fly fishing trip. We also discuss our … Continue reading "234: 4 Questions for Your Next Fly Fishing Trip" The post 234: 4 Questions for Your Next Fly...

Landing bigger fish is impossible if you simply try to rip in the fish like you would if you were spin fishing. In this episode we identify several tips that have helped us increase our catch rate when Moby hits our streamer or nymph. One tip is a different mindset, which comes only after … Continue reading "233: Tips for Landing Bigger Fish" The post 233: Tips for Landing Bigger Fish appeared fir...

Fishing emergers during a hatch is as fundamental as it gets. And yet, most new fly fishers rarely hear about this approach early on. In this episode, we start off with a couple great stories from recent trips when the stars were aligned, and we hit a hatch perfectly. But the fish were not hitting … Continue reading "232: Fishing Emergers during a Hatch" The post 232: Fishing Emergers during a Hat...

Soft river bottoms pose a unique risk to wade fishers. In this episode, Dave recounts a winter fly fishing experience in which he got stuck in the mud while trying to wade to a run. It was 31 degrees. Dave had no cell coverage. He had gotten wet. And his fly fishing partner was about … Continue reading "231: The Wading Risk of Soft River Bottoms" The post 231: The Wading Risk of Soft River Bottoms...

Safe wading is rarely the first thought on a fly fisher’s mind as he or she plans for a day on the river. It should be. In this episode, we interview Dave Kumlien, a Montana outfitter for 40 years, former fly shop owner, and coordinator of Trout Unlimited’s Veteran Service Partnership. We start out this … Continue reading "230: Montana Outfitter Dave Kumlien on Safe Wading" The post 230: Montana O...

The hope of fly fishing is a day in the not too distant future when our fears have been suspended and we make our way upstream with only the next run on our mind. In this episode, we focus not on the present moment but days gone by when we endured hardship while also making … Continue reading "229: The Hope of Fly Fishing in the Waiting" The post 229: The Hope of Fly Fishing in the Waiting appeare...

Friendship makes the outdoors better. At least that’s our perspective, given that our outdoors friendship has lasted four decades. In this episode, we discuss the makings of friendship and how certain kinds of competitiveness can prevent friendship from forming. We also discuss how “idle” friendships can be reinvigorated or restarted again. The old advertising line, … Continue reading "228: The Ma...

Yellowstone runners are the big brown and rainbow trout that move up from Hebgen Lake into Yellowstone National Park’s Madison River each fall. In this episode, we discuss Chester Allen’s delightful book, Yellowstone Runners: Chasing a dream fish in Yellowstone National Park during the Madison River’s Famous Fall Run. Allen is a terrific storyteller while … Continue reading "227: A Conversation ab...

Every day on the river is the chance to grow in your understanding of how to fish. Every item of gear that you purchase gives you some information about what to buy (or not buy) the next time around. In this end-of-the-year episode, we offer up our top 10 fly fishing lessons from a year … Continue reading "Episode 226: Top 10 Fly Fishing Lessons of the Year" The post Episode 226: Top 10 Fly Fishin...

Late season fly fishing can be challenging for a variety of reasons. One is obviously weather. Another is that the hatches are over with the exception of midges or the ocasional baetis. You’re typically fishing nymphs or streamers. In this episode, we reflect on several trips in late fall and what we learned during this … Continue reading "Episode 225: Late Season Fly Fishing" The post Episode 225...

All good things must come to an end, and this was the final day of our fly fishing trip in mid-September. Rain was in the forecast, so we hoped upon hope that there might be some baetis hatching on the Madison River at the mouth of Beartrap Canyon. Spoiler alert: There wasn’t a mayfly within … Continue reading "Episode 224: One Fine Rainy Day on the Madison" The post Episode 224: One Fine Rainy Da...

After two terrific days on the Yellowstone River, we changed it up a bit. We headed to the Boulder River, south of Big Timber, Montana. This is the third of four episodes from a recent fly fishing trip to Yellowstone Country in Montana and northern Wyoming. We decided to call this episode One Fine Strange … Continue reading "Episode 223: One Fine Strange Day on the Boulder" The post Episode 223: O...

Our second day on the Yellowstone this fall was even better than the first. This is the second of four episodes from a recent fly fishing trip to Yellowstone Country in Montana and northern Wyoming. After a terrific cloudy day on the Yellowstone, we had One Fine Sunny Day on the Yellowstone. There is nothing … Continue reading "Episode 222: One Fine Sunny Day on the Yellowstone" The post Episode 2...

We are not good at quitting. This is the first of four episodes from a recent fly fishing trip to Yellowstone Country in Montana and northern Wyoming. In August, after four wonderful years, we stopped publishing a weekly episode and writing a weekly article. We thought we were done. But then we had One Fine … Continue reading "Episode 221: One Fine Cloudy Day on the Yellowstone" The post Episode 2...

Every day of fly fishing has a beginning. And an end. There’s often a sense of sadness right before, and certainly, after the last run of the day. Not every “last run of the day” is packed with emotion, but we’ve had several experiences when the final moments of the day felt thick with meaning. … Continue reading "S5:E12 The Last Run of the Day" The post S5:E12 The Last Run of the Day appeared fir...

Fly fishers gain confidence by fishing for brook trout. Brook trout are forgiving, and there’s nothing like an afternoon of catching 15 brook trout to increase one’s confidence. That’s only one of several strategies that we discuss to help newer fly fishers gain confidence. It’s easy to feel discouraged during a stretch of no fish. … Continue reading "S5:E11 How Fly Fishers Gain Confidence" The po...