The Fly Culture Podcast

Send us Fan Mail I welcome Fly Culture contributor James Barry along to the podcast. We talk about his fishing career, the places he fishes along with a few quick fire questions and the day that didn't go to plan. He is also a fisheries scientist who looks closely at salmon and we talk about what he has discovered along with the threats they continue to face. James is great company and as a r...

Send us Fan Mail My guest for this podcast is Nico Vreugdenhil, the man behind Yamame Fly Rods. We talk about how he got into rod making, dd his change of career turn out the way he hoped and the glass fly rod revolution. Nico tells us about his fishing history and why he loves to build and fish glass and graphite rods.

Send us Fan Mail I talk with John Henderson about fishing and his career with Hardy and Greys. From knocking at the door of Greys and asking for work experience several years ago he has stayed with the firm in a variety of roles. We talk about the changes he has seen in the industry, tackle advancements and a day on the water where everything didn't go as planned. John has a fascinating story...

Send us Fan Mail From the age of 4 Katka was casting a fly rod. After leaving university she embarked on a career in fly fishing that has taken her around the world. She is a skilled angler who has been Czech Republic Champion 6 times and has represented her country a number of times in competition fly fishing and in 2022 achieved silver in the individual class of the World Championship. Katka loo...

Send us Fan Mail I talk with Dave Southall about why he likes to fish with light lines and small flies. We also talk about hatches along with a caddis fly that I learnt a lot about. He also has lots of fishing tips that make fishing small flies a lot easier. This episode is packed with information that you'll find useful.

Send us Fan Mail You may recognise the name of my guest. He was tying flies at fishing shows from the age of 8 and was working in his parents shop, Fly Only in Yorkshire, for a number of years. We talk about why he is now in Devon, what it is like to have a life that revolved around fly fishing and we catch a few fish including a surprise too! Dylan is a talented fly angler and tyer who was castin...

Send us Fan Mail I talk with Keith Passant about his love of fly fishing, where it started and the places he likes to fish. He is a skilled fly tyer who has attained the AAPGAI fly tying qualification at Masters level and so there are plenty of tips and advice and as ever, I ask, do we really need a lot of flies? Keith also ran the fishing section of the Orvis Store in Burford that if you were luc...

Send us Fan Mail I am joined on the river with Westcountry fly angler and guide Harry Chance. We talk about his love of fishing the small streams of Devon, look for some rising trout along with his work with the Environment Agency. We talk tactics and enjoy time together on the river.

Send us Fan Mail I catch up with Tiger Stamp and talk about his fishing career, how the fishing landscape looks and what his non-fishing friends make of him packing waders and rods and heading out to the river. He is the sort of angler who thinks deeply about his approach to fishing and we talk about how he will fish a particular method and how he gets success from it. There is some great informat...

Send us Fan Mail Join me for the day as I fish Chew Valley Lake for pike with my friend Jethro Binns. He shares plenty of tips and information for any one who is interested in pike on the fly but the day turns out to be a lot more than just this. It is about friends fishing together and talking about what our pastime means to us with a few special fish along the way. This podcast is recorded exact...

Send us Fan Mail I catch up with Tim Smith who has had a varied and interesting life in fly fishing. From guiding, gaining casting qualifications and editing a fly fishing magazine he has done a lot. He also runs a farm and we talk about the effects farming has on the environment. Tim is an entertaining guest who you're going to enjoy listening to.

Send us Fan Mail I talk with Sid Hiscox and Declan Morrison about their friendship and love of fly fishing. We discuss whether you need to take phone fishing with you, where and why they fish and their fly fishing train wrecks along with a couple from my long list of them too. They are the people behind the clothing brand Fera and have just released a fly fishing range called 'Trout Bum'...

Send us Fan Mail If you're a reader of Fly Culture or The Drake, you will have come across the writing of my guest today. Johannes lives and breathes fly fishing and having left the fishing in  Finland he is now  back in Ireland and has a wealth of experience that we touch on in this episode. From floating streamer patterns to pike on the fly via sea trout we cover a lot of ground. I have alw...

Send us Fan Mail I catch up with Zoe to find out what fishing means to her especially the streams that flow off of Dartmoor in Devon. Her background in fishing came from fishing the Catskills in the US before heading home to Devon. I learn about her experiences and what fly fishing means to her. We also discuss the connection we all have with fly fishing and how it can mean different things to dif...

Send us Fan Mail How many fishing clubs should you be a member of?  What do you do if you get an emergency call and the river is alive with salmon? I discuss these questions and many more with my guest James Gilbraith. We also talk about his latest book, Anarchy Pie,  that carries on from his previous books, Terminal Chancer and Hooked on Hope. James is an entertaining and very funny guest who wil...

Send us Fan Mail Join me for a cold, wet and windy day fishing the streams of Dartmoor with my friend Warren. The plan was to see if we can catch a fish on a dry fly in some pretty extreme conditions. Do we manage it? I also give plenty of tips and advice on how to fish these small streams along with what you need and don't need. I hope this will prove useful if you're planning on headin...

Send us Fan Mail I talk with Ed Engle, author of Fishing Small Flies and Tying Small Flies about how to tie and fish small flies. As a former guide of 20 years he shares a lot of fishing tips too. We also discuss his book Splitting Cane and what fishing bamboo rods mean to him. From his home in Colorado, he talks with great affection about his home river, The South Platte and the other places he l...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I'm joined by guide and passionate angler, Stuart Wardle who shares a wealth of advice on how to fish a trout stream early in the season. We talk about how to prepare, approach the water, make the cast and cover a trout. We de-bug the 'must have' fly story and concentrate on presentation to get the best results when fishing. Stuart is great company a...

Send us Fan Mail My guest for this podcast has been the most requested by listeners and I am pleased to say that he joins me to talk about fishing, flies, bamboo rods, salmon fishing in Scotland and his new book, All the Time in the World. This is an interesting and entertaining talk with one of the most influential and loved  writers in fly fishing. This an episode not to be missed!

Send us Fan Mail Join me for the day as I walk the famous chalk stream, The Frome with friends John Aplin and John Grindle. What was planned as a days fishing turned out to be so much more as we eat a great breakfast, catch up, see John's amazing rod room, talk about fishing and of course, the famous grayling of The Frome!

Send us Fan Mail Clement Booth first  caught a trout from a stream near his home in South Africa in the 1960s. He didn't have a fly rod but improvised using a fly line and old spinning rod.  It turned out to be the start of a long association with fly fishing that continued on the streams and salt water in South Africa before moving to the alpine streams of Germany and then on to the chalk st...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I start the day with fried breakfast and good coffee with my friend Toby Merrigan. We head over to Tiverton to fish the Exe and see if we can find some grayling. We talk about what it was like to build a fly fishing brand, sell it and move away from the industry completely. Toby was behind Funky Fly Tying and as someone who fished regularly with him from its incept...

Send us Fan Mail I welcome Jim Murray back to the podcast to talk about the new season, what to look forward to and where he is heading. We also discuss what went into his TV program Robson and Jim's Icelandic Adventure and the much anticipated second series that will be out in April. We spend time on his new project Activist Anglers that focuses on bringing anglers and non-anglers together t...

Send us Fan Mail Jamie Lee has spent most of his life travelling the world with a fly rod in his hand. From a fishing career that started in Devon he has worked as a ghille in Ireland, spent countless hours sleeping on rocks hoping to catch black marlin in Australia, chased steelhead in British Colombia, has run a lodge in Russia and travelled extensively  through the country there before settling...

Send us Fan Mail Do you have a river that really gets under your skin? Laurens Bubendorfer does. It is the Soca in Slovenia. His passion for it grew and grew to the extent that he left his job and home in Austria to move next to the Soca in Slovenia. We talk about what the Soca means to him, how they are trying to re-introduce native Marble Trout back into the river and fishing dogs. He has also m...