Sockeye Salmon

Alaskan Sockeye: Combat Fishing with Dignity

Combat sockeye fishing in Alaska is crowded, chaotic, and productive. Here's how to catch fish while keeping your head and not ruining anyone else's day.

Salmon Fishing

Salmon Fishing the Pacific Northwest: Kings, Cohos, and Rain Gear

Pacific salmon fishing from the boat — trolling, mooching, and casting for Chinook and coho off the Washington and Oregon coasts.

Northern Pike

Northern Pike on Topwater: A Violent Joy of a Fish

Northern pike slashing a topwater at 10 feet from the boat is among fishing's most violent and satisfying moments. Here's how to make it happen.

Ice Fishing

Jigging Saugers and Walleye Through Winter Lake Ice

Ice fishing for walleye and sauger — tip-ups, jigs, electronics, and the Minnesota/North Dakota border lakes that produce big fish year after year.

Walleye

Walleye Fishing in the Midwest: The Techniques That Consistently Catch Fish

Walleye are famous for being moody. Here are the techniques that catch them when nothing else is working — jigging, pulling crankbaits, and the bobber game.

Smallmouth Bass

Smallmouth Bass in River Current: Topwater, Tubes, and Timing

River smallmouth eat differently than lake fish. Here's how to read current, pick the right lure, and time the day for smashed topwater bites.

Largemouth Bass

Largemouth Bass Fishing: The Flipping and Pitching Playbook

Flipping and pitching is bass fishing's short-range technique for heavy cover. Here's how the pros set up for docks, laydowns, and grass mats.

Fly Rods

Choosing Your First 5-Weight: Sage, Orvis, G. Loomis, and the Real Answer

A practical 5-weight fly rod guide — which rod suits which angler, price-vs-performance, and why the $900 rod isn't always better than the $300 one.

Smallmouth Bass

Smallmouth on the Fly: The Overlooked Warmwater Game

Smallmouth bass on a 6-weight in moving water may be the most underrated fly fishing in America. The flies, the water, and why guides quietly prefer them to trout.

Steelhead

Steelhead on the Skagit: Swung Flies and Why You Won't Catch One

Swung-fly steelhead on the Skagit is the hardest fly fishing in North America. Here's what the hunt looks like, and why you'll go home empty the first trip.

Fly Fishing

Dry Fly Purism Is Overrated: A Case for the Nymph

Dry fly fishing is romantic. Nymphing is how most trout actually eat. A practical defense of subsurface fishing in a sport obsessed with rises.

Fly Fishing

Reading Trout Water: Seams, Buckets, and the Lazy Inside Bend

Trout don't live in the whole river — they live in specific pieces of it. Here's how to read water and put your fly where the fish actually are.