Untangled: Fly Fishing For Everyone | Ventures Fly Co.

You never expect a trip to nosedive, especially when you've planned it for the better part of a year, you're traveling across a few states to get there, and you're going with two of your best friends. As the old saying goes, though, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. In our case, we just didn't understand that we even had an enemy, or how far south things could actually go. 

This is the story of the trip we all hav...

Do you have a fly box that’s full of go-to patterns for your local creek? And maybe another one that’s stuffed with all the right flies for the tailwater you visit a few times a year? 

And let’s be honest for a sec — when’s the last time you used EVERY fly in those boxes? How many of those patterns are there mostly for emotional support? Or do they just weigh down your pack and make it hard to fin...

Have you ever heard someone say something like “Oh, the flows on the river are good today, that means the fishing will be great!” And you’re a bit too embarrassed to ask why flows matter? Maybe you’ve even heard the phrase “CFS” thrown around too? 

Well, high and low water flows have different impacts on how the fishing is. Too high, and it’s tough, or impossible, to fish. Too low, and...

The biggest lie in fly fishing is that there's an exactly-perfect, foolproof, never-fail method to fish every piece of water, and that if you study or learn enough, you'll never get skunked. 

Here's the truth -- great anglers still get skunked, or at the very least, have TOUGH days on the water. But one skill they've mastered? The ability to sift through the advice that's out there, and learn how to apply it to their unique si...

June usually means high water, big bugs, happy fish, and the first days that are warm enough to think about wet wading. June’s also the first month when some of the high country starts opening up, which means your favorite small streams and ponds are just a hike away. 

The most challenging thing about June fishing, though, is navigating the high water and finding the fish. Once you know what to ...

How many flies do you have in your box right now? A few dozen? A few hundred? More than a thousand? Yeah, it's great to have a lot of flies on hand - but that many choices makes it easy to overthink your fly selection. That can lead to you switching flies too often, when the real reason you're not catching fish has to do with your presentation. So, today on Untangled, you'll learn a bit more about why it's a good idea to pare down ...

What’s keeping you from having consistent, repeatable success on the water? From fishing with the same sort of confidence you see guides approach it with, or anglers who’ve been fishing for decades. Is it really just time and honing a bunch of technical skills, like casting, or fly selection? 

That stuff helps. But the best anglers I know — the ones I say I wanna be like when I grow ...

Trout aren't the only fish to catch on a fly rod. From bass and pike to panfish and tarpon, there's almost no end to the critters you can catch with this style of fly fishing. Doing something so different from what you're used to, though, will definitely throw you for a loop - just like it did to Alex and Spencer. They just went on a trip to Florida for some bass fishing, and got some time in on the salt as well. What they learned ...

You hear stories about some fisheries that are supposed to be excellent. Since you don’t want to miss out on great fishing, and you figure that many people who talk up a spot can’t be wrong about it, you plan a day to go see it.

Then you make the trip there — whether it’s a long drive, a hike, or both — and you can’t quite figure out what all the fuss was for. Either you get skunked, you don&rsqu...

What information do you ACTUALLY need to know if you're getting started in fly fishing? What's going to help you improve, and what's just going to add to the noise?

Well, there are a lot of opinions on this topic. This week on Untangled, Spencer Durrant shares the 5 things he wishes he knew when he started fly fishing, A LONG time ago. 

You'll also learn about: 

• Why and when you need to fish really small flies
• Why yo...

When the wind picks up and you suddenly can't land your flies right where you want them anymore, what do you do? If you're anything like me, you probably make a few classic mistakes that are actively harming your ability to fly cast in the wind. Today on Untangled, you'll learn about the 3 big mistakes to avoid, and the things you should do instead, to battle the wind when it inevitably shows up. 

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I used to HATE fishing with nymphs. What bugged me the most was dealing with split shot - taking it off, or putting it on my rig. You've gotta get those tiny slits in the shot lined up with your tippet, then crimp it down, and NOT drop it all in the river. It's not fun to cast with, either. 

The biggest problem is how much split shot actually effects your ability to feel what your flies are doing, and how they're drifting. By ...

Get your dry fly rod ready, because May means some of the best hatches you'll see all year! In this month's fly fishing report, you'll leran all about the bugs that will hatch in May, the flies we recommend for imitating them, and a couple of pro tips for making the most of fishing before runoff hits. 

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The caddis hatch sometimes get overlooked in all our excitement over mayflies and stoneflies, especially early in the season. 

But caddis hatches stay consistent throughout the summer, and they only become more important for trout as the season stretches on. Plus, the first big caddis hatch of the year can be an absolute blast if you hit it right. 

This week on Untangled, we’ll...

If you really want to grow as an angler, sometimes that means you'll need to make some hard choices. You'll need to push yourself to try stuff you may not want to, or you'll have to find a way to power through the days on the water that, frankly, make you want to give up. On the other side of those hard times is the great fishing we always hear stories about. And in today's episode of Fly Fishing Stories, Spencer Durrant shares the...

Ice-off is a magical time: it's when some of the biggest trout in any body of water come within easy casting distance of shore. That means it's one of the best times of year for you to tie into what could be your new personal best trout on a fly rod! So, to take advantage of this great fishing, this week's episode of Untangled is a deep-dive into all things ice-off fly fishing: why it's so productive, tactics to find and hook fish,...

Alright, let’s be honest for a sec — how often do you feel like you’re catching fish more out of luck than skill? 

I remember feeling that way all the time when I started fly fishing. Honestly, that feeling didn’t stop until I learned this one valuable lesson: if you pay attention to WHERE you catch fish, and not just what fly they ate, finding and catching fish really starts t...

How much does the pattern you pick matter for your success on the water? Is there an EXACT PERFECT FLY that'll work amazing in one situation, and if you don't pick it, you won't have as much success as you could've? 

Probably. But here's the thing - fly selection doesn't really matter that much. HOW you present that fly is what makes the most difference. To put this theory to the test, we spent an entire day fishing for four d...

Have you ever fished in a hatch that feels like the stories we hear, usually from the old-timers, about the days when fish ate from a never-ending buffet of bugs? Where, if you're in the right place at the right time, you can catch fish until your arms fall off?

I've had that opportunity once - and this is the story of the greatest mayfly hatch I've ever seen. 

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