364 Fly Fishing Tips from 225 Podcast Episodes, Sorted by Region, Species, Water and Topic
This is every closing-minute tip from the Fly Fishing Insider Podcast archive — 364 tips pulled straight from the transcripts of 225 episodes, each one attributed to the guest who gave it, sorted four ways: by region, by species, by water type and by topic, so you can find the ones that fit your water.
I end every episode of the Fly Fishing Insider Podcast the same way. Whoever the guest is — a Bristol Bay lodge guide, a tarpon specialist out of the Keys, a rod designer, a musky obsessive, someone who's just started a magazine out of a spare bedroom — I ask them for one tip. Something a listener could use the next time they're on the water, or off it. It's the last thing I record before I say goodbye, and it's usually the moment a guest stops performing for the microphone and just tells you what they actually believe.
I started doing that in 2019 without much of a plan for it. By the time I got around to counting, there were 225 episodes on the board, spanning 2019 through 2024, and inside those closing minutes sat 364 separate tips. I could name the guest on 292 of them with real confidence — a verified spelling, a verified role, an episode to point you back to. The rest came from guests whose names I couldn't confirm to my own standard, so those are attributed by role instead. I'd rather tell you "a Kenai River guide" honestly than guess at a spelling and get it wrong.
What I didn't have, until this project, was anywhere those 364 tips lived together. They were scattered across five years of transcripts and old show notes, each one useful and none of them findable unless you happened to remember which episode it came from. This page is the fix — the hub for a library of 21 articles, this one plus 20 more that each take a slice of the same tip set and go deep by region, species, water type or topic. Below is a card for each of those 20 articles, then 25 of the sharpest, most quotable tips in the whole archive, grouped by what they teach.
Browse the tip library
By region
- Rocky Mountain West trout water — 25 guests on Yellowstone country, Montana freestones and Utah's technical tailwaters, the single biggest region in the archive.
- Alaska and Pacific Northwest tips — Bristol Bay lodge guides and Pacific Northwest steelhead swingers on salmon-run trout and West Coast runs.
- Great Lakes, Midwest and Northeast water — tributary steelhead, musky rivers and small Eastern streams from guests east of the Rockies.
- Southeast and Gulf Coast flats — tarpon, redfish and inshore guiding advice from Florida to the Texas coast.
- international destination tips — Belize, Mexico, Canada, the Seychelles and the other trips guests kept coming back to.
By species
- trout tips from over 100 guests — the largest single species in the library, on dries, nymphs, streamers and everything between.
- steelhead and salmon tips — swing technique, run timing and reading holding water from guests who chase them for a living.
- bonefish, tarpon and permit tips — flats presentation, hooksets and landing fish with a mouth that punishes a trout-set reflex.
- bass, carp, musky and pike tips — the warmwater species most trout-focused anglers never learn to fish.
By water type
- rivers and freestone tips — the largest water type in the archive, on wading, reading current and covering moving water.
- stillwater and lake tips — depth, retrieve speed and reading water that gives you no current to read.
- tailwater, spring creek and small stream tips — technical, clear-water fishing where one bad drift ends the shot.
By topic
- reading water and presentation tips — the most-repeated category of advice across 225 episodes.
- rigging, knots and leader tips — the fixes for the failures that actually cost anglers fish.
- casting tips — from guides, casting instructors and the people who design rods for a living.
- fly selection and tying tips — what guests actually tie on, and the reasoning behind it.
- mindset tips — the largest single topic in the library, on getting better on purpose instead of by accident.
- trip planning tips — booking guides, timing seasons and getting real value out of a trip.
- gear tips that actually matter — from the people who build the gear and guide with it every day.
- nymphing, euro nymphing and streamer tips — subsurface technique across three closely related disciplines.
What are the sharpest tips in 225 episodes of the Fly Fishing Insider Podcast?
The 25 tips below are the most quotable ones in the whole library — the answers guests gave that needed nothing added to them. They span tarpon flats in the Keys, spey water in British Columbia, a Yellowstone spring creek and a guide talking about PTSD on a drift boat, because that's honestly what the closing minute of this show has always produced. I've grouped them by what they teach, not by episode order, so pull whichever section actually matches what you're working on.
Fights and hooksets: landing more of what you hook
TIP 01 · HOOKSETS & LANDING
Strip tight before you set the hook on a tarpon
— Bruce Chard, Florida Keys tarpon and saltwater fly fishing guide · Guided EP # 19 Bruce Chard, Grand Slams All Day
When a tarpon eats your fly, don't react by lifting the rod — that's the trout-set reflex. Instead, keep stripping after the eat until you feel the leader come tight against the fish's mouth. Once you're tight, then set the hook.
Why it matters. A tarpon's mouth is mostly hard bone, and the trout angler's instinct — lift the rod the instant you feel the eat — pulls the fly straight back out or drives it into bone it can't penetrate.
How to do it. Keep the rod tip down and keep stripping through the eat. Don't lift until you feel solid, direct resistance — that's the leader coming tight. Then sweep the rod to the side, not straight up, to drive the hook home.
TIP 02 · HOOKSETS & LANDING
Stay tight with steady pressure instead of striking hard
— Bruce Chard, Florida Keys tarpon, bonefish and permit guide, and fly line designer · Guided EP # 19 Bruce Chard, Grand Slams All Day
About eighty percent of a tarpon's mouth is hard bone, and nobody strips hard enough to bury a hook into bone. Staying tight without forcing it lets the hook slide across the bone into a soft spot, like the cheek cartilage, where it actually holds.
Why it matters. Even anglers who know to strip-set instead of trout-set often still strike too hard once the fish turns, which just bounces the hook off bone again. The tarpon's mouth is mostly unforgiving material with only two soft spots that will actually hold a hook.
How to do it. Keep the rod tip down through the eat and strip long, slow and steady rather than short and fast. If the fish turns after eating, hold steady pressure instead of jabbing a hard strip-set. That steady pull is what lets the hook find the upper lip or cheek cartilage instead of skating uselessly across bone.
TIP 03 · HOOKSETS & LANDING
Keep a 90-degree angle between your rod tip and the fish
— Karin Miller, tenkara angler, saltwater guide and fly fishing gear company owner · Bonefish on Tenkara and the Fishing Triangle for Fish Management - Karin Miller, S5E202
It's all about triangles — there's you, the fish, and the tip of the rod. When the angle between the fish and my rod tip is about 90 degrees, life is good. The minute it collapses below about 65 degrees, things go south fast.
Why it matters. Playing a fish straight up overhead dumps all the pressure onto the rod's soft tip section, which pops tippet and lets fish throw the hook on uneven tension.
How to do it. As soon as you hook a fish, hold roughly a 90-degree angle between your rod tip and the fish, lowering the tip as the fish moves. If that angle collapses below about 65 degrees, flip the rod to the opposite side to re-establish it. On a tenkara or fixed-line rod, lay the rod over to the side instead of playing the fish up high — that spreads the load across the whole rod.
TIP 04 · HOOKSETS & LANDING
Fight a hooked tarpon hard and fast, not gentle
— Will Korte, Tampa Bay, Florida inshore angler and guide, author of the 727 Angler blog · Florida Tarpon and All the Other Species Available, S5E210
Once a tarpon eats, don't relish a long fight — put the pedal to the metal and fight it as hard and fast as you possibly can. Going hard and fast to the boat loses far fewer fish than babying the fight.
Why it matters. Anglers lose more tarpon than they land, and every extra minute a fight drags on is another chance for a shark to find the fish or the leader to wear through. A quick, aggressive fight closes that window.
How to do it. The moment a tarpon is hooked, apply as much sustainable pressure as your tackle will take — palm the reel spool for extra drag. Keep the rod low and to the side to pull the fish's head down so it can't roll on the surface and catch a second wind. Accept that a broken-off fish is a fine outcome of fishing hard, not a failure to avoid at all costs.
How do you actually read a run before your first cast?
TIP 05 · CASTING
Move your hips before your hands in a spey cast
— Brian Niska, spey casting guide and lodge owner, Skeena region, British Columbia · Episode 06 - Brian Niska and Geoff Perioway - Perioway Rods
A good spey cast starts at your feet: you move the big joints first, then the small joints. If you've taken a lesson from me, you've heard me say 'no power before midnight' — don't move your hands until you come through 12 o'clock.
Why it matters. Anglers who power a spey cast with their hands and wrists before the rod has loaded get a noisy, inefficient cast — bad sequencing like that is a major cause of the tennis elbow and sore shoulders that chase two-handed casters out of the sport.
How to do it. Start the sweep at your feet, with hip rotation and a weight shift doing the early work, not your arms. Keep your hands quiet through the sweep and into the forward stroke — don't muscle the rod until it's come through 12 o'clock. Let the top hand drive through from there while the bottom hand supplies the final power.
TIP 06 · READING WATER
Stop bombing your cast across the river
— Jeff Liskay, Ohio steelhead and musky guide, swung-fly specialist · Episode 90 - Jeff Liskay - A Steel Header's 6th sense., S3E90
It's not the long bomb cast that catches fish — the fish are almost always closer than you think. Bombing it across the river usually means you're throwing into six inches of water on the far bank.
Why it matters. Casting for maximum distance out of habit often flies the fly clean over the water a steelhead is actually holding in, dropping it into shallow, unproductive water on the far bank instead. A shorter, controlled cast also lets you manage the fly instead of just dragging it.
How to do it. Cap your cast so the running-line loop hanging off the reel roughly matches your rod's length — on an 11-foot switch rod, that's about 40 feet. Think of a skagit or scandi head as a rudder you steer, not a fly you pull. Fish the water close to your own bank and the inside curl first, before you ever assume you need to reach the far side.
TIP 07 · READING WATER
Read the invisible seam, not just visible structure
— Jeff Liskay, Ohio steelhead and musky guide, swung-fly specialist · Episode 90 - Jeff Liskay - A Steel Header's 6th sense., S3E90
The structure people miss is invisible: where fast and slow current meet vertically and horizontally. In cold water our fish lay way off that seam, almost in dead, calm water.
Why it matters. Anglers who only fish obvious rocks and wood miss the fish holding in the slow, calm water off the seam where fast and slow current meet — especially in cold water, when steelhead pull well off the main current and won't be anywhere near visible structure at all.
How to do it. Before you fish a run, note both the visible structure and the invisible seams where current speeds shift, vertically and horizontally. In cold water, prioritize the slow, nearly dead water well off the main seam instead of the fast center current. As the day warms and water temperature climbs, shift your casts progressively toward the faster water where fish move as they become more active.
TIP 08 · READING WATER
Study the run before you wade in
— Roger Hinchcliff, Great Lakes steelhead angler and creator of the Steelhead Manifesto blog · Episode 88 - Steelhead Month, featuring The Steelhead Manifesto Blog., EP 88
The first thing I'd do when you walk up to a run is stop, slow your roll, and study the water before you start blind casting. A lot of steelhead end up surprisingly close to the bank, almost at your feet, while most people cast to the middle.
Why it matters. Anglers who wade straight in and blind cast to the middle of a run routinely walk past fish holding close to the bank, or miss the silver flash of a repositioning fish that would have told them exactly where to cast first.
How to do it. Before wading in, stop at the head of the run and watch the water for a minute — look for a silver flash as fish jockey for position, especially in cold months. Check the water close to the bank, not just the visible far seam. Work from the top of the run down, and let what you see decide the first cast, not habit.
Presentation and fly selection that change your hookup rate
TIP 09 · CASTING
Prioritize casting speed over casting distance
— David Mangum, Florida tarpon fishing guide, Shallow Water Expeditions · Guided EP #7 David Mangum, "Tarpon Success".
If you have forty feet, you can catch anything that swims in saltwater, period. But there's a huge difference between forty feet with four false casts and forty feet with two false casts. Speed is more important than distance.
Why it matters. New saltwater anglers assume they need huge distance to succeed, but tarpon shots are usually close and brief, so a slow, multi-false-cast presentation blows the window before the fly ever reaches the fish.
How to do it. Practice delivering a fly to 35-40 feet using only one or two false casts — a quick pickup, a single load-and-haul, and an immediate shoot. Keep your line hand hauling continuously from the moment the fly leaves the water. Drill this on a lawn or dock until it's automatic, because on the water you often get one shot before the fish is gone.
TIP 10 · PRESENTATION
Land the fly on the fish's outside eye and match its energy
— Lucas Largel, Florida redfish flats guide, fishes both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts · East to West Coast Fly Fishing for Redfish in Florida, S6E230
You want your fly to land on the fish's outside eye — the eye not facing your skiff — and lead him rather than throw it two feet in front of his face. Then match his energy.
Why it matters. Fly pattern gets too much credit for failed shots — a poorly placed fly spooks or bores a redfish no matter how well it's tied. Leading the fish onto the eye away from the boat, and matching its energy, is what turns a shot into an eat.
How to do it. Place your fly ahead of the fish, landing on the eye facing away from your boat, and keep it moving on that side as the fish closes in. Match the retrieve to the fish's mood — fast and erratic for a fish crashing bait, slow and subtle for a cautious one. If a following fish stalls out, give one more short strip right before it gets close enough to inspect.
TIP 11 · PRESENTATION
Figure-eight every single cast, not just when you see a follow
— Jan & Dan Donavon, co-founders of Musky Fool, a musky fly fishing community and brand · Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
If you're not doing a figure eight at the end of every cast, I'd bet you're missing 50 percent of the fish you don't even know are there. On your third figure eight the fish just shows up out of nowhere and eats it.
Why it matters. Musky often trail a fly invisibly and only commit once the angler starts the figure eight, so skipping the move whenever you don't spot a follow costs strikes from fish you never knew were there.
How to do it. Make the figure eight non-negotiable on every retrieve, not an occasional move for fish you actually see. Keep the fly moving in a wide, smooth figure-eight with no pauses, since musky often eat on a change of direction. Stay ready for a strike on the second or third pass, not just the first.
TIP 12 · STREAMERS
Fish dark streamers on overcast, off-color days
— Simeon Myers, streamer angler targeting trophy trout on Pennsylvania limestone streams · Trophy Trout Hunting - What Big Rapalas Tell You About Big Streamers, S3E148
I target inclement weather. When the water gets really off-color I'm using black almost exclusively because it shows up. It's been very, very successful.
Why it matters. Big trophy trout feed selectively and infrequently, holding out for a high-value meal, which makes them more willing to chase a big streamer on stormy, off-color days than on bright, clear ones — days plenty of anglers skip.
How to do it. Watch the forecast for overcast skies or rain that will color up the water, and prioritize those days for streamer fishing over bluebird ones. As the water browns up, switch to darker, high-silhouette streamers — black performs best because it shows up against the murk.
TIP 13 · FLY SELECTION
Carry a black leech as your go-anywhere trout fly
— Kyle Shea, Alaska fishing lodge marketing director and former guide · GDF 09: Kyle Shea PT 2
A black leech is something you could fish anywhere in the world for anything, and if I had to bet on catching a fish today that would be my go-to.
Why it matters. Alaska trout behavior shifts dramatically through the season as it tracks the salmon run, which leaves plenty of anglers guessing at fly choice week to week. One reliable, confidence-inspiring pattern gives you a fallback that works no matter where the fish are in that cycle.
How to do it. Stock a black leech as your default, most-trusted trout fly — and really, for trout almost anywhere, not just Alaska. Add a sculpin pattern for a similar meat-eating look, and bring mouse and flesh flies once salmon are running and trout key on those big, opportunistic food sources for a more visual take.
TIP 14 · DRY FLY
Fish one dry fly instead of a two-fly rig on technical water
— Alice Owsley, Yellowstone-area fly fishing and backcountry guide · Guided EP #2 Alice Owsley
One well-presented single dry fly will out-fish two poorly presented flies dragging through those currents.
Why it matters. Water cut up by lots of micro-currents and seams almost guarantees a two-fly dry rig will have one fly drag, because the two flies sit in different current speeds — and drag kills strikes faster than fly choice ever does.
How to do it. On technical water with lots of small seams, rig a single dry fly targeted at a specific rising fish or hatching insect instead of a two-fly dropper setup. Carry small permanent markers — black or brown plus red or magenta — to recolor a fly's body or post for visibility, and trim it as needed to control how it floats. Put your energy into one clean, drag-free drift instead of covering more water with two flies.
What actually makes anglers better, faster?
TIP 15 · MINDSET
Measure a good day by moments, not fish count
— Zack Walters, steelhead swing guide and publisher of Swing the Fly Magazine · Episode 89 - Zack Walters - Swing the Fly Magazine, S3E89
Don't get too caught up in the numbers of fish. If your day is made with one fish or two fish, consider stopping, looking around, and smelling the roses for a while. Wild steelhead up and down the West Coast are in a lot of trouble.
Why it matters. Wild steelhead runs on the West Coast are declining, and treating a day's success purely as a numbers game pushes anglers to over-fish struggling water while ignoring their own cumulative impact.
How to do it. Set a personal marker for a good day that isn't tied to fish count — one good fish or a great swing can be enough. Handle any fish, especially a wild one, quickly and gently, and take a moment to look at it before releasing it. Ask periodically whether your pressure on a given run is sustainable, and be willing to walk away to spread it out.
TIP 16 · MINDSET
Talk to somebody instead of carrying it alone
— Ben Gerloff, guide and military veteran · Veteran Wellness, Targeting Fish at Their Level and Why You Don't Change Flies - Ben Gerloff, S5E198
If you're having a hard time, talk to somebody. My problem with PTSD is I never talked to people about it. When I opened up about it, all my problems seemed to fall off my shoulders.
Why it matters. Veterans and anyone carrying unaddressed trauma often isolate instead of reaching out, and that weight compounds over time. Opening up, whether to friends, family or the fishing community, can genuinely change things rather than being a sign of weakness.
How to do it. If you're struggling, don't wait for a crisis to bring it up — tell a trusted friend, family member or fishing buddy, even informally on the water where conversation comes easier. Use shared time floating or fishing as a low-pressure setting to open up, since side-by-side time removes the pressure of eye contact. If personal connections aren't enough, seek out veteran-specific or general mental health support.
TIP 17 · MINDSET
Treat every day on the water like your first and last
— Jeffrey Falardeau, Alaska fly-out lodge guide, Bristol Bay · Alaska Fly Fishing Opportunities, S5E235
I treat every trip like it's my first day and my last day. Some days you're the bug, some days you're the windshield.
Why it matters. Guides and anglers alike burn out or coast when every outing starts to feel routine, and putting unrealistic pressure on yourself to make every trip extraordinary sets you up to be disappointed the moment conditions or luck don't cooperate.
How to do it. Before heading out, reset your expectations by treating it as both your first time on that water and possibly your last — it resets your attention and effort no matter how the fishing has gone lately. On slow days, judge yourself by effort and attitude instead of fish count, and remember that even guides who fish constantly don't have a great day every time out.
TIP 18 · MINDSET
Don't rush the dangle at the end of your swing
— Roger Hinchcliff, Great Lakes steelhead angler and creator of the Steelhead Manifesto blog · Episode 88 - Steelhead Month, featuring The Steelhead Manifesto Blog., EP 88
The bottom line is you can't get impatient on the dangle: let the fly swing through, let it hang, and let the fish eat it.
Why it matters. Anglers who strip in or recast the moment the fly straightens out often pull it away right as a following steelhead finally decides to eat, since many grabs happen specifically when the fly slows and pauses at the hang, not during the active swing.
How to do it. Let every swing run all the way through until the line is straight downstream, assuming a fish could be following the whole way. When the fly reaches the dangle, hold it there rather than stripping in immediately — there's no fixed time, so be ready to let it hang up to a minute or more. Stay patient through that pause instead of rushing into your next cast.
Etiquette, conservation and the business of loving this sport
TIP 19 · ETIQUETTE
Approach other anglers with humility, not demands
— Simeon Myers, streamer angler targeting trophy trout on Pennsylvania limestone streams · Trophy Trout Hunting - What Big Rapalas Tell You About Big Streamers, S3E148
Be polite, be courteous, be humble, but be inquisitive too. If you're cool and chill and personable, people will show you their cards, they'll show you what they're doing, and you can learn so much.
Why it matters. Anglers who crowd or ignore others on the water burn bridges and learn nothing, while a polite, humble approach to a stranger who's clearly doing well can turn into free mentorship, lasting friendships and intel on new water.
How to do it. When you see someone having a great day, don't crowd them — give space and watch respectfully for pointers first. Once there's a natural break, approach with genuine curiosity instead of demands for secrets. Be willing to share your own flies and tips with strangers too, especially beginners or kids, since that generosity is what turns strangers into long-term fishing friends.
TIP 20 · ETIQUETTE
Ditch the ego and welcome newcomers into fly fishing
— Louis Cahall, founder of Gink and Gasoline, a fly fishing blog and media brand · Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
I'd like to see the ego, the posturing, and the hate come out of fly fishing. It's not about giving away your spots — it's about helping people along in their journey.
Why it matters. The "cool kids table" attitude toward beginners at a fly shop or on a river discourages newcomers from asking questions, which means they never learn proper technique, and it shrinks the base of anglers who'll eventually stand up for conservation.
How to do it. When a beginner asks a basic question, answer it without judgment instead of testing their knowledge first. Resist ranking your own skill or gear against theirs. Welcoming someone in doesn't require handing over your personal spots — general technique and encouragement go a long way.
TIP 21 · TRIP PLANNING
Get advice from the specialist, not just anyone experienced
— A New Zealand saltwater fly fishing guide targeting kingfish, trevally and snapper · Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
You follow the beef. If you've got a GT trip coming up, you take advice from a GT fisherman, not from the trout angler up in the hills.
Why it matters. General fly fishing advice often doesn't transfer cleanly across species, regions or disciplines, so an angler who takes tips from someone outside their actual domain — however experienced overall — ends up with advice that doesn't hold up once they're on the water.
How to do it. Before a trip or a new pursuit, identify who has spent the most concentrated time in that exact niche — the species, the region, even the discipline, like tying flies for one specific fish — rather than asking a generally experienced angler outside that domain. When you talk to that specialist, ask what and why they pack, when and where they target fish, how they present to it, and what to watch for once one is hooked.
TIP 22 · TRIP PLANNING
Test guiding on friends and family before chasing a job
— Kyle Shea, Alaska fishing lodge marketing director and former guide · GDF 09: Kyle Shea PT 2
A lot of great anglers find out they hate guiding, which makes them terrible guides. Don't let the no's stop you, just keep going until you get a yes.
Why it matters. Being a strong angler doesn't automatically mean you'll enjoy or be good at guiding — it's a different skill built around managing someone else's day, and anglers who skip straight to applying for guide jobs often find out too late that they don't actually like the work.
How to do it. Before pursuing a guiding job, take friends and family out and pay attention to whether you enjoy managing their day, not just your own fishing. If that clicks, get whatever licensing your region requires, then send emails to shops, lodges and outfitters — locally or wherever you want to work. Expect a lot of rejection; persistence, not talent alone, is what gets you the first yes.
TIP 23 · CONSERVATION
Turn conservation overwhelm into one daily action
— Kate Williams, CEO, 1% for the Planet · Episode 40 - Kate Williams, CEO - 1% For the Planet., EP 40
Fall in love with a place, because we fight for what we love. Then you build on that: sign a petition, make a donation, volunteer. Suddenly you realize you're a really powerful person making change.
Why it matters. Big environmental problems can feel too large to act on, so plenty of anglers freeze and do nothing about the water they love. Breaking a commitment into small daily choices makes the problem actionable instead of paralyzing.
How to do it. Pick one outdoor place you genuinely love, whether it's a home river or a city park, and let that attachment be your motivation. Choose one small, repeatable action you can sustain — carpooling, picking up streamside trash, donating a fixed percentage of income or time — instead of trying to solve everything at once. Stack small commitments over time: today's action becomes this month's petition signature, becomes this year's volunteer shift.
TIP 24 · MINDSET
Keep a steady job before you chase sponsorship
— Courtney Boice, CEO, Blue Halo Rods, a fiberglass fly rod company · Episode 25 - Courtney Boice, CEO - Blue Halo Rods - Quest to Produce the Best, EP 25
My advice to people for the most part is: get a good job, make money, and then go fishing. Don't try to get sponsored — just buy stuff and go fishing and love it.
Why it matters. Aspiring fly fishing entrepreneurs and anglers often chase sponsorship or an industry job for validation, but running a small gear company is grinding, low-margin work that can steal the joy of fishing itself. Prioritizing income and buying your own gear protects the passion from turning into another job.
How to do it. Before quitting a stable job to chase a fly fishing business, test the idea on nights and weekends while keeping your income intact. Use that income to buy your own gear and fish as much as possible, rather than waiting on free product. If the idea keeps pulling at your attention even after a full day of work, that's the signal it's worth pursuing further.
TIP 25 · MINDSET
Let passion for fishing drive the business, not the reverse
— Jen Ripple, founder and editor, DUN Magazine · Episode 22 - DUN Magazine & Jen Ripple - A Story of Empowerment for All.
Spend more time in the water, spend more time fishing, spend less time thinking about what your business is going to be, and something will grow out of that love for the sport.
Why it matters. People starting a fly fishing business often get discouraged by skeptics, or get so focused on the business plan that they lose the love of the sport that started it in the first place. Pushback from experienced industry voices can feel authoritative, but it isn't proof an idea is wrong.
How to do it. Keep your day job while testing a fly fishing business idea instead of betting everything on it immediately. When someone experienced tells you your idea won't work, weigh it, but don't let it stop you. Most importantly, keep fishing and building genuine love for the sport, and let the business grow out of that passion instead of replacing it.
FAQ
How many fly fishing tips are in this library?
The full library holds 364 tips pulled from 225 episodes of the Fly Fishing Insider Podcast, recorded between 2019 and 2024. Of those, 292 are attributed to a guest whose name we could verify; the rest are attributed by role, since we won't guess at a spelling we can't confirm.
Where do the tips in this library come from?
Every tip comes from the same moment: the closing minutes of an episode, where Christian Bacasa asks the guest for one piece of advice before wrapping up. The tips were pulled directly from the episode transcripts, not paraphrased from memory, so the blockquote on each card is the guest's own words.
How is the tip library organized?
Every tip is tagged four ways — by region, by species, by water type and by topic — and this page links to all 20 articles built from those tags. If you know what you're fishing for, start with species or water type. If you know where you're headed, start with region.
Can I trust a tip from a podcast guest as much as advice from a guide I hire?
A podcast tip is general craft knowledge from someone with real experience, not site-specific intel about current conditions on your water. Use it to learn technique before a trip; hire a local guide for what's actually happening on the river or flat that week.
What's the fastest way to find a tip for an upcoming trip?
Combine two axes yourself: open the region article for where you're headed and the species article for what you're after. If you're more focused on a skill than a destination, the topic articles — casting, rigging, mindset — go deeper on technique alone.
Hear the tips in the guests' own words
Every tip on this page came from the closing minutes of a Fly Fishing Insider Podcast episode. The full archive is browsable by region, species, water and topic.
Browse the Episodes
