Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
The Fly Fishing Insider Podcast changed hands in June 2021 after three years of weekly episodes produced by one person around twelve-hour nursing shifts. The show continues with the same interview format, an expanded trip giveaway program, themed guest series, and a rig-and-tips segment closing every interview.
Greg Keenan founded the Fly Fishing Insider Podcast and hosted it solo for three seasons while working as a ventilator nurse in Canada, and hands the show over to its new owner here.
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Why did the Fly Fishing Insider Podcast change hands in 2021?
The show had been recorded, edited and posted weekly by one person for three years, with only a single missed episode. That work was fitted around twelve-hour hospital shifts, often by banking three interviews on a single day off and editing them into three weeks of content. Several parties were interested in acquiring the podcast; it went to a longtime friend in the industry who had proposed the idea months earlier.
What did the first year of the podcast actually cost?
The first year ran with no advertising at all, funded straight out of a savings account, at a cost the founder describes as equivalent to a large family cruise, with no revenue in return. The lesson drawn from it is blunt: a weekly show that costs money every month is not sustainable, and sponsorship is what allows the guests and the production quality to exist at all.
How does the podcast's trip giveaway program work?
Sponsors donate into a package built around a lodge stay - rods, reels, lines, a raft in one case - and the whole thing goes to a listener drawn from the audience. One package passed ten thousand dollars in value. The program is what turned the podcast from a hobby into a business, because it works for the lodge, the sponsors and the winner at the same time.
What happened to the giveaway trips during the pandemic?
Roughly nine international trips were lost between 2020 and mid-2021, including three to Mexico, two to Costa Rica, one to Belize, two to Alaska and one to Chile. Canadian travel restrictions meant the outgoing host could not travel to them himself, and one Belize trip had to be offered to ten different people before a sponsor took it over. Losing that program was a direct factor in stepping back from the show.
What was planned for the podcast under new ownership?
Three commitments were made on air: keep the interview format and improve it using listener survey feedback, continue and expand the trip giveaway program through an online booking business with lodge relationships worldwide, and add themed guest series covering conservation nonprofits, industry CEOs, photographers, book authors and business executives. Every guest is also asked to close by breaking down their favorite rig.
What are the three things to look for on unfamiliar stillwater?
Drop-offs, intersecting points and rocky shoals or other structure are the three features to target on a lake you have not fished. The common mistake is assuming trout are in the middle of the lake or deep. More fish are caught in shallow water, cruising the shoals and the weeds, which is also why a sounder is more useful for reading depth and structure than for spotting fish.
How do you rig a chironomid under an indicator on stillwater?
The chironomid sits at the bottom, with a small split shot about twelve inches above it, then a swivel. The section from the swivel down to the fly is about 8 pound fluorocarbon; from the swivel up to the fly line is about 10 pound fluorocarbon, and the whole leader can run as long as eighteen feet. Fly sizes are usually 12 to 14, sometimes 16 or 18, and the goal is to hold the fly about a foot off the bottom - which is what the sounder is for.
Key takeaways
- Target drop-offs, intersecting points and rocky shoals on any lake you have not fished before.
- Keep a chironomid about a foot off the bottom, with a split shot twelve inches above the fly and a swivel above that.
- Run about 8 pound fluorocarbon below the swivel and about 10 pound above it, on a leader that can reach eighteen feet.
- Use a sounder to read depth and structure rather than to hunt individual fish.
- Stop at the local fly shop before fishing new water: recent hatches, productive colors and current conditions are the fastest available knowledge.
- Online-only shops still have staff who talk about fishing all day; call them rather than guessing at material and gear choices.
