Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
Three sources cover most unfamiliar water: online research including Google Maps read in both map and terrain layers, phone calls to local fly shops asking specific questions about holding water and technique, and direct messages to friends and guides on social media. Books from a local library are a strong fourth.
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What should you look for online before fishing new water?
General searches on the area and on specific named holes turn up more than most anglers expect. Mapping tools do the rest: switch Google Maps between the standard map view and terrain or satellite layers, because the same stretch of river reads completely differently depending on the layer. Terrain shows gradient and canyon structure that a plain road map hides entirely.
What questions should you ask a fly shop about a new spot?
Call the local shops and ask specifically rather than generally: where the fish are holding right now, where they lie in the water column, where to wade if fishing alone, how the fishing has been, and which techniques are producing. Shop staff answer these questions for a living. The whole point of calling is to arrive with a working plan instead of picking a pullout at random.
How do you repay a fly shop that gives you information?
Stop into the shop, buy a few flies, and talk to the people behind the counter. Then promote the shop on social channels or to friends so somebody else walks in and spends money there. Free information from a local shop is worth paying for, and the payment can be as small as a fly purchase plus a public mention.
How do you use social media to research a fishing spot?
Social media has become one of the fastest information channels for unfamiliar water. Message friends directly, or reach out to guides and anglers who post from that area, on whichever platform they use. Ask narrow questions rather than broad ones, because a specific question about a specific stretch produces a detailed answer while a general one produces nothing useful.
Is there still a fishing spot nobody knows about?
The idea of a genuinely secret spot no longer holds up. Water that looks private or unadvertised almost always has information behind it once someone actually researches, including at a local library where books on regional waters are free to borrow. Assume the spot has been documented somewhere and go find that documentation.
Key takeaways
- Read new water in Google Maps across multiple layers, comparing the standard map view against terrain and satellite.
- Call local fly shops and ask specific questions about holding water, wade access and current techniques.
- Buy flies from the shop that helped you and mention the shop publicly to send business back.
- Message guides and anglers directly on social media with narrow questions about specific stretches.
- Check a local library for regional fishing books, a free source most anglers skip.
- Do the research before the trip: assume no spot is actually secret and go find the information that exists.
