Fly Fishing Podcasts

Description: This week’s podcast is a spirited discussion with Dr. Andy Danylchuk, Professor of Fish Conservation at UMass Amherst and science advisor to organizations like Keep Fish Wet and Bonefish Tarpon Trust. My question to Andy was the effectiveness of catch-and-release as a conservation tool, and as always when talking with a scientist it depends on your definitions. Like “What is conservation?” and predictably that varies with a person’s biases and experiences. I thought it was a thought-provoking conversation and hope you do was well.

Description: I get regular and frequent questions on the differences between nylon and fluorocarbon tippet—when and where to use them, appropriate knots, special properties, and shelf life. I used to be involved in the development process of tippet and have visit many places where tippet is made. But that was years ago and a lot of progress has been made since my time in product development. So I invited Josh Jenkins, R&D manager at Scientific Anglers, to talk about recent innovations in tippet material. Josh is intimately involved in the development and testing of tippet for both Orvis and Scientific Anglers, and his knowledge is far greater that mine. I think you’ll learn some surprising tips on both tippet material construction and knots because I learned a lot in speaking with Josh.

Description: Being a camera gear geek, I was delighted to interview Chris Niccolls (interview starts at 47:16) of DP Review TV (if you are a camera geek at all you probably read DP Review regularly). Chis is a photography teacher as well as a video star, has worked in camera shops on the floor, and currently works in a fly shop in Calgary. In the interview, we gives some fantastic tips on how to take better fish and fishing pictures in both the video and still formats. He also suggests some brands and models of phones, cameras, and drones that he feels are best suited for fishing photography. I know I learned a whole mess of new tricks for taking better fishing pictures and I am sure you will, too.

Description: I get frequent requests for suggestions on what fly-fishing literature to read during these long winter nights when you want to enjoy fly fishing but don’t want to snuggle up to something lighter. I invited David Van Wie author of the recently published book Storied Waters—subtitled “35 Fabled Fly Fishing Destinations and the Writers and Artists Who Made The Famous”—to share with me his favorite writers and books. It is pretty much an eastern-oriented tour of these books, but don’t worry. I have an idea for someone to do a similar podcast on western North America writers on a future podcast so stay tuned.