The Flyfish Journal

The Flyfish Journal Flyfishing quarterly coffee-table catalog of culture. Fly Fish Video and photos. Subscribe at www.theflyfishjournal.com.

12/04/2025

“The two things I love most in life is my family and flyfishing”

Jeff Forsee .forsee is a fanatic flyfishing guide. But with a young family, he must balance treasured family time with his lifelong pursuit of trout and other fish.

“Hooked”, a new film from Henry Delves and Henry Smith , unpacks the fabled question: amid the madness of life, what is it about flyfishing that causes us to become so thoroughly entangled in it?

An official selection of the 2025 , “Hooked” explores the story of obsession and balance, set against the blue ribbon trout fisheries of New Zealand’s South Island where Forsee has made a life for himself.

Watch the full film, now playing on our website.

11/29/2025

“If you want to scream in the wind, you can scream in the wind.”

Tommy LaJous .lajous drops some wisdom for coping with Tierra del Fuego’s vast open spaces and insatiable wind. He’ll also get you into some giant brown trout at .lodge.

Find a link in our profile or head to our website or YouTube channel to watch “I Will Die Here, My Friend”, a companion to The Flyfish Journal editor Jason Rolfe’s “Who Tied This Knot? Four Conversations in Tierra del Fuego” an essay in Volume 17, Issue 1.

Special thanks to Fly Water Travel for their support.

Group digestion session after a hot lunch on a never-ending gravel bar. From left to right Evan Slater , Greg Fitz and ...
11/27/2025

Group digestion session after a hot lunch on a never-ending gravel bar. From left to right Evan Slater , Greg Fitz and Will Rice are in no hurry to not catch steelhead.

We’re thankful for wild fish in wild places and all of the beautiful people along the way. Rock pillows and group digestion are the chrome on the proverbial cake. Toasts to all.

Photo: Copi Vojta

11/25/2025

It’s a sad fact of life: for most anglers, swinging flies for steelhead doesn’t afford many opportunities to practice things like setting the hook and fighting the fish. It’s a low-feedback opportunity.

So what to do? How do you get your reps in? Where do you go to put a bend in your two-hander before steelhead season gets going in earnest?

You join Pacific Northwest guide Jordan Young-Treadway for a day chasing chum salmon on the swing. Chum salmon bite well and pull hard, which is exactly what you need when winter steelhead season is just around the corner. And who knows, you just might find your new favorite fish.

As Jordan likes to say: “Respect the chum.”

Find a link in our bio to watch Steelhead Training, now playing on our website and YouTube channel.

Video and Edit: Colby Mesick

11/20/2025

Tierra Del Fuego puts a spell on you. Between the vast open spaces, the insatiable wind, and some of the largest, most aggressive trout on earth, it’s hard not to let it get under your skin.

But for Tommy LaJous .lajous, it’s in his blood. Picking up where his father, Danny LaJous, left off (Danny is a former guide and the owner of Estancia Despedida .lodge on the famous Rio Grande) Tommy has dedicated himself to understanding the river and its renowned sea run browns.

“I Will Die Here, My Friend” is a short film companion to “Who Tied This Knot? Four Conversations in Tierra Del Fuego” an essay from The Flyfish Journal editor Jason Rolfe in issue 17.1.

Find a link in our profile to watch the film and subscribe to read the essay.

Special thanks to Fly Water Travel for their support.

11/18/2025

The final Sidechannels podcast episode of Season 2 features two longtime friends who need no introduction.

We met with Yvon Chouinard and Craig Mathews fresh off of a book release event promoting their latest collaboration Pheasant Tail Simplicity, new from .

Find a link in our profile to listen to the episode, where we chat with the duo about the book, canned foods and euro nymphing, but also learn about how they met and what they feel they’ve learned from each other over nearly 40 years of friendship.

Sidechannels is made possible with support from and .

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Mural artist Taylor Berman finishes up a piece titled “Spring Creek Symphony” on a building in Saint Paul, MN. Taylor’s...
11/17/2025

Mural artist Taylor Berman finishes up a piece titled “Spring Creek Symphony” on a building in Saint Paul, MN. Taylor’s murals liven up the urban real estate of the Twin Cities with their nature themes and vibrant colors.

From the tailout section of Volume Sixteen, Issue Four.

Photo: Justin Carfagnini

11/06/2025

Over the course of their nearly 40-year friendship, Yvon Chouinard and Craig Mathews have had a significant influence on both the culture and activity of flyfishing. Their most recent collaboration is Pheasant Tail Simplicity, new from and coauthored with their friend Mauro Mazzo. The book is part technical treatise, part fly tying manual and part philosophy. Either way it’s well worth a read for anyone interested in flyfishing with a slightly more minimalist point of view.

In this episode of Sidechannels, we met with Yvon and Craig in Dillon, MT, a day after their book release event at Montana State University in Bozeman, which took place in a standing room only amphitheater on campus. We chatted about the book, of course, but also had the opportunity to learn a bit more about their background, including how they met and what they feel they’ve learned from each other in nearly 40 years of friendship.

Listen to the episode at a link in our profile, or search for Sidechannels wherever you get your podcasts.

Sidechannels is made possible with support from and .

Photo:

Spring steelhead can be hard to come by. While flies in the water is the only way to catch fish, sometimes you need to b...
11/04/2025

Spring steelhead can be hard to come by. While flies in the water is the only way to catch fish, sometimes you need to break things up. Ben Helesic and Dillon Eades .eades stop swinging for a classic game of rock baseball along British Columbia’s Skeena River.

From The Angler of Faith; or, How to Not Catch Steelhead, a feature story by Bret Rutherford, published in Volume Sixteen, Issue Three.

Photo: Nick Verlaan

10/31/2025

“For my money, a 6-weight with a fighting butt is the ultimate utility rod, the answer to the question of “If you could only fish one rod…””

“The VOR had backbone, which is handy when you’re wrestling ocean-fresh fish on a steep beach, in the surf, with barnacle and mussel encrusted rocks just waiting to sever your line if the fish get the upper hand.”

“I use beads. I’m not ashamed of it. The trout love them: tight-lined, swinging across the current, drifting below a bobber. It’s not the kind of thing you typically get to do much of in a place like Washington state, which is exactly what makes it so much fun.”

Three excerpts from Editor Jason Rolfe’s Three Seasons With Nam’s New Single-Handed Rod, where the VOR is put through the paces on multiple bodies of water and situations, for several different species of fish.

Find a link in our profile for the full review of new VOR rod.

10/23/2025

Chase and Aimee Bartee began making films together when they lived in New England, publishing them under the moniker . Their full length film Big Land won best adventure at the Fly Fishing Film Awards in 2019, and for the past several years they’ve been working on a series called For Wild’s Sake, which offers in-depth looks at various wild trout species from all corners of the United States. On top of their various film projects .bartee is a dedicated editorial photographer, and Chase is a writer and fine artist known for his exquisitely detailed watercolors of various fish species.

In this episode of Sidechannels we talk about their travels, the challenges of creating art on the road, bear problems in Japan, and what was the final straw in their decision to sell their Vanagon.

Find a link in our profile to listen, or search for Sidechannels wherever you get your podcasts.

Sidechannels is made possible with support from and .

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