Swing the Fly

Fly Tying

• S.B.S. & B.T.S. : The Olive Fiery Brown

  

  Step by step, and behind the scenes. The how to tie it, and the why: the Olive Fiery Brown.
• The Black General Practitioner a.k.a Lingren’s Indispensable

  

  "I think if I had to limit myself to one fly for the rest of my days, the Black G. P. would be the fly."
• B.T.S & S.B.S: The Thompson River Caddis

  

  I went through a phase of fishing where I spent a large portion of my time only fishing surface patterns. Regardless of temperature or conditions,…
• B.T.S & S.B.S. : The Creeper

  

  Steve Szeliga shares a bit of the Behind-The-Scenes and then Step-by-Step how to tie his Creeper pattern variant, inspired by Mike Papais

Atlantic Salmon

• Elegance, and A Grilse

  

  Elegance on the Gaspe
• “So, You’re Saying I Shouldn’t Use a Skagit Line On The Skagit River?”

  

  Photo: Joe Rossano. Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. At least insofar as we’re talking a standard Skagit head with a floating body and a…
• Luck Is Never Far Away

  

  It's early October in eastern Canada. A misty drizzle gives the air a pregnant, mysterious quality. My guide and I carefully are driving along a…
• Icons: Simon Gawesworth

  

  Icons, a web series from Swing the Fly, looks at the most influential figures in spey casting and swinging flies from North America and beyond…

Great Lakes

• Rods and Rigs for the Great Lakes

  

  "What is the best rod configuration for the Great Lakes region? " Great Lakes Editor Rick Kustich's answer: It depends!
• Icons – Jeff Liskay

  

  Icons, a web series from Swing the Fly, looks at the most influential figures in spey casting and swinging flies from North America and beyond…
• The Stealthy Swing

  

  A little can go a long way.
• Photos: Spey Nation 2025

  

  Three days of spey community, education, and demonstration on the Salmon River in New York.

International

Brought to you by:

• Lady Gray

  

  The rise of a gray here is soft, smooth and tender, a kiss from the surface.
• The Huchenwaschl

  

  Do you know what a "waschl“ is? I'll guess not, so you get a short crash course in Bavarian dialect. Actually, there are many variations…
• Icons – Thomas Woelfle

  

  Get to know the Bavarian way of swinging flies with Thomas Woelfle, the renowned speymeister of Munich.
• Coming Out

  

  Our favorite Italian contributor contemplates his single speyophile snobbery

Spey Casting

• Off The Cuff With Kapitan Kruk: “The Wall”

  

  https://youtube.com/shorts/bNUzpuP4siE?feature=share Bruce Kruk talks about how to fix the most common issue he sees with his students – "coming off the wall." Swing The Fly…
• Icons – Kara Knight

  

  Icons, a web series from Swing the Fly, looks at the most influential figures in spey casting and swinging flies from North America and beyond…
• Off The Cuff With Kapitan Kruk: Perfect Practice

  

  "When you're practicing your spey casting, which you should be…" – Bruce Kruk.
• Spey Casting With Travis Johnson: The Grip

  

  "Lemme' hold it." – Travis Johnson.

Trout Spey

• The Fall Orange Spider

  

  "The swung fly is a tactic to tease out a predatory instinct in a fish that months earlier would refuse all but the most accurate…
• Pheasant Tail Palmer

  

  “The progression from novice to master has always been a journey from the complex to the simple.” ~Yvon Chouinard
• The Treacle Parkin: Dressing & Recipe

  

  “… What did they live on?” asked Alice, who always took a great interest in questions of eating and drinking.       “They lived on treacle,” said the…
• The Last Canoe

  

  "You can’t choose your relatives – and everybody has a cross to bear. Cousin Barry is mine."

West Coast

• The Big Storm

  

  "The travelers sit in jangling silence tracking the yellow line, riding a hot grease and steel hound lined out for the bleeding storm. "
• Counting Steelhead With Shep

  

  My family is unskilled at small talk; to compensate, we avoid social gatherings. Defying that legacy, I sat uncomfortably in a packed room of mostly…
• Icons – Kara Knight

  

  Icons, a web series from Swing the Fly, looks at the most influential figures in spey casting and swinging flies from North America and beyond…
• Art Lingren: Guardian of British Columbia’s Fly Fishing Heritage

  

  In the deep pools and storied rivers of British Columbia, fly fishing is more than a sport—it’s a cultural inheritance shaped by figures like Roderick…