Spring Issue on Stands Now!

The Spring issue of Fly Fusion is now available on newsstands, and it arrives with a clear purpose: Season Opener: Solving Spring’s Toughest Trout. This issue leans into the nuance of early-season fishing, where success is rarely accidental and often earned through attention to detail, timing, and restraint. From Gary Borger’s reflective journey in First Season, which traces how early encounters shape an angler for life, to Jim McLennan’s Please, Sweat the Small Stuff, readers are reminded that spring rewards precision over force. April Vokey highlights the overlooked window of opportunity in The Quiet Advantage of Spring, while Frank Brassard challenges convention in When a Fly Learns to Breathe, exploring how movement and imperfection can outfish technical perfection.

Beyond the core features, the issue is layered with insight across every corner of the sport, from stillwater strategies to fly tying, culture, and conservation. It is a season defined by transition, where trout behavior, water conditions, and angler mindset all shift at once. This issue is built to meet that moment, offering not just tactics, but perspective. Pick up your copy on newsstands now and step into the season with a sharper eye and a more thoughtful approach.

On Candy Bars, Fly Fishing, and the People Who Shape Our Sport

The fly-fishing world is filled with incredible people who believe in the sport and what it does for the soul.

Some are well known. Others work diligently behind the scenes.

They are the people running CNC machines late at night, the engineers designing and building the gear, the marketing geniuses who create the memorable ads, videos and stories that bring it all to life.

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A Fishable Feast: Fly Fishing and Eating Your Way Around the World

A Fishable Feast: Fly Fishing and Eating Your Way Around the World is more than a fly-fishing book.

From crystal-clear trout streams to sunlit saltwater flats, untamed jungles and rushing mountain rivers, this beautifully crafted volume by acclaimed author Kirk Deeter and Matthew Supinski explores the cultures, cuisines, geography and history that make fly fishing such a rich and meaningful pursuit.

Featuring a foreword by Tom Rosenbauer, the book blends storytelling, destination and culinary exploration into a global celebration of the angling life.

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Kirk Deeter’s Lesson on Fighting Fish

By Kirk Deeter

Excerpt from the winter issue: “A seasoned guide is used to saying things like ‘tip up’ and ‘let ‘em run’ over and over again. And in most cases, that’s really solid advice, in so much as the goal is to avoid having the fish make a run and break you off. But the truth is that a 9-foot fly rod is a lever that helps the fish as much as it helps the angler.

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The Old Man and Me

By Derek Bird

There’s a scene in “The Equalizer” starring Denzel Washington where his character, Robert McCall, is sitting in a late-night diner and he’s reading Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” A young lady looks over and sees McCall reading the novella and says, “He ever catch it? The fish.”

McCall chuckles and says, “Yes.”

She says, “Happy ending.”

McCall replies, “Not exactly.”

Then he explains that after he fights the fish, the old man ties it to the boat to bring it back to shore but sharks come and eat the giant marlin before he can get back to shore.

The young lady replies, “What a waste…why didn’t he just let the fish go?”

McCall responds, “The old man’s gotta be the old man. Fish gotta be the fish. Gotta be who you are in this world, right?”

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Six Wet Flies to Swing with Confidence

By Skip Morris

The Attractor-Fly Angle

On the first count, that flies must always resemble the natural feed of fish, innocent elemental logic (so, teenage logic) was at work. That logic does add up: Want a fish to eat your fly? Make your fly look like what that fish eats. What I didn’t yet understand is that fish have little regard for logic or for fly fishers’ adamant beliefs; consequently, attractor flies really do work. Under the right circumstances (which I can only ever determine by trying one) attractor flies can far out-fish imitative flies, can be simply deadly. These right circumstances are, in my experience, fairly common. And one such deadly attractor is the elegant Alexandra. —Excerpted from the Summer 2025 issue of Fly Fusion.

Morris makes the case clearly: sometimes suggestion, motion, and presence outperform strict imitation. When trout refuse the dead drift but continue to show, a swung wet can change everything.

Here are six classic patterns, from bold attractors to quiet naturals, that deserve a place in your swing rotation.

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SITKA Launches Fish Collection

SITKA officially stepped into the world of fly fishing this month with the launch of SITKA Fish.

Known for building system-driven hunting apparel, the well-known Bozeman-based brand is applying that same technical discipline to the water. The new gear launch centers on a focused lineup built around quality and the realities of fishing hard across a full season.

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Abel’s Most Advanced Reel Yet

Abel Reels has released their first all-new reel since 2021’s Rove, and it marks their biggest push yet into high-capacity, large-arbor performance for fresh and saltwater. The SDX is their largest, fastest, and most advanced reel, designed for anglers chasing permit, tarpon, GT, steelhead, salmon, and bluewater species like tuna and marlin. It is not a casual upgrade. It is a purpose-built tool for moments when everything is on the line.

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IF4 Stoke: Get Your Tickets!

As a proud media partner, Fly Fusion is excited to share the stoke as the official sizzle reel for the International Fly Fishing Film Festival (IF4) has just been released, offering a first look at one of the most anticipated fly-fishing film events on the planet.

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Editors’ Choice Awards – Best Pack

Fly Fusion’s Editors’ Choice Awards celebrate the year’s most trusted, fish-ready gear, products that don’t just look good on the rack, but prove themselves day after day on the water. From smart storage to quick-access functionality, the best equipment is the kind that helps you fish more efficiently and keeps essentials right where you need them. This year’s Best Pack winner does exactly that, blending adaptability, thoughtful organization, and convenience into one streamlined carry system: the Patagonia Stealth Switch Pack.

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