Why Your Flies Cost Twice What They Used To
Trout flies held near $2 for twenty-five years. Now they are $3–$4.50 and climbing. The actual reason — tariffs on hand-tied imports — and what it changes.
Rocky Drift Co. — Colorado Tailwater
Blog.
River guides, fly selection, and field notes from the South Platte — written from the water, not a desk.
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How Many Fly Rods Do You Really Need?
The honest 1-rod, 2-rod and 3-rod trout quiver logic, what each one adds, and then my six-rod pile as the cautionary tale.
The Chubby Chernobyl: My Summer Attractor and Dry-Dropper Anchor
How I fish the Chubby Chernobyl on the South Platte — a foam attractor that doubles as a summer searching dry and a dry-dropper anchor.
What Is Tonkin Cane — and Why Every Bamboo Rod Depends on One Chinese River
Why nearly every bamboo fly rod is built from one species of bamboo grown in a single small region of China — and what makes Tonkin cane work.
Fly Rod Action Explained: Fast vs Medium vs Slow
What fly rod action actually means — where a rod bends, how fast it recovers, and which action is right for your fishing and your casting.
Guiding the Arkansas at Pueblo: A Conversation with Anthony Jimenez
Pueblo guide Anthony Jimenez of Tailwater Outfitters on the fall mouse hatch, his three-fly rig, and why anglers overspend on rods instead of fly line.
Pheasant Tail Nymph: Sizes, Variations, and When to Fish It
The Pheasant Tail Nymph is one of the most effective trout flies ever tied. Sizes, key variations, and when to dead-drift it on Colorado tailwaters.
Why I Started Chasing Blue Lines
Tailwaters taught me to fish. Blue lines reminded me why I love it. The pull of small, off-map creeks — wild trout, no crowds, and a 3-weight.
Fly Fishing Books Worth Reading — The Ones I Keep Coming Back To
The fly fishing books worth your winter: the literary canon that makes you feel it, the technical ones that made me better, and the Colorado writers.
The History of Fly Fishing — And What It Still Teaches Us
From a Macedonian hook dressed with red wool to a Blowtorch nymph in a Deckers seam — 2,000 years of fly fishing, and why none of it is ancient history.
Fly Tying Materials That Earn Space on My Bench
The materials I actually tie with — Semperfli thread, MFC beads, Hanak and Fulling Mill hooks, UTC wire, CDC. What earns bench space, and what gets cut.
South Platte & Arkansas Conditions Report — Flows Are Low Right Now (June 25, 2026)
A weak winter dropped the Dream Stream, Eleven Mile and Arkansas to skinny flows — where to fish instead, and the water temp that should end your day.
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