We’ve rounded up your favorite articles from the past year, just in case you missed any.
Hopefully, you did. Hopefully, you were fishing. Thank you for your continued support of Swing The Fly. It’s an honor to be the Voice Of Spey and if you do not, we hope you support us by subscribing in this next year. If you do, thank you, tell a friend!
Editors Note: A sincere thanks to all of Swing The Fly’s editors and contributors for the time you took to add to the living archive that is Swing The Fly. This would not be possible, or as fun, without you being willing to share your experience. We’ve got some exciting updates up our sleeves in 2025 I know you’ll be excited about, and we can’t wait to read what you’ve been up to. See you out there. +DR, Digital Editor
#1. Behind-The-Scenes & Step-By-Step: Charlie’s Muddler by Steve Szeliga
“I started to combine what I felt were effective parts of other patterns with traditional waking patterns for steelhead. Bill Mcmillan’s steelhead caddis was an inspiration, as was Harry Lemire’s Greaseliner.”
#2. Tim Arsenault Wins 2024 Spey-O-Rama
“It’s something I always wanted to happen. It’s been a long road, it’s been a rewarding road. A fun road, which is great, makes a long road much more manageable. Hard to explain, really. It was my tenth year going. Incredible humbling. A feeling of accomplishment, but quickly remembering that not long after, the work begins again.”
#3. Spey Casting in A Nutshell by Zack Williams
“I’m a firm believer in simplifying processes. First understand what we are trying to accomplish in simple terms and then break it down into steps that will get us there. Learning to spey cast is no different. While you certainly can make it as complicated as you want, for me, keeping it as simple as possible has led to the most satisfying results.”
#4. STF X R.B. Meiser 6-piece Spey Rod Series
For more than two years, Swing The Fly publisher Zack Williams and Nick Moses over at R.B. Meiser Fly Rods have been quietly developing a line of specialty rods unique to Swing the Fly.
#5. Achieving Proper Water Tension (in your anchor) by Zack Williams
“Get the proper amount of water tension in your anchor and you’re halfway to a good spey cast.
The anchor is formed during the sweep phase of the spey cast. There are two variables to our sweep that affect the amount of tension in the anchor – the 2 Ps – the plane of the sweep and the amount of power applied during the sweep.”
#6. Fishing Remote Wilderness Rivers & the Equipment to Bring by Art Lingren
“British Columbia is a large province. If you superimposed our northern border on the 49th parallel – the Canada/USA boundary – BC’s land mass would take in all of Washington, Oregon, half of California, and parts of Idaho and Nevada. It is a big place with limited road and highway access to much of the area.”
#7. Spey Line Review: Bridge Outfitting Torrent
“As a competent enough to be confident inland Columbia river swinger, it perturbs me to no end when come January, I’d shift not only gears, but feels, from my beloved long lines for surface work at distance, to often awkward and clunky feeling short skagit line setups in order to reach the depth colder water and cagey “winter” fishing required.”
#8. Two Hand Hardware Kickstarts Collaboration To Fund Winchester Dam Removal
“Swing The Fly is proud to be part of a team led by one of our esteemed sponsors, Two Hand Hardware, a number of our conservation partners including The Steamboaters and Native Fish Society, local friends and artists James Samsel and Richard Harrington, in a united effort to conserve the wild summer steelhead of the North Umpqua River to enable removal of the Winchester Dam.”
#9. ICONS: R.B. Meiser Fly Rods (Bob Meiser, Steve Godshall, Nick Moses)
A peak behind The Vortex and into the future of R.B. Meiser Fly Rods with Bob Meiser, Nick Moses and Steve Godshall
#10. ICONS: John Hazel by Mitch Baker
“Visit with John Hazel in his shop, The Deschutes Angler in Maupin, OR, where he talks about his contributions to the sport, his spey pilgrimage to Ireland and Scotland with his wife Amy and Masters golf champion Mark O’Meara, and the importance of giving back to the resource we love.”