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 to explain and translate this word but the main concern for us is that it usually means something big. So if you meet a Bavarian fisherman and he tells you […]
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
Swing The Fly Hosted Trip: Las Buitreras Lodge, Rio Gallegos, Argentina – March 2025
You’re invited to join Swing The Fly at Las Buitreras Lodge in March of 2025. Details here.
An Argentine Adventure
In many ways, the seed of this trip had been planted over 40 years ago.
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 in the 21st century. In this installment, we visit with Simon Gawesworth, one of the greatest Spey casting instructors and authors to grace our sport. Simon talks in this article about his latest book, his favorite rivers in both the U.K. and the U.S., his memories of times fishing on his own, and the Miracle of Istanbul.
An Adventure in Argentina
Southern Patagonia is known for its windy days.
The P.T. Slow Swing
So simple and so effective, I cannot say how often it‘s saved my day, from my rivers at home, to along the classic rivers in England, where Frank Sawyer invented and published it in his book Nymphs and the Trout in 1958, to the wide rivers in Montana, like the Bighorn and many more.
The Green Machine and the Rio Grande
Last January, Michael and I finally stood on the banks of the Rio Grande in Tierra del Fuego. Like always, we booked on a relatively short notice, but we made it. We even man-aged to fill our fly boxes with all kinds of differnt flies, from Wooly Buggers to tube flies, rubber leg nymphs and Sunray shadows. That took us a few long nights but we were safe for flies. That’s what we thought. There was one fly that we didn’t have in our box. To be honest, we didn’t even think about it. A fly which usually is fished for Atlantic salmon in Canada and has her roots on the Miramichi.
Skjern Å: A Real Life Fairy Tale
Like the ugly duckling from Hans Christian Andersen’s famous fairy tale, there is a hint of metaphor in my small story about a “ditch” that, after many years of mishandling, turns into a prolific and beautiful salmon river.
PHP: The Dream Team of Flies
Admittedly, the effectiveness of a fly relies principally on the confidence that the fisherman has in it, but it also has to be recognized that the nearly-doubled rate of success kills any prior prejudice; the PHP flat-out works.
The Wind
A reflection on life and a trip of a lifetime.