About Fly Fish TV
Our goal at Fly Fish TV is to make you a more successful angler and fly tier. Whether you’re just getting started or seeking to refine your advanced skills we have you covered. Top professional anglers, guides, and instructors are our hosts and it is their fly fishing knowledge that we want to share with you. Our productions are not flashy, quick, and easy lessons, but instead much deeper dives into the finer points or our sport. Look over the Fly Fish TV “How To” Video Series and we are confident you will a find a video, or two, that will significantly improve your angling and tying skills. At the very least watch some of the FREE Fly Fish TV Episodes that inspired our instructional videos, they should give you a good feel for what we do.
Many of our presenters like Kelly Galloup (pronounced like gallop) and Davy Wotton (pronounced like cotton) are the biggest names in their fields and working with them has resulted in videos that are true Classics on some Specialized Techniques of the sport. No book and video in the last twenty years has changed fly fishing more than Kelly’s “Streamer Fishing for Trophy Trout”. His “Streamers on Steroids” fly tying video has had a similar effect on fly tying. Davy’s “Wet Fly Ways” and “Wet Fly Tying” are the two most comprehensive productions and best reviewed titles ever done on traditional wet fly fishing and tying. The tying videos will be described later but what makes Kelly’s streamer and Davy’s wet fly fishing videos so informative is the thought and the detail they include in their angling instruction and demonstrations. “Streamer Fishing for Trophy Trout” can teach you how to catch big trout, it will explain why they are different than regular size trout, and it will show you where and how to fish them. “Wet Fly Ways” takes you back to the very roots of the sport of fly fishing and reveals what it really means to fish wet flies in the traditional style. Davy shows precisely how to cast, fish, and retrieve multiple wet flies to all quadrants of the river, and in the process gives you a whole new way to fly fish trout. Galloup further refined his tactics and techniques for streamer fishing big trout with “Advanced Streamer Fishing”. Wotton changed his game completely in his second angling video, “Midge Magic Fishing” where he demonstrates in detail how to catch large and/ or spooky trout on very tiny flies and light gear. Given the chance Galloup and Wotton could change the way you fish the next time you step into the water or up to the tiers bench.
There are a lot of videos on Fly Fishing Basics but we believe you will find ours a little more down to earth than most. All of us at Fly Fish TV believe the sport has been needlessly over-complicated so we tried to undo some that in our productions. The goal with “Introduction to Fly Fishing” and “Introduction to Fly Casting” was to put into simple language and straight forward demonstrations the fundamentals you need to get started. The videos are hosted by one of Americas’ best known and most personable fly angling couples, Terry and Wendy Gunn, who can put you at ease with the terms and tackle of fly fishing. Also in this collection on basics is Maggie Merriman’s “Fly Fishing Trout Streams”. Maggie has moved onto the great trout stream in the sky but no one was better at explaining how to actually catch fish while fly fishing. Her precise demonstrations on how to make the right cast, manage the fly line, and execute the perfect drift remain unequaled. Since bugs are what the flies of fly fishing are all about we made a primer on some of the most common insects trout feed upon. “Bugs for Beginners” is a basic entomology for fly fishers and is hosted by Jay Buchner who gives you a close up look at the creeping critters that we hope to imitate with our not so creepy flies.
Nymphing, fishing flies that imitate aquatic insects below the surface, is often the most effective way to catch trout (more than 90% of the time in fact). It is sometime looked down on by some purest who believe dry fly fishing is the only proper way to fly fish. We celebrate nymphing and have a number of great titles to make you proficient at this underappreciated angling style. Kelly Galloup’s “Nymphing by the Numbers” is the work horse of our collection and it shows half dozen different ways set up you nymphing systems and then demonstrates how to fish each of them. Kelly has topped this off with another video, “High Sticking & Reading Water,” that further shows exactly where to fish your nymphs in the water column and how to get them to drift more naturally. Davy Wotton has a title that can further add to your nymphing knowledge, “Midge Magic Fishing”. Here he artfully demonstrates how to fish extremely small nymph patterns for large trout, and includes a host of great rigging, casting, and presentation lessons.
Spey Casting and Spey Fishing are increasingly popular so we have a fine selection of titles for the spey angler. Our most recent is “Winter Spey Strategies” with Rob Crandall which delves into the ways to get your spey flies deeper, where steelhead move when the water gets colder. John and Amy Hazel, who fish, guide, and instruct on the Deschutes River in Oregon, host a number of our other spey titles. “Introduction to Spey Casting” graphically breaks down the ten most essential spey casts, and is considered a “must see” by many who teach the art. “Spey Fishing Steelhead” is all about showing you where to fish steelhead in the river and how to get that critical swing presentation that will bring them to the surface. John and Amy’s final spey video, “Advanced Spey,” shows ways to fish and cast sinking and Skagit Belly fly lines and includes details on making proper leaders for the task. It also has a lot of great details on how to fish and cast Switch Rods that are becoming increasingly popular in the spey world.
Fly Fishing Bass, Fly Fishing Steelhead, and Fly Fishing Salmon are done very differently than how we fish for trout so we have made videos for each of these other species. Skip and Carol Morris take us through a series of demonstrations on how to get started for bass in “Fly Fishing for Bass & Panfish”. First, they give you a detailed look at the gear, lines, leaders, and flies most often used to fish bass and panfish (also known as brim). This is followed by separate lessons on fishing bass and panfish in the top water, at mid-depth, and when they are in the depths. In a more advanced title, “Smallmouth Fly Tactics,” Joe Warren demonstrates how he fly fishes smallmouth bass on a variety of rivers. He demonstrates expertly how he alters his tactics with changes in water temperatures and the seasons. As for how to fly fish steelhead, along with our spey fishing videos on the subject, we have one with professional angler Jim Tenny called “Secrets of Steelheading”. Jim, who was the first to manufacture fly lines that seamlessly integrated weighted portions, shows how he swings flies with conventional gear for steelhead. He further reveals the gear, flies, techniques, and top tips he finds most effective. Jim is also one of the hosts of "Alaska Fly Fishing: The Basics” which details the specialized techniques used for fishing five species of salmon, Dolly Varden and Alaskan rainbow trout. This is a great production for those headed to fly fish Alaska for the first time; providing an overview of the fish available, the most common techniques for fishing each, and even includes six tying demonstrations of popular Alaska patterns.
In our travels producing the Fly Fish TV “How To” Video Series and the nationally-syndicated Fly Fish TV television show, we were lucky enough to experience some great rivers with some exceptional anglers. When we had the opportunity we took the time to make Destination River Profiles on some of these fisheries. As you can imagine by now we did one with Kelly Galloup on his home water, the Madison River, where he lives and runs a unique fly shop and lodge called the Slide Inn. It’s appropriately called “Madison River” where Kelly takes us down its’ most famous fly fishing runs all the way from the source in Yellowstone Park to where it flows into Ennis Lake. All these river profiles provide you detailed maps, access points, fly selections, and specialized fishing demonstrations for each of the different kinds of fishing opportunities the rivers have to offer. Mike Lawson, perhaps Idaho’s most famous fly fisher, did two different angling destination productions with us, “Henry’s Fork” and “South Fork of the Snake River”. In Mike’s Western drawl he shares with us a bit of the fly fishing expertise he developed growing up fishing, guiding, and running a fly shop on these fisheries. Treat yourself to some great angling adventures and join him as he takes us run by run down both rivers and learn firsthand how, where, and why he fishes them the way he does. Davy Wotton is the host of our longest angling destination profile, “White River,” which is an epic sixty miles, two hour, angling saga. If you don’t know how to fish the White River by the time you’re done watching this one you never will.
Fly Tying is the part of fly fishing you can enjoy without water or fish which makes it pretty special, especially in the middle of winter. It also can just be a way to save money (lots of money with the price of flies), but more often it appears to be a way of getting deeper into the sport. Davy Wotton is the host on four of our tying videos because he is a master fly tier and exacting in his instruction. Davy’s “Fly Tying Fundamentals” can honestly make even you a fly tier if you study it carefully and learn the lessons offered. It goes step by detailed step and along the way delivers all the basics plus magically teaches you how to tie seven classic fly patterns. “Wet Fly Tying,” I believe (keep in mind I was the videographer and editor) is one of the best tying videos ever made. It shows, with precise detail, how to craft all the essential elements of a wet fly and then cements those lessons together while Davy makes six of his favorite wet flies. “Midge Magic Tying” is not about tying big complicated flies but instead centers on making small midge nymphs. Midges (really just an angler’s term for small insects) have become increasingly popular and Davy is the one to teach you the details of making these tiny but effective patterns. “Wotton’s Top Ties” includes a collection of flies that Davy created because he just saw the need. In the video he offers you six unconventional patterns that will just catch you fish if you give them a try.
Our other featured fly tier is Kelly Galloup whose innovations in crafting steamer flies are legendary. This first tying video we did with Kelly was “Streamer Flies for Trophy Trout” and in it he ties five large original streamer patterns. Revolutionary at the time, they were made to capitalize on Kelly’s now proven philosophy of using big flies to catch big trout. “Articulated Streamers” was our next collaboration and this one turned the streamer tying world upside down. Trying to imitate a jointed gear fishing lure that exhibits great action Kelly came up with a collection of six articulated streamers that immediately caught fire and have since been copied worldwide. “Streamers on Steroids” is our latest and in it Galloup shares the new things he has learned about tying articulated streams since he made them popular. In the video you’ll discover the five streamers that are now his favorites, and also hear the stories of how they came to be.
Finally a little bit about the FREE Fly Fish TV Episodes we have included for your viewing pleasure. The show aired nationally on cable television for seven seasons and not coincidently had the same aim as our instructional videos, to help aspiring and experienced fly fishers improve their angling and tying skills. Its’ format is quite simple and includes a feature segment or segments on a specific angling destination, a fly tying or fly box chat segment, and a more detailed instructional segment (most often an excerpt from one of our “How To” videos). It was meant to be a variety show of fly fishing and thus had a number of different hosts, many who have become hosts of our instructional videos. The episodes we have offered at no charge are from our final series and were hosted exclusively by Kelly Galloup. Many of the tying demonstrations are from Davy Wotton’s “Wet Fly Tying” video. And the instructional segments include excerpts from Kelly’s “Advanced Streamer Fishing” and Joe Warren’s “Smallmouth Fly Tactics.” We will add more episodes of Fly Fish TV in the future and hope you enjoy them as much as we did making them.
Regards,
Gene Hering
producer/director