Father’s Day is here, so we figured, what better time to celebrate the dads of fly fishing? We’re not talking about your actual dad (though shoutout to him for yelling “Rod up!” on every trip). We’re talking about the guys who helped invent, shape, and popularize this sport — the original fly fishing father figures. So grab your vest, crack a cold one, and let’s cast back in time to meet the men who built fly fishing brick by brick. (Or should we say… rod by rod?) Sorry. Dad joke quota: engaged. Izaak Walton: The Philosophical Father Let’s start with the guy who literally wrote the book on it. Izaak Walton  dropped The Compleat Angler  in 1653 — part fishing manual, part poetic nature guide, part “two dudes walk into a river” philosophy scroll. It was basically the Ted Lasso  of the 1600s: oddly deep, kind of funny, and full of heart. Walton wasn’t teaching you to double-haul or bomb streamers. He was preaching patience, reverence for nature, and the kind of chill that only comes from sitting by a river with good company. And yes — he may have invented the “it’s not about the fish, it’s about the moment” line long before Instagram did. Lee Wulff: The Gear Dad You know that one dad who’s always tweaking the lawnmower, re-rigging his fishing setup, or engineering a better way to hang the garden hose? That was Lee Wulff , but make it fly fishing. This guy did it all: invented new flies (hello, the Wulff series), pioneered catch and release, designed the modern fly fishing vest, flew planes into remote fisheries, married Joan Wulff (an icon in her own right), and founded the Wulff School of Fly Fishing. In short: he was the dad who showed up, taught the entire Little League team how to cast, built the field himself, then flew a floatplane to Alaska before dinner. Joe Brooks: The “Let’s Go Anywhere” Dad Every friend group has that one dad who’s like, “Let’s just load the car and head north.” That’s Joe Brooks . Joe helped turn fly fishing into something bigger — and wilder. He was one of the first to bring the sport to saltwater, tossing flies at tarpon when most anglers thought you needed dynamite to land one. He wrote endlessly about new destinations and mentored a young Lefty Kreh (no big deal). If fly fishing ever became “cool,” it probably started with Joe. He made it accessible, exciting, and full of possibility — kind of like when your dad let you steer the truck down a gravel road. Lefty Kreh: The People’s Dad If Lee Wulff was the tinkerer dad and Joe Brooks was the wild uncle, Lefty Kreh  was the dad who taught everyone  in town how to cast. Lefty wasn’t just one of the most influential fly anglers in American history — he was approachable . He believed fly fishing shouldn’t be elitist. That it should be fun, accessible, and available to anyone with a $50 rod and a little time. He fished with presidents and celebrities, sure. But he also gave casting lessons at local parks, answered letters from beginners, and treated a 10-year-old beginner with the same respect as a tournament guide. He helped invent the Lefty’s Deceiver , one of the most versatile streamer patterns ever tied. He pioneered saltwater fly techniques. And he probably did more to teach fly casting in plain English  than anyone who ever lived. Joe Humphreys: The Eternal Coach You ever meet a dad who talks like a coach, teaches like a professor, and still runs up a hill faster than you at 70? That’s Joe Humphreys . Joe is one of the greatest educators  in fly fishing history. A former Penn State wrestling coach and professor of angling (yes, that was his job), he turned fly fishing into a language anyone could learn — and he did it with grit, humor, and heart. He helped develop and teach the tight line nymphing techniques  that are now essential to modern trout anglers. His “Night Game”  techniques helped anglers catch monster browns in the dark. And his films and books? Timeless. But maybe most of all, Joe is beloved because he’s still doing it . In his 90s. Still fishing. Still teaching. Still telling stories that make you want to grab your boots and go. The Fatherly Thread What ties all these legends together? It’s not just technique or tradition. It’s care . They cared about fish. About rivers. About passing on what they knew. And if that’s not the most dad thing of all, we don’t know what is. So this Father’s Day, whether you’re fishing with your dad, remembering him, or just thinking about the guy who handed you your first rod — know that this sport was shaped by father figures who wanted it to last. And if all else fails, just remember: “It’s called fly fishing, not fly catching.” – Dad, probably. Bonus: 3 Things to Do This Father’s Day Tie a fly and give it to your dad with a hand-written note. Share your favorite fishing memory online and tag @theflyboxllc. Read The Compleat Angler  — or at least pretend to and fall asleep in a hammock.

With the first half of 2025 behind us, it’s time to pause on the riverbank and take stock: what gear are fly anglers actually buying this year? We dug through retail sales trends, industry reports, and insider forecasts to figure out what’s flying off the shelves, and what it tells us about where the sport is heading next. From rods to reels, tippet to tech, here’s what’s shaping up to be a gear-heavy season on the water.

In an age where retail stores are vanishing and e-commerce reigns, one company doubled down, literally. Dick’s Sporting Goods didn’t just try to save retail. They reimagined it. Their concept? Go bigger. Go bolder. Build temples to sport.

A New Era for Salmon Conservation A groundbreaking study released in May 2025 by researchers from Stanford University and several Indigenous organizations is reshaping how we think about fisheries management. Titled A Multimodal AI Framework for the Sustainable Management of Wild Salmon Fisheries in Indigenous Rivers , the study proposes a revolutionary way to track and support salmon populations: artificial intelligence guided by Indigenous ecological knowledge.

A New Era of Gear Is Here and It’s Personal Fly fishing is in the middle of a quiet revolution. It’s not being driven by major manufacturers or global retailers. It’s happening in garages, backyard workshops, and side-hustle studios. Across the country, and increasingly, across the world, small fly fishing brands are popping up at a faster pace than ever before.

Reading the River Differently In the age of rapid environmental change, tracking fish populations has always been a logistical nightmare. Boats, nets, electrofishing, and visual surveys can be costly, time-consuming, and often miss the bigger picture.

This piece is part of Sunday Cast, a weekly op-ed published in Casts That Care —our daily fly fishing newsletter. Each subscription helps support fly fishing charities, with 50% of fees donated every month, Join Us Here ! Read more. Think deeper. Fish better.   Kevin Wolfe | Sunday Cast | Casts That Care What Counts as Trespassing on a River? Let me start by saying this: if you have a pond—or even a lake—that starts and ends within your property, I get it. That’s yours. It doesn’t flow. It doesn’t cross boundaries. It’s a contained thing. But a river? A river doesn’t respect fence lines. It starts in one place, flows through another, and ends somewhere else entirely. And yet somehow, we’ve let each state decide its own rules on who owns what when it comes to water. What we end up with is a system so fragmented it makes a topographic map look straightforward. If you fish across multiple states, you’re likely operating under entirely different definitions of “trespassing.” Same River, Different Rights Take the Colorado River , for example. It flows through both Colorado  and Utah , but the rules change dramatically across the border. In Colorado , floating through private land is legal as long as you don’t touch the riverbed or riverbanks. The water is public, but the land underneath often isn't. This legal gray area has led to numerous court cases, and the Colorado Supreme Court has made it clear: step out of your boat, and you're in tricky territory. Colorado River, Utah Now go downstream to Utah , where things were once more generous. Before 2010, Utah followed a Montana-style model that gave anglers the right to wade and walk below the high-water mark. Then came the Public Waters Access Act, pushed by private landowners. Now, in Utah, the landowner can own the streambed and bar you from walking or anchoring, even if you're in the water. In Montana , anglers still enjoy access below the high-water mark on streams and rivers, whether the stream runs through private property or not. And in New Mexico , streambeds can be entirely private, access depends on landowner permission. Back east, it’s no better. In Pennsylvania , landowners who own both banks of a non-navigable stream can claim the water itself as private. But larger, navigable rivers, like the Susquehanna, are public. New York  takes a different tack: if a waterway has ever been used for commerce, it’s generally open to the public, even if it runs through private land. All of this creates an impossible reality: the same river could technically be public in one state and private in the next. And no one knows what’s legal unless they’ve already read the lawsuit. Not Picking Sides—Picking Clarity This isn’t a pro-public rant or a private-property sermon. If you forced me to pick, I’d say: if you’re in the water, you’re not trespassing. I’d even go a step further and offer anglers a 3–5 foot grace zone along the bank in case they need to get out and walk it back. But that’s not really the point. The real problem is that nobody knows the rules , and the rules change from one side of the mountain—or river—to the other. You shouldn’t need a legal degree and a GPS just to know whether you’re breaking the law by fishing a river you’ve fished for years. Themes Across the Country There is a general trend if you zoom out. Out West , where public lands dominate, access tends to be more generous—though states like New Mexico and Utah have pushed back on that. In the East , especially the Mid-Atlantic  and South , private land rights are often more rigidly protected, and many waterways are posted with little clarity. Meanwhile, Midwestern  states like Michigan  and Wisconsin  often favor public trust doctrine, meaning rivers held in trust for the people are generally open to fishing, wading, and boating—up to the ordinary high-water mark. But there’s no consistency. Same river. Different rules. Different enforcement. Different culture. Rivers Move. The Law Should Too. Trying to chop a living, moving body of water into 50 different legal interpretations is not just confusing—it’s hostile to everyone who cares about rivers. Landowners should feel protected. Anglers should feel confident. Right now, no one does. Make It Make Sense This isn’t just about fairness—it’s about keeping people from fighting over misunderstandings. There are anglers who’ve been screamed at for simply standing in the water. There are landowners who have no idea what their actual rights are. There are police officers and wardens who don’t even enforce the law the same way. If we had a universal trespass law for rivers, this all gets easier. Whether it favors access or property, at least we’d all know where we stand. Until then, we’ll keep checking state regs like we’re filing taxes—and hope that wherever we wade, we’re not unknowingly crossing a line that changes every 30 miles. Want more unfiltered fly fishing talk? Subscribe to Casts That Care . Free every Sunday, daily if you want it. And 50% of paid subs go to conservation charities.

A Scorching Month with Ripple Effects May 2025 was the hottest start to the month on record in the United Kingdom—and with it came something most anglers wouldn’t associate with the British Isles: wildfire.

This interview was conducted by The Fly Box and featured in Casts That Care , our charity-driven fly fishing newsletter. Casts That Care  brings you real stories, big ideas, and the heart of the fly fishing world, all while donating 50% of subscriber fees to a different fly fishing charity each month. Subscribe today and use promo code: "RomeroFlies15"  at checkout for 15% off your first month, and we’ll donate 25% more to conservation efforts. Raised with a Rod, But Self-Taught at the Vise Mike Romero doesn’t remember a life without fishing. Mike Romero “It seems like as far back as I can remember, I’ve had a fishing rod in my hands... Probably before I could even walk!” But fly fishing, that came later. He was 12 years old, spending a day at a local pond, when an older gentleman handed him a fly rod and offered him a turn. That simple, spontaneous moment changed everything. “He asked if I wanted to try, and to me, that was a no-brainer answer. Of course I wanted to try!” Within days, his mom bought him a budget-friendly setup, and just like that, a lifelong obsession was born. Discovering the Vise Not long after picking up the rod, Mike stumbled across a friend’s dad tying flies. The idea that flies could be handmade, tied by real people rather than mass-produced, blew his mind. By Romero Flies "I didn't even know it was a thing until I saw a friend's dad tying and thought to myself, wait, you can tie your own flies for fishing? I just figured they were massed produce by some machine" Soon he was at the vise with a basic kit and a pile of materials, trying to figure it out on his own. “My mom bought a basic kit and some materials, and I went to work. At least, that’s what I thought,” His early flies were scrappy and awkward, but one rough bead-head nymph actually worked. Rusty Red Hares Ear Nymph - Romero Flies “It was just a hook with a bead head and some hare’s ear dubbing, a poor man’s hare’s ear nymph. But it caught a fish! And something clicked after that. I became a nymph-tying machine... [and] the trout just kept coming!” From Nymphs to Art Fast-forward to today, and Mike’s tying has moved well beyond simple patterns. He’s now a full-blown artist at the vise, known for elaborate deer hair creations that range from ducks and dogs to cartoon characters, monsters, and more. By Romero Flies "fly fishing had its own world of bass fishing my eyes were opened to a while new tying experience." He’s one of just a handful of tyers pushing fly tying into sculptural, expressive territory, and it all started with a few cheap materials and a lot of curiosity. "My passion for duck hunting and bass bugs had a moment where the two worlds combined, and the first deer hair mallard was born. It wasn’t pretty, but it was the start of something that would become bigger than anything I could’ve imagined.” Art at the Vise: How Creativity Takes Form Romero Flies didn’t begin with a business plan. It started with long hours at the vise, countless failed attempts, and a literal box labeled “Back to the Drawing Board.” Snowman - By Romero Flies "99 percent of what I tie is all freestyle. No plans or blue prints. Just by brain to my hands to the hook!" Sometimes, the spark comes from TikTok livestreams. A viewer might shout out a challenge "tie a dog," for example, and Mike takes it on. Dog - By Romero Flies His work has led to a whole range of larger, more ambitious pieces: articulated ducks, bass bugs, and pop-culture crossovers like Stitch, Sasquatch, and even Phil Robertson. Not everything makes it out into the world. Plenty of creations end up in that drawing board box. But the ones that work? They blur the line between traditional fly tying and modern sculpture, often looking more at home in an art gallery than a fly box. Breaking the Mold: Function Meets Expression While many fly tyers operate within long-established traditions, Mike has found joy—and success—by stepping outside the box. “There are only a handful of tyers doing what I do... and I love being part of that small group of tyers.” That’s not to say he’s abandoned tradition. He still ties trout nymphs, steelhead patterns, dries, and streamers. Mike And His " Deer Hair Guy, Derek Darst From Saint Marie's Flys But when he’s on a creative streak with deer hair, the results speak for themselves. So, in his opinion... is he a fly tyer or an artist? "It's definitely both. I consider myself a more advanced fly tyer that can tie anything... but I'm also an artist that can make fly tying more of an art form" That rare fusion of technical skill and expressive freedom has set him apart in a sport that’s often more about precision than personality. TikTok, Teaching, and The Power of Livestreams Mike’s creative world expanded exponentially when he began livestreaming his fly tying on TikTok. What started as a personal outlet quickly snowballed into a loyal community. It was nerve-wracking at first "Failing live in front of thousands of people? That’ll spike your heart rate." Now, those livestreams are a staple. Regulars check in. Strangers become fans. And every now and then, someone drops an idea that sparks his next masterpiece. His first live auction was a turning point—people bidding real money for one-of-a-kind pieces made right before their eyes. But beyond the business side, it’s the connections that matter most. Mike gets messages from people who caught their personal best on one of his flies, or from kids watching with their parents. Those moments mean everything. Teaching is a huge part of why he shares so openly. "I'm self taught for the most part and that definitely comes with frustration sometimes. Helping young tyers get past that frustration is a great feeling" Redefining Fly Culture Mike Romero isn’t just making flies. He’s challenging the entire aesthetic of modern fly fishing. "this sport and lifestyle has always seemed to be real quiet and not many people seemed to be interested because it's not "fun". I like making it fun." He’s all about injecting personality into a space that sometimes feels stiff. If a kid scrolls past his work, watches, and lights up, that’s a win. His long-term goal isn’t just visibility. It’s legacy. He wants to be part of a shift—toward more color, more personality, and more fun in the fly fishing world. Stay Connected and Show Support Whether you’re a collector, a fellow tyer, or someone just discovering the wild world of Romero Flies, you can explore Mike’s custom work and artistic creations at his online store: Here Be sure to follow him for behind-the-scenes content, livestreams, and the latest pieces straight from the vise: Instagram: @ romeroflies TikTok: @ romeroflies This interview was conducted by The Fly Box and featured in Casts That Care , our charity-driven fly fishing newsletter. Casts That Care  brings you real stories, big ideas, and the heart of the fly fishing world, all while donating 50% of subscriber fees to a different fly fishing charity each month. Subscribe today and use promo code: "RomeroFlies15"  at checkout for 15% off your first month, and we’ll donate 25% more to conservation efforts.

The Setup: A Meeting in Manchester

Scotland Reconsiders the Ethics of Angling In May 2025, the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission (SAWC) formally recommended that the Scottish Government review legal exemptions that allow recreational fishing to bypass standard animal cruelty laws. The goal is to assess whether common angling practices, including the use of hooks, catch and release, and fish handling, should be more tightly regulated in light of modern science surrounding fish sentience.

In early June 2025, as much of Canada finds itself locked in smoke, ash, and evacuations, the destruction isn’t just happening above the treetops—it’s running downhill, straight into the rivers.