Troutbitten

Latest Episodes:

Fighting Big Fish #7 -- Everything All At Once Sep 06, 2026

Show notes

For this season finale of our skills series on fighting fish we take questions and comments from the podcast audience. We cover the following:
-- Fighting and landing big trout in small streams.
-- Fighting trout in shallow water, and keeping them down.
-- Drag settings.
-- Strip sets.
-- Landing two fish at the same time.
-- How location and water type affects decisions.
-- Cranking the reel vs pumping the rod.
-- More on rod choice.
My friends Matt Grobe and Bill Dell to wrap up this season.
Here's the Episode List for Season 20
1. The Hook Set and What Comes First
2. Where to Fight Them (Water Column and More)
3. Fight Them Fast (You Pull or They Pull - Work With a Trout)
4. The Fighting Position
5. Side Pressure
6. The Last Ten Feet (The Finishing Moves)
7. Wrap Up

Resources

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Fighting Big Fish #6 - The Last Ten Feet, and In the Net Aug 30, 2026

Show notes

This podcast is all about the the end of the fight. Everything we’ve walked through in the previous episodes gets you to the point where the fish is within range and just about ready for the scoop. A lot can go wrong at the end of a fight, so there’s a lot that needs to be done right. We cover body, fish, net and rod positioning, all in relation to the river currents. We talk about when we get the net ready and what to do with it. We cover trapping the line with your trigger finger and what to do with the reel's drag. We also talk about when to scoop, what to scoop and where to scoop -- as in, the landing zone. And we go over net preferences too.

Perhaps most importantly, we talk about the concept of spreading your wings at the end -- where the rod hand goes back and the net had reaches out, so the fish’s head comes to the top of the water, and the trout glides into your waiting net.

Perfect, right? Yeah, we also talk about less than idea situations and address some mishaps -- how to deal with things when it all starts to fall apart.

My friends Matt Grobe and Bill Dell join me for a thorough breakdown of the last ten feet.

Here's the Episode List for Season 20

1. The Hook Set and What Comes First
2. Where to Fight Them (Water Column and More)
3. Fight Them Fast (You Pull or They Pull - Work With a Trout)
4. The Fighting Position
5. Side Pressure
6. The Last Ten Feet (The Finishing Moves)
7. Wrap Up (With Stories)

Resources

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Troutbitten Instagram
Troutbitten YouTube
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Fighting Big Fish #5 - Side Pressure! Aug 23, 2026

Show notes

Side pressure puts real leverage on a fish. It's where control begins and power originates. All the other skills before this one set us up to maximize side pressure, with the right angles and a great plan for landing the trout of a lifetime.

I think the opposite of side pressure is upward pressure, or pulling up with the rod tip, and we don't want to fight the fish at the surface. So while side pressure can keep the fish lower in the water column, upward pressure brings a trout to the top, often way too soon.

So with a low rod angle, pulling to the side as much as possible, we force the trout to fight not just the current pushing downstream in its face, but also our constant pressure to the side. A trout wants to hold the current that it’s in, and by pulling sideways, the trout has to work against that pressure to stay in its current. And nothing wears a trout down quicker.

My friends Matt Grobe and Bill Dell join me for a deep dive into real side pressure.

Here's the Episode List for Season 20

Resources

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Fighting Big Fish #4 -- Planning, Positioning and The Fighting Stance Aug 16, 2026

Show notes

Landing a good trout is more about planning, quick thinking and good technique than luck. And in this episode, we talk about being ready for a big fish. With a little forethought and preparation, with even slight adjustments to body positioning, we put ourselves in the best position to show a picture of a lifetime rather than tell the story of another trout that got away.

A few months ago I published a video to the Troutbitten YouTube channel with the title: The Casting, Drifting and Fighting Position — It’s all the Same. What we talk about in this episode, very much mirrors that last part of that video.

We Cover These Key Concepts

-- The Fighting stance (a Galloup idea)
— It’s an athletic position, centered, balanced and strong
— Uses large muscle groups. compact and not extended
— Ready to move and adjust
— We’re also ready for the hook set from here
— The “Orvis” pose
-- Arm slot
-- Position in the river
— Where we put our body determines the kind of pressure we can put on the trout
— Our job is to guide the trout into the places we want it to be.
— Don’t be along for the ride. Be in control

Here's the Episode List for Season 20

1. The Hookset and What Comes First
2. Where to Fight Them (Water Column and More)
3. Fight Them Fast (You Pull or They Pull - Work With a Trout)
4. The Fighting Position
5. Side Pressure
6. The Last Ten Feet (The Finishing Moves)
7. Wrap Up (With Stories)

My good friends, Matt Grobe and Bill Dell join me for this season.

Resources

Visit
Troutbitten Website
Troutbitten Instagram
Troutbitten YouTube
Troutbitten Facebook

Thanks to TroutRoutes:

Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership at
https://maps.troutroutes.com

Thanks to Skwala

Use the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order at
https://skwalafishing.com/

Fighting Big Fish #3 -- Fighting Them Fast, The Tug-of-War and Knowing the Strength of Your Tools Aug 09, 2026

Show notes

This third part of our Troutbitten Skills Series is all about the guiding principle of fighting fish fast. We talk about how this mindset guides our decisions and our movements for all the other skills. Because we want to fight trout fast we use side pressure and we position ourselves for maximum leverage. We thing about current direction and fighting zones, all in an effort to fight a trout fast. Because the longer a trout is on the line, the more chance it has to get off.

We also cover these key concepts:

-- The tug-of-war. Either they pull or you pull.
-- How the stalemate becomes a mistake.
-- Knowing the strength of your tools.
-- Understand the power in the rod and the line.
-- How fast is too fast, and when to ease up on the pressure.
-- Utilizing drag settings

Here's the Episode List for Season 20

My good friends, Matt Grobe and Bill Dell join me for this season.

Resources

Visit
Troutbitten Website
Troutbitten Instagram
Troutbitten YouTube
Troutbitten Facebook

Thanks to TroutRoutes:

Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership at
https://maps.troutroutes.com

Thanks to Skwala

Use the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order at
https://skwalafishing.com/

Fighting Big Fish #2 - Where to Fight Them Aug 02, 2026

Show notes

Fighting trout in a river, creek or stream is all about the currents. So for this episode of our seven part skills series on fighting big fish, we talk about fighting fish upstream, downstream or across. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each angle? And what about current depth? Should we aim to fight the fish in the lower, middle or top part of the water column? And finally, we talk about the fighting zones in a river, meaning, what types of water are a safe choice for fighting the biggest trout of your life?

We also go through a little more on the hooksets from last week, and we briefly discuss how much of this applies to the stillwater game and to other species.

Here's the Episode List for Season 20

My good friends, Matt Grobe and Bill Dell join me for this season.

Resources

Visit
Troutbitten Website
Troutbitten Instagram
Troutbitten YouTube
Troutbitten Facebook

Thanks to TroutRoutes:

Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership at
https://maps.troutroutes.com

Thanks to Skwala

Use the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order at
https://skwalafishing.com/

Fighting Big Fish #1 - The Hooks Set and What Comes First Jul 26, 2026

Show notes

For Season 20 of the Troutbitten Podcast, we have seven episodes lined up for a Skills Series that's all about how to land the biggest fish of your life.

Because, when you do hook the big one — that one you’ve been waiting for — a Whiskey, a Namer or the best fish of your life, you want the skills for fighting big fish with confidence. You want these habits to be engrained into your muscle memory, because you don't have time to think about this stuff when the biggest fish of your life shows up.

Here's the Episode List for S20

My good friends, Matt Grobe and Bill Dell join me for this season.

Resources

Category: Troutbitten | Catch and Release Safely
PODCAST: Troutbitten | How to Handle a Trout
PODCAST: Troutbitten Set the Hook! All About Different Hooksets
ARTICLE: Troutbitten | Are We Taking the Safety of Trout Too Far?
VIDEO: Troutbitten | HOW You Set the Hook Matters Most! - Hook Sets for Dry Flies, Nymphs, Streamers and Wets
ARTICLE: Troutbitten | Don't Guess - Set the Hook and Set Hard
ARTICLE: Troutbitten | Hookset Direction - Downstream

Visit
Troutbitten Website
Troutbitten Instagram
Troutbitten YouTube
Troutbitten Facebook

Thanks to TroutRoutes:

Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership at
https://maps.troutroutes.com

Thanks to Skwala

Use the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order at
https://skwalafishing.com/

Freewheelin' - Out of Town Guides, Wet Flies, Stocking Over Wilds . . . and More Jun 28, 2026

Show notes

In this Season 19 finale of the Troutbitten Podcast, we tackle a grab bag of topics. We call these episodes the Freewheelin' Troutbitten. This one was unintentional. We had plans to cover a topic of fishing with friends vs fishing solo, but once we opened up some of the leftover topics surrounding the Grievances episode from last week, we just kinda got things rolling and let it go.
The last half hour is dedicated to our most important conservation message -- stop stocking over wild trout.
My friends Bill Dell, Dr. Trevor Smith, Matt Grobe and Austin Dando join me for a fun conversation.

Visit
Troutbitten Website
Troutbitten Instagram
Troutbitten YouTube
Troutbitten Facebook

Thanks to TroutRoutes:

Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership at
https://maps.troutroutes.com

Thanks to Skwala

Use the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order at
https://skwalafishing.com/

The Airing of Grievances -- Five Jun 21, 2026

Show notes

We’re here for our fifth annual Airing of Grievances episode. We do this every June, at the end of the spring seasons of the podcast. We do it to have some fun, and we do it because it’s helpful to call out the bad things and try to make them better.

We also do this because Frank Costanza from Seinfeld once said . . . “I gotta lotta problems with you people, and now . . . you’re gonna here about it.”

So we’re here to complain about things, to clear the air and to get things off our chests about the fly fishing industry. And that means just about everyone involved, from the big fly fishing companies and brands, to the start ups. From the fly shops to the guides that work for them. From the independent, part-time guide, to the die-hard angler, to the weekend warrior and to the fisherman who has become fly-fishing-curious in the last few months. Everyone. No exceptions. And that starts with our own self-grievances.

After a few years of doing this and getting so many replies from other anglers with their own gripes, we decided to open up the grievances episode to YOU, the listeners. We did that for the first time last year, and this year we have more submissions than ever. So we’ve compiled a list of the most common grievances with the fly fishing industry. And no one is safe.

Joining me are Austin Dando, Bill Dell, Trevor Smith and Matt Grobe.

Resources

PODCAST: Troutbitten | The Airing of Grievances -- One
PODCAST: Troutbitten | The Airing of Grievances -- Two
PODCAST: Troutbitten | The Airing of Grievances -- Three
PODCAST: Troutbitten | The Airing of Grievances -- Four

Visit
Troutbitten Website
Troutbitten Instagram
Troutbitten YouTube
Troutbitten Facebook

Thanks to TroutRoutes:

Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership at
https://maps.troutroutes.com

Thanks to Skwala

Use the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order at
https://skwalafishing.com/

Learning From Other Species and Other Styles Jun 14, 2026

Show notes

Here's a good talk about other styles and other species, and how using a spinning rod or baitcaster can open up your fishing world to a more complete set of skills and a better understanding of . . . fishing.
Most fly anglers can pick up and cast a spinning rod or baitcaster, but if you spend some real time to develop an intimate understanding of the strengths and the possibilities, you gain another base of knowledge.
The same can be said for chasing other species: bass, carp, musky, redfish, permit, snook, striper. They’re all different, all with unique challenges and solutions that transfer over to the trout world, given the right circumstance.
The question is, can you learn everything -- that same, full skillset of presentations, of reading a river and more, by only fishing a fly rod? That’s part of what we talk about in this podcast.
My good friends Austin Dando and Bill Dell join me for this one.

Resources

PODCAST: Troutbitten | The Versatile Angler - S3, Ep15
VIDEO: Troutbitten | Fish and Film - One Morning for Versatility

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