Troutbitten

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Dry Fly Platforms - Hoppers, Stones and Foams - The Troutbitten Fly Box Mar 08, 2026

Show notes

It's time for the big-meal dry fly platform: hoppers and stoneflies.

When we open our fly boxes, we’re looking for a solution. If trout are sipping tiny olives in a soft tailout, we probably reach for the low-riding, vulnerable look of a Comparadun or a Parachute. And if we see trout slashing at hovering, skittering Grannoms in a riffle, we probably choose an Elk Hair Caddis or similar.

But what do we pick when the trout food is bigger — when trout are eating hoppers, stoneflies, cicadas or other big bugs on the surface that are twenty times the size of a Blue Winged Olive? Those trout aren’t looking for snacks. They’re hunting for dinner — for the main course. And we need a platform or a style to match the moment.

The hoppers and stoneflies platform is a major departure from the delicate mayfly imitations we’ve covered in this series. This platform isn't about perfectly matching the wing of a Hendrickson or the subtle flutter of an October Caddis. It’s about presenting a substantial, high-calorie meal that gets attention. Whether it’s a Golden stonefly clipping across the hoppy water of a bouldered run, or an unlucky grasshopper blown onto the surface from a grassy bank, these are not subtle bugs. They make a splash. They struggle. And in the best moments, they draw explosive strikes.

With this platform, we substitute subtlety for buoyancy. Hackle is traded in for rubber legs, and dubbing is often replaced by closed-cell foam. In this episode, we break down this big-meal platform. We’ll look at a parts list, cover some pros and cons about material choices, and look at the particulars of the platform itself.

My friend, Matt Grobe, joins me for a detailed look at another of our favorite dry fly platforms.

Resources

PODCAST: Troutbitten | Fly Tying - Essential Tools and More (S17 Ep9)
READ: Troutbitten | Pattern vs Presentation
PODCAST: Troutbitten | What's the Deal With Emergers? S11, Ep4
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Fishing Dry Flies - Dry Fly Skills Series (S12)

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Riverside: Find Fish, Feed Fish, Fight Fish - The Order of Everything Mar 05, 2026

Show notes

In this Riverside episode, I share an article that I published a few years ago, title, The Order of Everything. I also share some Troutbitten updates about my upcoming book, about the Troutbitten Shop, about the live podcast on March 28th at New Trail Brewing Company and the Troutbitten film festival happening later this year, in October. There's an order to everything to keep this Troutbitten project moving forward, and the work of these first weeks of 2026 had me thinking about one of my favorite concepts for a day on the water . . .

A lot goes into a good fishing trip. It’s a flexible framework of pieces and parts mixed in with a little fortuitous intuition. That first trout to the net is rarely luck. And when you start to lose count of how many fish have come to hand, you can be sure that luck has had very little to do with it.

The overarching principles of how to catch a trout — the headers of the outline — are these:

Find Trout
Don’t spook them
Have a Solid Presentation
Choose a Reasonable Pattern
Fight Fish Fast

For me, when the day is tough, if it’s lunchtime and I haven’t yet touched a fish, if I’m losing faith in my strategy and I’m wishing more than fishing, I often gather my wits around this checklist of five.

Here's the full article:

READ: Troutbitten | The Order of Everything

The LIVE Podcast

Also, Tickets are on sale for the Live Podcast on March 28th at New Trail Brewing in Williamsport, PA.

BUY TICKETS HERE

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Dry Fly Platforms - Emergers - The Troutbitten Fly Box Mar 01, 2026

Show notes

A dry fly emerger is one that has part of the fly underneath the surface. It’s a highly effective form (meaning tout eat it) because it matches the most vulnerable state of things that trout see.

In this episode we cover the dry fly platform of emergers. We look at what they are, how and why to use them and the differences in styles within this platform. We cover some history about how emerger design got to this point and what the future might hold.

Once the emerger platform really caught on in the fly fishing world, I’d say it has almost replaced many of the traditional, more high riding patterns as the average flies in the average angler’s box. Maybe that’s just my perception, but there’s no doubt, emergers are more popular than ever, and new ideas and turns of thread keep pushing the concept further.

My good friend, Austin Dando, joins me for a thorough look at another of our favorite dry fly platforms.

Resources

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Dry Fly Platforms - Down Wings - The Troutbitten Fly Box Feb 22, 2026

Show notes

The down wing dry fly style is a perfect match for one of the most ubiquitous insects found in trout rivers across the planet: caddis. The down wing platform is also a first choice for matching many terrestrials, like moths and hoppers, and it finds it's way to stonefly patterns as well.

But for this discussion, we cover the down wing and its progression into fly boxes, by looking at three standouts: the Elk Hair Caddis, the X-Caddis and the CDC & Elk. Because the arrival of each of these patterns brought forth major innovations to the world of dry flies. All three of these are down wings, but they are very different players on the water.

The down wing, like all of these dry fly platforms, is a structural philosophy. There are reasons for having a wing that lays flat rather than stands up. The down wing is a canvas to be creative with. It starts with a wing that angles back. Then, materials used for the undercarriage dictate how the fly behaves on the surface, along with where, when and how we expect trout to respond.

My good friend, Bill Dell, joins me for a thorough look at another of our favorite fly platforms.

Resources

PODCAST: Troutbitten | Fly Tying - Essential Tools and More (S17 Ep9)
READ: Troutbitten | Pattern vs Presentation
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Fishing Dry Flies - Dry Fly Skills Series (S12)

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Dry Fly Platforms - Comparaduns - The Troutbitten Fly Box Feb 15, 2026

Show notes

With its simple form of wing, body and tail, the Comparadun is another template for the dry fly angle -- another perfectly adaptable platform.

When the Comparadun hit the scene in the 1970’s, it was a significant departure from the norm. Anglers recognized this, but more importantly, the trout recognized this. The Comparadun became a hatch matcher. It became the closer, because the Comparadun specialized in fooling selective trout, with perhaps the most realistic profile of a mayfly out there.

The unique design of the Comparadun caught on quickly, because, once again, it solved problems on the water. And it's been fooling wise River trout ever since.

In this episode, we go into detail about the Comparadun — a little history, a parts list, some tying tips, fishing situations and best times to choose a Comparadun.

My good friend, Bill Dell, joins me for a thorough look into one of our favorite flies.

Resources

PODCAST: Troutbitten | Fly Tying - Essential Tools and More (S17 Ep9)
READ: Troutbitten | Pattern vs Presentation
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Fishing Dry Flies - Dry Fly Skills Series (S12)

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Troutbitten Instagram
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Dry Fly Platforms - Parachutes - The Troutbitten Fly Box Feb 08, 2026

Show notes

The parachute platform is our favorite style of dry fly and the favorite of many other anglers, because of its utility. Because it form is functional. Because it casts well, lands upright and keeps floating, even though heavy water. It fools picky trout and looks enough like an emerger and a spinner that you might get away with one fly, all the way through cycle. It's a great dry-dropper fly, it's easily adaptable. And perhaps its best quality . . . you can see the parachute post.

For all of those reasons, the Parachute dry fly platform is close to perfection.

My good friend, Austin Dando, joins me for a thorough look into the Parachute.

Resources

PODCAST: Troutbitten | Fly Tying - Essential Tools and More (S17 Ep9)
READ: Troutbitten | Pattern vs Presentation
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Fishing Dry Flies - Dry Fly Skills Series (S12)

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Dry Fly Platforms - Upright Hackles - The Troutbitten Fly Box Feb 01, 2026

Show notes

Season 18 is a unique look at dry fly styles, through the concept of platforms. By taking a fly shape, a form or a set of materials, we can adapt the elements like color, wing style, tailing material or hackle length to meet the moment. Within the fly platform, we vary its properties to the river conditions or to a specific hatch.

In this seven part Skills Series for season 18, we cover these six dry fly platforms:

1: Upright Hackles
2: Parachutes
3. Comparaduns
4. Down Wings
5. Hoppers and Stoneflies
6. Emergers

This first episode looks at the platform of Upright Hackles. A classic Catskill style, like the Adams, is a perfect example of this platform. Both slimmer and beefier versions are common, each of which are adapted to prioritize the selectivity of the trout or the buoyancy of the fly against heavier currents.

Upright Hackles are perhaps the most common dry fly style, and many popular patterns fit into this platform.

In this episode, we look at the specifics for hook, tail, body, wing and hackle for our first platform in this Skills Series -- the Upright Hackle.

This is a great breakdown and a fun conversation with my friend Austin Dando.

Resources

PODCAST: Troutbitten | Fly Tying - Essential Tools and More (S17 Ep9)
READ: Troutbitten | Pattern vs Presentation
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Fishing Dry Flies - Dry Fly Skills Series (S12)

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Approaching the River Dec 21, 2025

Show notes

We’re here to talk about approaching the river — approaching the trout — to put our boots in the best place, with a strategy for making the casts and catching fish.

We focus so much on the drifting, on the presentation and the casting — on the technical aspects of getting all of those things just right — that it’s easy to overlook the skill that comes before all of that . . .

And make no mistake, the approach is a skill. It’s about making a plan. It’s about choosing a piece of water and deciding at which angle we’ll make the cast.

We consider all of it in this episode. We also look at some intangibles like bug life and light angles, like water levels and how we might mask our presence from the trout. Because scared trout don’t eat, and honestly, that has to be our first consideration.

This is a great conversation with my friends Matt Grobe and Bill Dell.

Resources

PODCAST: Troutbitten | The Spooky Trout - What Scares Fish and How to Avoid Spooking Them
READ: Troutbitten | The Spooky Trout - Find Their Blind Spot
READ: Troutbitten | Are You Spooking Trout?
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Pre-Trip Efficiencies

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Fly Tying -- Essential Tools and More Dec 14, 2025

Show notes

Fly tying is more popular than ever. With the prevalence of high quality materials and excellent videos showing how to build flies, more fly anglers choose to tie their own patterns than ever before.

All of us at Troutbitten have been tying our own flies from the beginning, so we each have preferences for the tools we use. That's what this podcast episode is all about. We discuss the essentials, like vise, scissors and a bobbin, along with some other tools and gear that each of us considers invaluable for tying materials to a hook.

The tools come first. And the quality of those tools can either help or hinder the process.

This conversation is a lot of fun. My friends, Bill Dell, Dr. Trevor Smith, Austin Dando, Josh Darling and Matt Grobe join me.

Resources

PODCAST: Troutbitten | Fly Tying and the Complete Angler - S5,Ep2
READ: Troutbitten | Category | The Troutbitten Fly Box

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Fly Fishing Myths Dec 07, 2025

Show notes

For this episode, we want to tackle a topic that’s been on our list for a long time — fly fishing myths and misunderstandings.

We’re not here to argue about stuff or complain. We just want to acknowledge things that we hear repeated or we see in print or shown in videos — stuff that’s almost assumed as fact, when it’s often not true at all.

We do think it’s important to try to clear the air about these myths and misunderstandings, because bad or incomplete information can really lead people down the wrong path. Or an angler might base many decisions about how they fish, where they fish, when they fish or what they fish for based, in part, upon these myths or these assumptions.

Most of what we bring up is well engrained into the fly fishing field of knowledge. Basically, most of you out there listening will have heard nearly everything we bring up. Maybe too, you’ll have a different take on things, and some of these won’t be myths to you at all. That’s good. Because you really should trust yourself and your own time on the water more than anyone else.

My friends, Bill Dell and Josh Darling join me for a great conversation.

Resources

PODCAST: Troutbitten | What To Trust - S5, Ep11
READ: Troutbitten | What To Trust
READ: Troutbitten | Who Knows Better Than You?

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