Owning a fly vest is a personal choice. You don’t really have to have one to fly-fish. You can still go fly-fishing with a rod, reel, line and a few flies and in truth that is all you really need. As we mature into the sport though we tend to collect “stuff”. This “stuff” consists of everything from lengths of once-used monofilament leader and torn up old flies on still-good hooks, to extra spools of specialty fly lines that we only actually use once a decade but still insist on carrying with us at all times. Packing all this paraphernalia around in the pockets of our fishing jacket just doesn’t work after a while and that’s when we finally decide that we should invest in a fly vest; after all, what good is all this great stuff if we can’t find what we need when we need it?

I can’t say for sure what led to this particular trip. I wish…

Photos by Scott Haugen I dropped anchor, patiently waiting in my drift boat…

To be successful when targeting walleye during the open-water season, I use a…

For the first open-water action of the year, look to bull trout for…