The DrakeCast - A Fly Fishing Podcast

The idea for this story initially came up about a year ago when I (and 400,000 other people), stumbled across the movie "120 Days." The film follows David Mangum as he spends a third of his year chasing Tarpon. Just a few weeks after seeing the movie, I was on a boat outside of Vero Beach blowing shot after shot at rolling tarpon. This experience frustrated me so much that I had to forget about tarpon for awhile. That worked until I saw this year's F3T feature, "Atlanticus," which tracks a group of anglers around the world in search of the biggest, baddest tarpon. In addition to reopening an old wound, this film brought up quite a few questions: Where do these fish come from? Are the tarpon they were catching in Africa the same fish that I see on instagram in the Keys or the Yucatan? But of course first and foremost, how do I catch one of these fish? In order to find some answers, I decided to get on a plane to the Florida Keys. In the next 43 minutes, we'll find out where these fish come from, but more importantly, we'll find out what we don't know about this majestic species. This episode of the DrakeCast is sponsored by our friends at Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures, Scott Fly Rods, and The Appalachian Mountain Club. Click the links below for more information: https://www.yellowdogflyfishing.com/ https://www.scottflyrod.com/ https://www.outdoors.org/drake

In the previous episode of the podcast we started a new miniseries that we're calling The Road Trip. In chapter 1 we met the road crew for the 2018 Fly Fishing Film Tour and revisited their stops between Boulder, Colorado and Washington State. In this episode we bring you the next chapter, which is exclusively focused on steelhead. Follow the crew as they fish the rivers of Coastal Oregon is search of the chrome they covet. While they had a great time in the rainforest, they also managed to find a few fish on the other side of the country. As always, a huge thanks to Yellow Dog Fly Fishing Adventures & Scott Fly Rods for their continued support of The DrakeCast.

Here is what you can expect from the Spring Issue of The Drake: Wisconsin smallies, Montana cutties, Bolivian dorado, Idaho damselflies, Utah tailwaters, Massachusetts Stripers, Alaska Steelhead, defeated pipelines, permit while pregnant, Maine's Androscoggin, Darcy Bacha's photography, Clyde hits the Gulf, Telluride festavarian, dirtbagging in Dublin, grave-hunting in New York, flyfishing with cats, and a portrait of Pete Soverel.

This episode of The DrakeCast takes a deeper dive into the topic we covered in the last episode; #28 Big & Horny in Montana. Right after that story hit the interwebs, we received a call from someone who felt that their side of the argument hadn't been given proper intelligence. This person was Ken Grant who belongs to the Friends of Bighorn Lake, which is a group that is fighting for more regular water levels in the reservoir. Grant had quite a few problems not only with our story but with the Bighorn River Alliance video, "A River at Risk" that we continually referenced. Throughout the episode we hear Grant's grievances, but we also hear a rebuttal from Anne Marie Emery, the executive director of the Bighorn River Alliance. Many thanks to Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures and Scott Fly Rods for their continued support.

Today we have a story from the Winter 2022/23 issue of The Drake Magazine called “Numbers Game,” that basically asks the question, do I need to catch more fish? The author, Stephen Sautner, does a better job answering that question than I have heard in a long time. To continue this discussion and many others, get your hands on the latest issue of The Drake Magazine either on our website, drakemag.com, or better yet, at your local fly shop. If you like what you heard, make sure to check out Stephen’s new audiobook “Fish on, Fish off.” In it he reads 50 stories about angling and misadventure. Think of it like a six-and-a-half-hour podcast of real-life fishing stories about heartbreak, terror, and triumph. “Fish On, Fish Off” is available on Audible and Audiobooks.com.