Thank you Ben for the assessment of New Mexico fly fishing opportunities. As a New Mexican I truly appreciate it. I absolutely want to discourage any anglers who might have an inkling that there's anything good going on here - on the water or off - that might be interesting. If you must come to barren New Mexico, please funnel yourself to Texas Hole, or at least stay on the San Juan! Us locals will tough it out while hoping we get a chance to foray up the road to Colorado to fish the Blue at the outlet mall or dip a line in the Platte just off I-25 in Denver.
Great video! This weekend in Arkansas I've caught small mouth, blue gill and trout My 81 year old dad and I are going with a guide this morning so I don't have to drive the boat. And it's fun . Yep I suck at fly fishing.
“If you’re from New England, that means that you think that a 9” wild brookie is a big deal, you spend most of your time watching your states stocking report and you think that catching a 20” holdover trout from the Farmington makes you a big deal (throw a Ron Burgundy meme there). Newsflash, it doesn’t.”🤣🤣🤣
As someone who lives in British Columbia I love the Brian Chan reference and look forward to an international video on the topic. Keep up the good videos
You’re spot on about MI. In addition to the Colorado fly fishers, they usually have “Colorado native” bumper stickers on their Subarus like it’s some feat to be born and then continue living in a location. Makes you want to ask each one, “How’d you do it?”
Ben, your take on Alaskan fishermen is spot on, even though it could’ve been more in depth! Come on man, you know this is the Mecca 😂! Oh, and some of us are lucky enough to have been born and raised here in the darkness, we didn’t get to choose. We just chose to stay because the fishing is so awesome 😂.
As a guy who lives and fly fishes in Tennessee, you hit it pretty well. Definitely alotta options other than browns on the SoHo. I also agree with your take on NC. I’ve said before that as an angler that might be the best state to live in. You’ve got salt on the east coast, bass, muskies, etc. in the Piedmont, then trout in the mountains. Even if you have to make a short drive over the Cumberland Gap into Tennessee for big trout, there’s alotta options.
Love this video Ben… I’m watching it from the Slide Inn after an amazing day on the Madison… and we walk/waded believe it or not. This video had me rollin. Keep ‘em coming!
I was expecting Arkansas to get eviscerated bc all of our trout streams are tailwaters😅 but you must’ve done your research bc most of our browns are wild and we have a healthy (non-tailwater) smallmouth game.
You missed the Driftless in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. People in the south also fish delayed harvest streams for stocked trout or fish mountain streams for small wild rainbows and native (?) brook trout.
I am a New Mexican and have been fly fishing for more years than I care to count. I have always refused to fish the San Juan simply because of all the Texas over crowding. Do not ask for my honey holes, I don't want them ruined by outsiders!
Great video. Michigan comments had me dead -- so accurate. You left out California, a lot to be dealt with. Right angle nymphers, striper nuts, and high sierra dudes who forget their rods every hike but not their fish whistles.
Hilarious! I was working a two boat float the other day up here in Mantana and you should have seen the look on our clients faces when the other guide told them they weren’t “Steelhead” when one client was talking about the Great Lakes…
Honestly Ben, you have some of the best comedy of anyone I've ever watched!!! Did you write any of that down before you started because I laughed at this video like I laugh at stand up comedy 🤣
Ben, one your best for sure. As a Canadian, I think you should do an international version and take a poke at that reputation as well. For my two cents in Canada, we basically have lake anglers and river anglers in the fly fishing community. I only fish lakes when the rivers are “unfishable” because of boat safety and not water clarity
As a person on the coast of TX who's actually from Colorado, I'm conflicted. I think it's absolutely bizarre that so many Texans fixate on trout in SW Colorado and the Dramalupe, but I don't miss them in the marsh either.
As a Texan, I can confirm this. Nothing like being the only dude in the shallows throwing at bass. The Guad rocks, as long as you don't hook someone from Austin.
Just spent the weekend fly fishing for bass on the San Marcos. I hooked a few but they got off the hook jumping and all that. Texas fly fishing in the hill country rocks!
@@marcosmontez8555 I actually hate the hill country, except for the guad and maybe perd. I prefer northern hill country around Whitney, Goldthwaite, PK, etc. So much scenery to look at while there.
Same. Only problem I've consistently found is that on-lookers will stop their cars to take picture like you're paid by the state to entertain them. I gotta be famous or something around the Brazos. There has to be hundreds of my casts circulating the internet by now. I'm convinced I should copyright my cast at this point, lol
Honestly I kind of got out of fly fishing when I moved back for eight years after college (I'm a native). Either the rivers were too brushy to back cast or the lakes were too windy to shore fish. And the Guad was kinda meh, granted I only tried it once. If I'm being honest though I was a lazy pot head then too. Now I'm a Denver pleb though (aspiring at becoming a Wyoming wind sufferer at some point).
Love the BC comment and a picture of Brian Chan. He is the king of BC Interior lake Fishing. I went out on the Cheakamus in Squamish last Friday. Not one fish. Lots of Coho but weren't interested in anything we threw at them. That's fly fishing.
As a guy from western new york i completely agree with you about the salmon in the creeks. But if you ever have the chance to fish the niagara river for them its a whole different game and they bite
As a Utah fly angler I find this hilarious. There definitely aren't too many big rivers. However there are lots of good small streams that make me happy!
lol great job. Michigan guy here. You even remembered to bring up the only insult you can make to a Michigan fisherman that works..”ya um ahhhkshully that’s not technically a steelhead since they never go into salt water” Saline level of water does not cause all the changes in size, color, feeding habits…whatever west coast bros, stay salty !!! ;)
I'll never forget being harassed when I was 15 for changing to a baitcaster and having a great steelhead day drift fishing while the fly guys didn't get shit
You missed my home state, Missouri, and our shoulder to shoulder Ozark trout streams. Actually I've fished most all species around Missouri with a fly rod, but I suck at fly fishing.
Dont lie to him. There s no fly fishing here. I wouldn't want someone coming here and getting disappointed when they can go to the states he mentioned.
CO....Pueblo. I caught my largest trout ever (32" rainbow) on a nymph 50 yards from the dam of Pueblo res...I fish for everything that'll take a fly in CO. Got pike at 11 mile res, bluegill in...well anywhere there's water....greenbacks in the San Juan and Wet Mountains and soon grayling North of Steamboat.
Come fish possum kingdom in texas. Tons of bass, smallies, striped bass, and sand bass. The unofficial state record striper was caught there. Lots of flats areas to carp fish too
NC guy here. Fish it all. Trout, warm water and salt. It’s awesome here. Plus, TN and VA trout water within 2-3 hour drive. Stay huge. Lake Norman has great trophy carp fishing. Used to live on the lake and spend many a days hunting them.
I lived in AK for a while. You can make fun of beads all you want, but it's called matching the hatch. That being said, during the time of year when the fish are gorging on eggs, you can do pretty well with a flesh fly too. And then there's TX, which is pretty much like NM. They have ONE trout stream. It's a tail water that has NO wild fish in it, and they managed somehow to get it listed as one of the 50 best trout streams in the U.S. Yeah, I don't think so.
Combat fishing…what I call my fly fishing in southwest Florida…hanging off bridges, swatting away gators from the inflatable kayak…and when I’m on the Hewes Redfisher in the backwater, there is NO spinning rod on the boat.
I had a purist fly fisherman tell me that I shouldn't use a leach pattern because it didn't "match the hatch"! He left because he saw the 'Who are you" look on my face! I don't fly fish for anyone but me!
fly fisherman from Utah here. We only fish the provo. and for some reason we call it a "world class blue ribbon fishery" when its a crowded sow bug or nothing river stream.
Best one yet! Cracked me up. You nailed Colorado, but that's not how it used to be. I remember looking over the Colorado and seeing two anglers and saying, "too crowded for me." Then I moved to NC and went out chasing Redfish. Did you know there is such a thing as the Colorado Cast? It's not flattering. I had to learn how to actually cast a fly rod for salt water. You youngsters crack me up. Keep up the good work.
You and I would get along just fine. Colorado boy here, moved to the Gulf Coast. Learning that I didn't know how to cast sucked. Learning how to actually cast has turned out to be pretty damned fun.
@@dadeking5472 It's a snide way of saying that most (not all) trout fisherman can't cast very well. If you sling big meat flies in the wind (see "Wyoming") then there's a better chance that you've learned how to load the rod and throw some reasonably tight loops, but like Ben's video said, an awful lot of people in Colorado are flipping nymphs in tailwaters or occasionally fishing small creeks with light rods. Neither of those are effective preparation for casting in saltwater. The jump from a 4wt to the 8wt to 12wt range is significant, but it's mostly about inefficient loop formation, an inability to double haul, too many false casts, and trout setting rather than strip setting. To be effective in Colorado you need to be able to flip nymphs within 20ft. To be effective in the salt, you need to be able to punch a heavy fly 30-60ft into a 15mph headwind. One of these things is not like the other....
Thanks for acknowledging us guys in Northern California as part of the PNW and not grouping us in with all the shit bags from the valley and the bay. Anything south of there should just break off into the ocean..
So true as stereotypes. We moved from CO to MT, being tired of the overcrowding everywhere except deep in the bowels of Byers or other difficult-to-access places. Our home waters were on The Blue, well north of Silverthorne. During COVID there was no place to park because all the Frangers and Texans invaded, even though they were supposed to stay close to home. I guess “close” meant anywhere between 80 and 1,000 miles. But the invasion continued and we couldn’t tolerate it so we invaded NW Montana where everyone has a boat but us. 😆
Alaskan here. Can confirm the bead situation. Also, we do catch the most fish because... it's easy to do up here. I've caught a 24" trout on cellophane from a friends cigarette packaging. They want to eat whatever you throw at them (yes, including rocks!). Also, the winters suck. A lot. Enough to make me go to where the sun shines for at least a month every Jan / Feb. Then it's back to AK where I put on my headlamp, cut out a 50' chunk of ice out of the lake to put my boat into to wet a line. Stayin' HUGE in one of the smallest provinces, I mean states in Canada!
Being from GA, I own a place in Florida and have two skiffs exclusively for fly fishing. One for summer run Panhandle beach Tarpon and one for skinny water redfish and occasional trips to the Keys for bonefish, permit, tarpon and snook. I also fish the GA coast, love the flood tides and belly crawling redfish. Those of us in south GA fish the Flint River for Shoal Bass with fly rods, along with the occasional largemouth and panfish, with spring run Gulf Stripers. Lots of fly fishermen in GA, many fish the mountains, but I could care less for catching a fish where you seldom, if ever get to fight them on your reel. Give me wind, and 60ft or more double haul casts and a fish that will get me into my backing more so than not.
You should try Virginia at some point. Still have several mt streams in the sw with natives. The New River is also know for its smallies and muskies...can drift portions or wade
Thanks to your videos I decided to try fly fishing. Bought a rod and took it out the back yard to practice casting. It promptly snapped near the first snake guide. Not the greatest start, not gunna lie.
From Arizona, but with family in Michigan. Pretty much dead on as mousing a river in the dark while not spilling your beer is a unique experience. You left out Arizona, though. Once you get over the whole desert part, we have a few fun spots for sure.
More, more, more! And come down to Birmingham and fish America’s Amazon sometime. From right here in town to just up the road in Muscle Shoals we have gorgeous, camo wearing, 5 weight busting Micropterus Henshalli “Alabama Bass”, powerful smallies, and nearly all the distinct species of red eye bass (our mtn brooks), all in clear moving water. And beer.
As a Pennsylvanian I feel like we have two types of fly fishermen here. Type 1 spends his time deep in the PA Wilds chasing native brook trout on small streams with dry flies and knows some tributary streams that hold monster wild browns. Type 2 is the guy who fishes all the well known streams catching stockers planted from the most prolific hatchery system in the country. This guy only fishes near bridges, never walks more than 100 yards from the car, and loves pellet head “Palomino” trout.
Pretty good. I would add one more type: Type 3 or 'the academic' who spends half their time on Spring Creek, Penns Creek or the Little Juniata catching "wild" fish and the other half at TCO or the Feathered Hook, has really nice gear, and religiously matches the hatch.
I live in WNC and I agree 100%. WNC fly fishing is awesome for everything else and trout.You have to be willing to work for it. Fly fishing is not easy! To me that is the challenge. Chasing other fish than trout has led to connecting with not only new people and friends, but my own family, and also keeping me interested in trying new and sometimes ridiculous tactics. It’s fun and hard! That’s the point. Chase everything with a “fish-pole” and fly. Why not?
I live in Washington, and fishing west and east from the cascade mountains is completely different west of the mountains is the Spey fishing. East has the Yakima river and spring creeks
Missed one... In the biggest city in the US (LA), ironically there is a small group of very competative fly fisherman that sight cast the very elusive Corbina in the summer surf. Very hard, very fun... It is California's answer to the bonefish. Al Q wrote a book about it called "The Corbina Diaries" look it up! Would love to have you try it next summer Ben.
@@williambrunjes1301 it does... In the bay. Not at all like fly fishing for bones in the flats. Corbina fishing in the skinny surf is a much closer experience.
If you live in Massachusetts or NH, you’re constantly annoyed at the mosh pit of guys holding their spinning rods upside down with power bait, fishing small ponds for the trout that don’t belong there. For every great trout stream we have, there are five small ponds filled with hapless, confused-looking rainbows. It’s a really strange place to be a fly fisherman lol
Hi Ben! Excellant! I dont know if anyone has ever done a video stereotyping different states like this! Really Funny! I'm from Pa , really enjoyed the comments!
Nice to see Brian Chan represent BC! ...and what about BC? Not just the Skeena... something local to us, the Chilliwack River during the fall salmon runs! Where anglers wear deodorant because they're so close!
Pretty accurate, as an idaho angler that was born and raised here I can agree that I don’t fish with anyone on the regular that was also born and raised here. Lol and we absolutely hate on Utards them and their craft beers and flat brims. “Logos out”
PNW guy here. Fished Colorado for the first time this year and this is my take. We have too much water and not enough fish. You guys have too many fish and not enough water.
Brah, you skipped Hawai’i!! We get world class bonefishing out here, Maui Brewing, great weed and perfect weather year-round. We say things like “Eh, brah, I stay fishing here already”, “eh, like beef?”, “who ya maddah?”, “Dirty lickins”, No can”, and “Shoots, brah, buggah went bankrupt me.”
Love this! Where is the stereotype by fish angled for? Pnw coastal cuttie spey angler vs maine river musky fly gal? Wiso bluegill vs GA grass carp…you get me?
This is great! You missed a HUGE opportunity to roast WA for our overuse of float tubes on cold lakes because those have more fish than our creeks and tribs. Makes up for the zero steelhead I caught though.
Honestly with current state of fishing in the PNW I'm super happy if I catch 2 fish a year.... with my two handed clicky setup that I needed a mortgage to afford.
You forgot to mention all the Huge fly fishers in the northeast who adjust their fishing calendar to match the stocking truck schedule.😂
Live in CT. This is spot on.
Can’t forget the guys that get super excited over tiny schoolie stripers or albies (I understand that excitement)
Exactly!!! Especially in CT. And they write nasty notes to DEEP complaining about their area not getting stocked enough. LMAO!!
@@DicmoI am also from Connecticut. You are not wrong
This is South Jersey for sure. True, we don't have holdover trout but the day after stocking is a cluster*&%#!
Thank god that 99.9 % of fly fishermen have no idea where the best fishing is.
Thank god 99.9% of fly fisherman think they know where the best fishing is
Thank god that 99.9% of fly fisherman won’t use spinning gear. I love catching more fish
@@stdr04 yet here you are...
@@stdr04thank God 99.9 percent of tourists use spinning rods for trout, I love catching more fish.
Thank you Ben for the assessment of New Mexico fly fishing opportunities. As a New Mexican I truly appreciate it. I absolutely want to discourage any anglers who might have an inkling that there's anything good going on here - on the water or off - that might be interesting. If you must come to barren New Mexico, please funnel yourself to Texas Hole, or at least stay on the San Juan! Us locals will tough it out while hoping we get a chance to foray up the road to Colorado to fish the Blue at the outlet mall or dip a line in the Platte just off I-25 in Denver.
The Michigan one killed me! Thanks Ben, HUGE as usual!
Your opinion on Great Lakes migratory trout and land locked slime zombies is valued and appreciated- Guy who's region was only barely mentioned.
must be Or
Great video! This weekend in Arkansas I've caught small mouth, blue gill and trout My 81 year old dad and I are going with a guide this morning so I don't have to drive the boat. And it's fun . Yep I suck at fly fishing.
Breathing a big new england sigh of relief today * sips on an iced coffee from dunkin *
Ha
I second that guy
I hope Timmie's gets a mention when he does the Canadian version....
“If you’re from New England, that means that you think that a 9” wild brookie is a big deal, you spend most of your time watching your states stocking report and you think that catching a 20” holdover trout from the Farmington makes you a big deal (throw a Ron Burgundy meme there). Newsflash, it doesn’t.”🤣🤣🤣
This was hilarious 😂, would love to see a pt. 2! You should include a New England breakdown (MA, VT, ME, etc.).
As someone who lives in British Columbia I love the Brian Chan reference and look forward to an international video on the topic. Keep up the good videos
I was surprised to see Brian! Haha! He’s a stillwater legend here!
@@KBosch-xp2ut Yes between Brian and Phil Rowley we have some Canadian Stillwater legends
Brian Chan literally changed my life. I'm a HUGE fan.
Brian Chan rules
“Up north they’re fishing the fake Au Sable and confusing everyone” hahahaha I died a little with that one
Michigan Ausable is the one and only
@@khoile976 yeah fake Ausable sucks! Please don't go there.
“You think you’re cool because your reel goes clicky-clicky ..” LMAO😂
As a Texan I fish almost exclusively in my own state. People seriously underestimate the number of species we have easily available.
I lived in west Texas for 6 years. I loved fly fishing for white crappie at night. So much fun and good eats.
Always happy for a shout-out! Thanks for the laughs!
You’re spot on about MI.
In addition to the Colorado fly fishers, they usually have “Colorado native” bumper stickers on their Subarus like it’s some feat to be born and then continue living in a location. Makes you want to ask each one, “How’d you do it?”
😂😂😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Can't believe there wasn't a Yellow Breeches joke in there.
Ben, your take on Alaskan fishermen is spot on, even though it could’ve been more in depth! Come on man, you know this is the Mecca 😂! Oh, and some of us are lucky enough to have been born and raised here in the darkness, we didn’t get to choose. We just chose to stay because the fishing is so awesome 😂.
Also, I love your videos man! Keep up the good work!
As a guy who lives and fly fishes in Tennessee, you hit it pretty well. Definitely alotta options other than browns on the SoHo. I also agree with your take on NC. I’ve said before that as an angler that might be the best state to live in. You’ve got salt on the east coast, bass, muskies, etc. in the Piedmont, then trout in the mountains. Even if you have to make a short drive over the Cumberland Gap into Tennessee for big trout, there’s alotta options.
Love this video Ben… I’m watching it from the Slide Inn after an amazing day on the Madison… and we walk/waded believe it or not. This video had me rollin. Keep ‘em coming!
Haha! Thanks for some love on Michigan. It’s true, we are pretty intense. Sending good vibes from the real au sable.
I was expecting Arkansas to get eviscerated bc all of our trout streams are tailwaters😅 but you must’ve done your research bc most of our browns are wild and we have a healthy (non-tailwater) smallmouth game.
Bro, I love how you just call everyone out! We need more fishermen like that on social media. You've got balls and your hilarious man.
You missed the Driftless in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. People in the south also fish delayed harvest streams for stocked trout or fish mountain streams for small wild rainbows and native (?) brook trout.
Northern Minnesota pike guys pressed rn
Like he said. He didn't skip us, we don't matter lol
[waves Jedi hand] There are no fish in the Driftless. Move along. Nothing to see here.
Oh, good point. Doesn't like half of Chicago go to the Driftless??
And of course you just shared it with anyone who didn't know about it lol. He missed my state and Im good with that.
I am a New Mexican and have been fly fishing for more years than I care to count. I have always refused to fish the San Juan simply because of all the Texas over crowding. Do not ask for my honey holes, I don't want them ruined by outsiders!
100%, there’s definitely more to NM fly fishing than at the San Juan. I’m Glad majority of out-of-state folks mainly know of San Juan
As an Oregonian I am offended by how spot on you are. No one disparages our Clicky click reels! Haha love the videos man!
This is one of the best videos I’ve ever seen and once you release the BC video it will be shown to my anthropology professor.
Great video. Michigan comments had me dead -- so accurate. You left out California, a lot to be dealt with. Right angle nymphers, striper nuts, and high sierra dudes who forget their rods every hike but not their fish whistles.
Hilarious! I was working a two boat float the other day up here in Mantana and you should have seen the look on our clients faces when the other guide told them they weren’t “Steelhead” when one client was talking about the Great Lakes…
I put baseball cards in my reel so all the other Oregon guys know I've got a monster on the line.
Honestly Ben, you have some of the best comedy of anyone I've ever watched!!! Did you write any of that down before you started because I laughed at this video like I laugh at stand up comedy 🤣
Ben, one your best for sure. As a Canadian, I think you should do an international version and take a poke at that reputation as well. For my two cents in Canada, we basically have lake anglers and river anglers in the fly fishing community. I only fish lakes when the rivers are “unfishable” because of boat safety and not water clarity
There’s always fishable rivers in Canada no matter the water level or clarity! #riversforlife 😂
So darn funny! How do you not get beat up everywhere you go? Great video!😂
As a person on the coast of NC I fully support everyone going to the mountains to fish.
As a person on the coast of TX who's actually from Colorado, I'm conflicted. I think it's absolutely bizarre that so many Texans fixate on trout in SW Colorado and the Dramalupe, but I don't miss them in the marsh either.
As a Texan, I can confirm this. Nothing like being the only dude in the shallows throwing at bass. The Guad rocks, as long as you don't hook someone from Austin.
Just spent the weekend fly fishing for bass on the San Marcos. I hooked a few but they got off the hook jumping and all that. Texas fly fishing in the hill country rocks!
@@marcosmontez8555 I actually hate the hill country, except for the guad and maybe perd. I prefer northern hill country around Whitney, Goldthwaite, PK, etc. So much scenery to look at while there.
Same. Only problem I've consistently found is that on-lookers will stop their cars to take picture like you're paid by the state to entertain them. I gotta be famous or something around the Brazos. There has to be hundreds of my casts circulating the internet by now. I'm convinced I should copyright my cast at this point, lol
More for us then
Honestly I kind of got out of fly fishing when I moved back for eight years after college (I'm a native). Either the rivers were too brushy to back cast or the lakes were too windy to shore fish. And the Guad was kinda meh, granted I only tried it once. If I'm being honest though I was a lazy pot head then too. Now I'm a Denver pleb though (aspiring at becoming a Wyoming wind sufferer at some point).
He did not have to call out Drew from DrewLooknFishy like that 🤣🤣
Love the BC comment and a picture of Brian Chan. He is the king of BC Interior lake Fishing. I went out on the Cheakamus in Squamish last Friday. Not one fish. Lots of Coho but weren't interested in anything we threw at them. That's fly fishing.
As a guy from western new york i completely agree with you about the salmon in the creeks. But if you ever have the chance to fish the niagara river for them its a whole different game and they bite
As a Utah fly angler I find this hilarious. There definitely aren't too many big rivers. However there are lots of good small streams that make me happy!
Quiet, you! We don't need any more people to know that!
@@Makapo3791 Yeah keep em at the Berry and Dutch John we don't need more social media anglers mishandling the good fish 😆
Nope. Just the Green, Provo, and Weber here.
@@spencerthomason6558 when he said we only have three places to fish every Utah angler knew the three places he was talking about haha.
All the Utah stuff is spot on.
From Idaho. Can confirm our distaste of Carrot Snappers (Utahns) that buy up all the river front in Island Park.
lol great job. Michigan guy here. You even remembered to bring up the only insult you can make to a Michigan fisherman that works..”ya um ahhhkshully that’s not technically a steelhead since they never go into salt water”
Saline level of water does not cause all the changes in size, color, feeding habits…whatever west coast bros, stay salty !!! ;)
As someone who lives in NY this was highly entertaining - though if you do a chrome coho or king, you're in for a good time!
I'll never forget being harassed when I was 15 for changing to a baitcaster and having a great steelhead day drift fishing while the fly guys didn't get shit
You missed my home state, Missouri, and our shoulder to shoulder Ozark trout streams. Actually I've fished most all species around Missouri with a fly rod, but I suck at fly fishing.
Dont lie to him. There s no fly fishing here. I wouldn't want someone coming here and getting disappointed when they can go to the states he mentioned.
CO....Pueblo. I caught my largest trout ever (32" rainbow) on a nymph 50 yards from the dam of Pueblo res...I fish for everything that'll take a fly in CO. Got pike at 11 mile res, bluegill in...well anywhere there's water....greenbacks in the San Juan and Wet Mountains and soon grayling North of Steamboat.
Hansambo made the cut. So awesome. Way to represent WNC. You need to come for a visit, Ben.
Pennsyltucky and New York..... nailed it!!! 😂
Was genuinely not expecting to see a picture of the Grey Reef Dam during the Wyoming segment and I feel attacked 😅😂 well done sir!
Come fish possum kingdom in texas. Tons of bass, smallies, striped bass, and sand bass. The unofficial state record striper was caught there. Lots of flats areas to carp fish too
NC guy here. Fish it all. Trout, warm water and salt. It’s awesome here. Plus, TN and VA trout water within 2-3 hour drive. Stay huge.
Lake Norman has great trophy carp fishing. Used to live on the lake and spend many a days hunting them.
Epic. Love to see an international review
I lived in AK for a while. You can make fun of beads all you want, but it's called matching the hatch. That being said, during the time of year when the fish are gorging on eggs, you can do pretty well with a flesh fly too. And then there's TX, which is pretty much like NM. They have ONE trout stream. It's a tail water that has NO wild fish in it, and they managed somehow to get it listed as one of the 50 best trout streams in the U.S. Yeah, I don't think so.
Thank you for going easy on NY. There’s so much to work with here…😊😊
Combat fishing…what I call my fly fishing in southwest Florida…hanging off bridges, swatting away gators from the inflatable kayak…and when I’m on the Hewes Redfisher in the backwater, there is NO spinning rod on the boat.
I had a purist fly fisherman tell me that I shouldn't use a leach pattern because it didn't "match the hatch"! He left because he saw the 'Who are you" look on my face! I don't fly fish for anyone but me!
You missed Maine, only place in the lower 48 with arctic char :)
fly fisherman from Utah here. We only fish the provo. and for some reason we call it a "world class blue ribbon fishery" when its a crowded sow bug or nothing river stream.
You never mentioned Nebraska. We have, like, 130 ft of trout water here.
i live in Alaska and i can say Ben's description is spot on🤣
Best one yet! Cracked me up. You nailed Colorado, but that's not how it used to be. I remember looking over the Colorado and seeing two anglers and saying, "too crowded for me." Then I moved to NC and went out chasing Redfish. Did you know there is such a thing as the Colorado Cast? It's not flattering. I had to learn how to actually cast a fly rod for salt water. You youngsters crack me up. Keep up the good work.
You and I would get along just fine. Colorado boy here, moved to the Gulf Coast. Learning that I didn't know how to cast sucked. Learning how to actually cast has turned out to be pretty damned fun.
Haha what is the “Colorado cast?”
@@dadeking5472 It's a snide way of saying that most (not all) trout fisherman can't cast very well. If you sling big meat flies in the wind (see "Wyoming") then there's a better chance that you've learned how to load the rod and throw some reasonably tight loops, but like Ben's video said, an awful lot of people in Colorado are flipping nymphs in tailwaters or occasionally fishing small creeks with light rods. Neither of those are effective preparation for casting in saltwater.
The jump from a 4wt to the 8wt to 12wt range is significant, but it's mostly about inefficient loop formation, an inability to double haul, too many false casts, and trout setting rather than strip setting.
To be effective in Colorado you need to be able to flip nymphs within 20ft. To be effective in the salt, you need to be able to punch a heavy fly 30-60ft into a 15mph headwind. One of these things is not like the other....
Michigander here, thanks for all the kind words!
Thanks for acknowledging us guys in Northern California as part of the PNW and not grouping us in with all the shit bags from the valley and the bay. Anything south of there should just break off into the ocean..
So true as stereotypes. We moved from CO to MT, being tired of the overcrowding everywhere except deep in the bowels of Byers or other difficult-to-access places. Our home waters were on The Blue, well north of Silverthorne. During COVID there was no place to park because all the Frangers and Texans invaded, even though they were supposed to stay close to home. I guess “close” meant anywhere between 80 and 1,000 miles. But the invasion continued and we couldn’t tolerate it so we invaded NW Montana where everyone has a boat but us. 😆
Probably my favorite video so far 👍
PNW single hander🦑🤺
Alaskan here. Can confirm the bead situation. Also, we do catch the most fish because... it's easy to do up here. I've caught a 24" trout on cellophane from a friends cigarette packaging. They want to eat whatever you throw at them (yes, including rocks!). Also, the winters suck. A lot. Enough to make me go to where the sun shines for at least a month every Jan / Feb. Then it's back to AK where I put on my headlamp, cut out a 50' chunk of ice out of the lake to put my boat into to wet a line. Stayin' HUGE in one of the smallest provinces, I mean states in Canada!
Being from GA, I own a place in Florida and have two skiffs exclusively for fly fishing. One for summer run Panhandle beach Tarpon and one for skinny water redfish and occasional trips to the Keys for bonefish, permit, tarpon and snook. I also fish the GA coast, love the flood tides and belly crawling redfish. Those of us in south GA fish the Flint River for Shoal Bass with fly rods, along with the occasional largemouth and panfish, with spring run Gulf Stripers. Lots of fly fishermen in GA, many fish the mountains, but I could care less for catching a fish where you seldom, if ever get to fight them on your reel. Give me wind, and 60ft or more double haul casts and a fish that will get me into my backing more so than not.
You should try Virginia at some point. Still have several mt streams in the sw with natives. The New River is also know for its smallies and muskies...can drift portions or wade
As a fisherman from PA who has trout fished 25-30 states... this was HILARIOUS. Thanks.
You mentioned “Boz-Angeles” in MT. Don’t forget “San Fran-ssoula”. Lol. 😂😊
best video yet man keep up the great content
Thanks to your videos I decided to try fly fishing. Bought a rod and took it out the back yard to practice casting. It promptly snapped near the first snake guide. Not the greatest start, not gunna lie.
Return it - probably a defect, and they get them "for free", and want to keep you as a customer. Anglers waste money on all kinds of stuff.
Probably my favorite video so far
From Arizona, but with family in Michigan. Pretty much dead on as mousing a river in the dark while not spilling your beer is a unique experience. You left out Arizona, though. Once you get over the whole desert part, we have a few fun spots for sure.
Showing up at home an hour or two before sun up wasted after catching a couple beautiful browns never gets old. I love MI
More, more, more! And come down to Birmingham and fish America’s Amazon sometime. From right here in town to just up the road in Muscle Shoals we have gorgeous, camo wearing, 5 weight busting Micropterus Henshalli “Alabama Bass”, powerful smallies, and nearly all the distinct species of red eye bass (our mtn brooks), all in clear moving water. And beer.
Another great location to highlight is the Driftless Area in MN, WI & Iowa. Love your videos!
Definitely not a “great location”
All hail Michigan! Also, I understood that Arkansas-Idaho joke!!
Who is the Arkansas guy he is talking about from Idaho?
👍👍
This is my new favorite video of yours 😂😂😂
I died when you mentioned the spey rods and clicker reels, you got me bro lol
Rio grande New Mexico?
As a Pennsylvanian I feel like we have two types of fly fishermen here. Type 1 spends his time deep in the PA Wilds chasing native brook trout on small streams with dry flies and knows some tributary streams that hold monster wild browns. Type 2 is the guy who fishes all the well known streams catching stockers planted from the most prolific hatchery system in the country. This guy only fishes near bridges, never walks more than 100 yards from the car, and loves pellet head “Palomino” trout.
Fellow Pennsylvanian here and that assessment is incredibly spot on.
Pretty good. I would add one more type: Type 3 or 'the academic' who spends half their time on Spring Creek, Penns Creek or the Little Juniata catching "wild" fish and the other half at TCO or the Feathered Hook, has really nice gear, and religiously matches the hatch.
Spot on for West Virginia as well
Michigan here....We can be intense, for all the right reasons.....lol. Wouldn't change it for the world! You name it, we fish it.
I live in WNC and I agree 100%. WNC fly fishing is awesome for everything else and trout.You have to be willing to work for it. Fly fishing is not easy! To me that is the challenge. Chasing other fish than trout has led to connecting with not only new people and friends, but my own family, and also keeping me interested in trying new and sometimes ridiculous tactics. It’s fun and hard! That’s the point. Chase everything with a “fish-pole” and fly. Why not?
The Texans going to Pagosa was 100% accurate make sure you stop in to Let It Fly and say hello to Pops
Are we not good enough here In Virginia?!?
Nah Ben just has love for the DMV! 😂❤
After midnight mousing in Northern Michigan is one hell of an experience.
Would love to see a profile on southern California anglers once you get around the international episode ...
I live in Washington, and fishing west and east from the cascade mountains is completely different west of the mountains is the Spey fishing. East has the Yakima river and spring creeks
HEY! I'll have you know my Uinta trip is totally going to happen... we just got snowed out this year. Uintas 2023 for sure!
Missed one... In the biggest city in the US (LA), ironically there is a small group of very competative fly fisherman that sight cast the very elusive Corbina in the summer surf. Very hard, very fun... It is California's answer to the bonefish. Al Q wrote a book about it called "The Corbina Diaries" look it up! Would love to have you try it next summer Ben.
San Diego bay has a population of bonefish
@@williambrunjes1301 it does... In the bay. Not at all like fly fishing for bones in the flats. Corbina fishing in the skinny surf is a much closer experience.
[adds corbina to bucket list, notes again with frustration that the cobia box is not yet checked]
no body cares about our shitty fly fishing besides the only thing worth catching on a fly in Socal are salty bass
If you live in Massachusetts or NH, you’re constantly annoyed at the mosh pit of guys holding their spinning rods upside down with power bait, fishing small ponds for the trout that don’t belong there. For every great trout stream we have, there are five small ponds filled with hapless, confused-looking rainbows. It’s a really strange place to be a fly fisherman lol
Hi Ben! Excellant! I dont know if anyone has ever done a video stereotyping different states like this! Really Funny! I'm from Pa , really enjoyed the comments!
😂 that was dead on! When you hit Utah with the 3 I died. Provo, Weber, Green baby.
Nice to see Brian Chan represent BC! ...and what about BC? Not just the Skeena... something local to us, the Chilliwack River during the fall salmon runs! Where anglers wear deodorant because they're so close!
Pretty accurate, as an idaho angler that was born and raised here I can agree that I don’t fish with anyone on the regular that was also born and raised here. Lol and we absolutely hate on Utards them and their craft beers and flat brims. “Logos out”
Your google image search skills are on point!
PNW guy here. Fished Colorado for the first time this year and this is my take. We have too much water and not enough fish. You guys have too many fish and not enough water.
How about you and Alvin Dedeaux catching up to fly fish together in one of your videos? That’s Texas and bass as well as redfish. Just a thought!
Upvote for Alvin. He's good people.
We’ve tried to get together. It’ll happen someday.
Brah, you skipped Hawai’i!! We get world class bonefishing out here, Maui Brewing, great weed and perfect weather year-round. We say things like “Eh, brah, I stay fishing here already”, “eh, like beef?”, “who ya maddah?”, “Dirty lickins”, No can”, and “Shoots, brah, buggah went bankrupt me.”
Love this! Where is the stereotype by fish angled for? Pnw coastal cuttie spey angler vs maine river musky fly gal? Wiso bluegill vs GA grass carp…you get me?
This is great! You missed a HUGE opportunity to roast WA for our overuse of float tubes on cold lakes because those have more fish than our creeks and tribs. Makes up for the zero steelhead I caught though.
Lol yup , Still haven’t got a steelhead yet. I spend way too much time fishing creeks here in WA for 10” trout lol
@@Respect.The.Grind.. Glad I'm not the only one hahaha.
The "Brown Trout" at the end was hilarious.
Honestly with current state of fishing in the PNW I'm super happy if I catch 2 fish a year.... with my two handed clicky setup that I needed a mortgage to afford.