Questions
The ones that come up most, answered the way we'd answer them across the counter. Nothing here is a stupid question. We asked all of them first.
How much do I have to spend to start fly fishing?
Around $150 gets you fishing properly: a rod-and-reel combo with line already on it, a spool of tippet, and a dozen flies. You do not need waders to start — plenty of good water is fishable from the bank in shoes you already own. Budget rods catch the same trout, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling you a $1,100 rod.
Do I need waders?
Not to start. Waders extend where you can stand and how long you can stay comfortable in cold water; they do not catch fish. Fish from the bank for your first few trips, learn where fish hold, and buy waders when the water you want to reach is genuinely out of reach.
I have a rod and no idea what to do with it. Where do I start?
Start Here — Your First Ten Trips is built exactly for that. Ten trips in order, each teaching one thing, starting with getting a fly wet and ending with reading water. If you would rather look something specific up, the Skills Library is filed by the question rather than by the topic.
Why won't you tell me where to fish?
Because a small creek named in a popular article stops being a small creek. We teach you to read a regulations page, read a riffle, and find water near you — which works on every river instead of putting a crowd on one bend. It is house rule № 04 and we hold to it.
Who writes this?
Drew, the founder, writes it. One person, raised on the Little Susitna, twenty years in search marketing, now running the shop. Where a page draws on outside data, the source is cited on the page.
How often do you publish?
The Tuesday letter — This Week's Path — goes out weekly: one skill, one water-finding trick, one first-fish story. Library pages go up as they are written, and existing ones get revised rather than replaced when something changes.
How long does shipping take?
Apparel is printed to order, so allow two to five business days for production before it ships, then standard domestic transit. You will get a tracking number when it leaves. Full detail is on the Shipping & Returns page.
What's your return policy?
Thirty days. If something arrives wrong, damaged, or badly printed, write us and we will replace it — you do not need to ship the bad one back for that. See Shipping & Returns for the whole thing.
Can I buy the First Fish Patch?
No, and that is the point. The patch is earned: catch your first fish on a fly, send us the story and a photo, and we post it to the Wall, number it, and mail the patch. It is the one piece of Smolt that no amount of money buys.
Still stuck? Write us. A person answers.