Trident Fly Fishing

We’ve been doing tackle shootouts for years. They are among the most visited pages on our website and we take pride in having helped thousands of anglers find the right tackle for their needs. As our business has grown, we asked ourselves: Which area of fly fishing had the least amount of information? The answer amongst our team was travel. Have you ever booked a lodge and wondered if it was the best lodge? Who has the best food? Most comfortable? Best guides? It’s almost impossible to find anyone who’s visited multiple lodges in a given area, let alone any sort of comparison amongst them. With this shootout, we aim to change that.

In an effort to provide the traveling angler with current up-to-date information regarding travel restrictions due to COVID-19, we've decided to do some research and put together a destination travel guide. Below you'll find current status updates, relevant restrictions, booking recommendations, and more for popular fly fishing destinations around the world. If we omitted your favorite destination, drop us a comment below and we'll add it.

5wt fly rods are (by far) the most popular rod model in contemporary fly fishing. A 5wt can be used in a variety of freshwater angling scenarios but is most commonly used to target Trout. There are dozens of 5wt rods on the market at a variety of price-points and each rod offers something different to every angler. Here at Trident, we carry over one hundred 5wt fly rods. That's a lot. This buyer's guide is designed to help anglers of all skill levels with any price-constraint find, compare, analyze, and purchase the 5wt that best fits their needs.

The most talked about and least understood part of fly fishing equipment is fly lines. To better understand the variety of tropical 8wt fly line options the industry provides, we set out on a data crunching, line cutting, sore arm casting mission to better understand every warm water 8wt fly line we could get our hands on. We reviewed each one, compared them, measured them, and inspected tapers to demystify one of the most essential pieces of equipment in fly fishing. Tropical anglers take note, our 2020 tropical fly line shootout is here.

Bonefish are perhaps the most well-known flats species. They're plentiful, often found in large schools, and put up a thrilling fight on a fly rod. Bones offer novice saltwater anglers ample targets and (relatively) easy fishing to boost confidence before targeting some of the more elusive flats species. That being said, at times they can be picky and offer exciting challenges on a fly rod. Read on to find out which flies work the best when flats fishing for Bonefish with a fly rod.

Hook strength is an important measure, especially if you're chasing large fish. In fact, choosing the right hook can be the difference between landing a trophy fish and losing one. When it comes to Tarpon hooks, there's very little research available that shows the strength of individual hooks. Fortunately, our Admet Universal Testing Machine allows us to provide strength profiles for the top Tarpon Hooks. We've used this machine in past shootouts like the Fly Line Backing Shootout to compare products across brands. In this Buyer's Guide, we put some of the top Tarpon hooks to the test and crowned a winner.

This fly has been around for a long time. The Zebra Midge imitates midges below the surface and will quickly fool a finicky trout that's feeding subsurface. It's a very simple fly to tie and produces on days when the water is clear and fish are keyed in on small nymphs. Use this as a dropper off of a dry fly, a trailer nymph under an indicator, or on a Euro setup. Tune in as Jared provides step-by-step instructions to tie this simple pattern. Then, purchase your materials from us and start tying!

Permit are finicky, picky, bad-attitude kinda fish. They're known for challenging feeding habits, unnecessary pickiness, and humbling elusiveness. That's part of the reason anglers focus so much time, energy, and resources to catch one on a fly rod. A Perm on a fly rod is like a badge of honor in contemporary fly fishing. Catching them is much easier with the right fly selection. Read on to find out which flies are the very best for Permit.

Mouse fishing is popular across the western US and around the world (New Zealand comes to mind). Large brown trout do a lot of feeding at night and can be fooled on mouse patterns depending on the time of year and the conditions. In places like Alaska, fish feed on mice even in the high sun. There's nothing quite like seeing a large predatory fish explode on a mouse as it's waking through the water. Tune in as Jared takes us through the steps necessary to tie the Morrish Mouse, one of the most popular mouse patterns in all of fly fishing.

As summer winds down and leaves start to change, anglers around the country shift their game from Trout to Steelhead. Steelhead are tough to fool, but when you do there's nothing better than bringing a silver bullet to hand. Most anglers target these elusive fish in the Pacific Northwest but lake run Steelhead also have a huge following in the Northeast, particularly in the Great Lakes Region. Anglers go crazy for these fish. And having the right flies increases your chances of success on the water.