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.
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.
The Orvis Helios 3F Series (along with the Helios 3D Series) replaces the much-loved Orvis Helios 2 Rod Series as Orvis' flagship fly rod. Orvis has packed a bunch of technological advancements into these rods and they're lighter, more accurate, and more dynamic than ever before. If Orvis wasn't at the top of the fly rod game before with the Helios 2, they are now with the Helios 3. What's better? The team over at Orvis designed the 3F Series to include rods that are highly specialized, rods that are versatile, and rods that shocked us with their quirky ability to offer unexpected performance. After a visit to the Orvis headquarters and the thorough casting of each and every rod model, we've put together a detailed model-by-model review of one of the most popular freshwater fly rod series to date. Read on to find out more about every model of the Helios 3F.
One of the questions we’ve gotten most often about our recent Trout Spey Shootout has been in regards to our line recommendations. More specifically, why our recommendations for Scandi lines are much heavier than one might expect, relative to our Skagit recommendations. This has been particularly true for Pacific NW anglers who have been indoctrinated into thinking that Scandi is ALWAYS lighter than Skagit, no matter what. Read on to find out why we recommended the lines we did in our Trout Spey Shootout.
Have you ever wondered which Trout Spey rod is the very best? Well, the wait is over. We've ranked the industry's top 3wt Trout Spey rods based on a comprehensive criterion. Which rod took home the title as 'Best Trout Spey Rod on the Market'? Read on to find out. Plus the Best Buy and fly line recommendations for every rod. Don't buy a Trout Spey rod without reading this shootout.
It’s always a cringe-worthy moment when a trophy fish runs you into your backing. Maybe you’re worried about your fly line to backing connection, maybe you’re worried about backing strength or abrasion resistance. Whatever the case may be, most anglers don’t spend a ton of time thinking about backing until it’s too late. We’re writing this shootout to provide backing information so you can think about backing before your trip to the Seychelles or South America. Different types of backing have different applications and some are clearly stronger than others. Which backing is the best? Read on to find out.
Wondering which Winston lines are the best for different fly fishing scenarios? We've cast a variety of Winston fly lines and provided you with thorough reviews including taper diagrams, weights, and much more. Don't buy another Winston fly line without reading this post first.
Hey, remember back when we released our first 8-weight reel shootout in 2013? Yeah, we barely remember it ourselves. So, it was high time we redid it. In fact there is no reel that's in production that was in our original shootout.
This year we've upped our game big time. We tested 37 reels across 13 categories - including 3 all new categories! We even had 5 new brands participating in what we believe is the largest and most comprehensive apples-to-apples reel test that's ever been done. It involved 100s of hours of work to not only test everything, but review each and every reel. We hope you enjoy it.
Czech nymphing, tight-line nymphing, French nymphing… What does it mean? Simply, it’s just a different way of fishing a nymph. Tight line methods made their way to the US via international fly fishing competitions in the 80’s and 90’s, but it’s taken a really long time for them to become popular amongst mainstream anglers.
