Fly Fishing
Casting into the teeth of a good wind in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
There’s nothing on earth like connecting with a wild fish. Chasing that feeling—and those fish—keeps us inspired and inspires our gear. It’s why we support and celebrate the tireless anglers and groups fighting to protect the wild fish and clean waters we love.
Built to Connect
Dependable gear. Wild fish.
Gear for All Waters, All Seasons
River-tested essentials built to stay out.
Fly Fishing Stories
Community
Gatherings On and Off the Water
When anglers gather for a river cleanup, a clinic or a film, it’s a good time that strengthens our community. Check out our Patagonia Fly Fishing Events page for a meetup, cleanup, festival or clinic near you.
Veiga Grétarsdóttir
Explorer and Environmentalist
Veiga is a self-funded activist working to protect Iceland from the disastrous effects of net-pen salmon farming.
Community Spotlight: Veiga Grétarsdóttir
In 2019, explorer and environmentalist Veiga Grétarsdóttir became the first person to paddle counterclockwise around Iceland by kayak. On her journey, she captured images of the open-net pen salmon-farming industry up close, and her photos helped inspire a movement to defend Iceland’s wild waters from this devastating ecological calamity. Veiga is a self-funded activist and has set up a Patreon page to share updates on her initiatives and conservation projects.
Photo: Veiga Grétarsdóttir navigates a pinch point on her sea-kayak circumnavigation of Iceland. VEIGA GRÉTARSDÓTTIR
Amy Bowers Cordalis
Cofounder of Ridges to Riffles
As former general counsel for the Yurok Tribe and cofounder of Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group, Amy has been instrumental in the removal of the Klamath River dams.
Community Spotlight: Amy Bowers Cordalis
As general counsel for the Yurok Tribe and founder of the Indigenous conservation group Ridges to Riffles, Amy Bowers Cordalis has been instrumental in the removal of the Klamath River dams. To see her in action, watch Undammed—a film about the fight to free the Klamath River.
Salmon hold deep significance for the Yurok Tribe, whose ancestral lands border California’s Klamath River. In 2002, an ecological crisis caused by high water temperatures and dam-related disease led to the death of more than 65,000 adult Chinook salmon in the Klamath. At the time of the fish kill Amy Bowers Cordalis, a Yurok Tribal member, was working as a fish technician on the Klamath River. This pivotal event spurred Amy to pursue a career in law with the goal of preventing such disasters in the future.
Since then, Amy has committed herself to advocating for her community, particularly in the fight to remove the dams on the Klamath and restore the natural flow of the river. Having served as general counsel for the Yurok Tribe and as a staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, she now leads Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group, an organization dedicated to empowering Indigenous communities in conserving and revitalizing their natural and cultural heritage. Thanks to her efforts, alongside many others, the Klamath River is currently undergoing the largest dam removal project in history.
Photos: (Top) Amy Bowers Cordalis at home in the waters of the Klamath. SHANE ANDERSON (Bottom) The time it took the machines to remove the Copco 2 Dam on the Klamath River pales compared to the time, people, and effort it took to make the removal happen. SWIFTWATER FILMS
Shane Anderson
Filmmaker
“I’m not just making a movie. I want the movie to influence some kind of policy change or perceptions that people may have.”
Community Spotlight: Shane Anderson
For more than a decade, documentary filmmaker Shane Anderson’s stories have captured the most critical issues facing wild, anadromous fish while shining a light on the people working to protect them. His first major film, “Wild Reverence,” brought attention to the decline of the Olympic Peninsula’s wild steelhead populations. More recently, “The Lost Salmon” chronicled the history of the most revered salmon, Spring Chinook, and the narrow opportunity to save the species. Despite crossing multiple watersheds and species, Shane’s stories resonate deeply within the angling community and have served as a spark for change.
“Education, inspiration and action are the three words I use to vet myself,” Shane says, “because I’m not just making a movie. I want the movie to influence some kind of policy change or perceptions that people may have.”
In recent years, Shane has devoted his time to documenting the fight to reconnect the Klamath River. His recent short film, Undammed: Amy Bowers Cordalis and the Fight to Free the Klamath, captures what is possible when dams are breached and celebrates a critical example of Indigenous-led conservation.
Shane’s work is supported by several organizations, including California Trout, which works to ensure healthy waters and wild fish in California and has long pushed to breach the Klamath dams.
Photo: It never gets old. Filmmaker Shane Anderson releases another beauty. JASON HARTWICK
Guy Alsentzer
Cofounder of Save Wild Trout
Wild trout populations in Montana’s Big Hole, Ruby and Beaverhead Rivers are in peril. Save Wild Trout is working toward solutions to restore and protect Montana’s fisheries.
Community Spotlight: Guy Alsentzer
Our trout need help! Rapidly changing climate dynamics are drastically accelerating the environmental stress on coldwater fisheries. Montana’s iconic waters are ground zero for this crisis. The shocking crash of trout populations in the Jefferson drainage (Ruby, Big Hole and Beaverhead Rivers) is an urgent call to action. Witnessing this, Guy Alsentzer has established Save Wild Trout to protect coldwater fisheries.
Save Wild Trout believes Montana’s elected officials must commit and invest in their natural resources or be held accountable for not doing so. The allocation of proper funding and resources will enable managers to develop and implement long-term solutions for ecosystem resiliency. Save Wild Trout’s efforts have inspired a coalition of advocates prioritizing stewardship and wild fish where it matters — on the river and in the voting booth.
Photo: Guy Alsentzer is the cofounder of Save Wild Trout. WADE FELLIN
Dams
Dams are pushing wild salmon and steelhead to the brink of extinction while contributing to climate change.
Clean Hydropower Is a Myth
If pushing salmon and steelhead to extinction wasn't bad enough, dams contribute to climate change by emitting greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Despite decades of greenwashing, dams aren't a clean, green or cheap energy, they're wastefully inefficient.
Learn more about the people who brought down the Klamath River dams.
Photo: The Columbia River Basin is choked by 211 dams which have eliminated 1400 miles—40%—of spawning habitat. As a result, 13 wild salmon and steelhead populations are on the brink of extinction. ECOFLIGHT
Hatcheries
Billions spent on inefficient hatchery programs don’t help wild steelhead and salmon. They make the problem worse.
$2.2 Billion Down the Drain
Over the past 20 years, the federal government has spent billions of your tax dollars propping up failing hatcheries. By interbreeding and competing with wild fish, the 5 billion hatchery fish released every year haven't stopped the decline of salmon and steelhead. They've made the problem worse.
Learn more about why the best hatchery is a healthy river.
Photo: There are almost 250 hatcheries from California to Alaska. Along with hatcheries in Russia, Japan and South Korea, more than 5 billion hatchery fish are released every year. The result? Watered down genetics, declining returns and wasted resources. BEN MOON
Net Pens
Genetically engineered open net-pen salmon are a science project gone wrong, not dinner.
Diseased, Drugged, Dyed.
Corporations have been attempting to farm salmon and steelhead in open-net pens for as long as we've been a company. For those five decades, we've defended wild fish. We'll continue that fight until the vermin-infested, ocean polluting open-net industry goes belly up.
Learn more about the threats posed by fish farms and hatcheries.
Photo: What’s for dinner? Genetically engineered open-net pen salmon are hatched in tanks, dumped into pens, fed pellets, drugged, deloused and dyed pink. Bon appetite! CORIN SMITH