Troutbitten
Life on the water. Troutbitten is a deep dive into fly fishing for wild trout in wild places. Author and guide, Domenick Swentosky, shares stories, tips, tactics and conversations with friends about fly fishing through the woods and water. Explore more. Fish hard. And discover fly fishing at Troutbitten.com — an extensive resource with 1500+ articles about trout, friends, family and the river.
Episodes
169 episodes
The Blue Liner's Bible -- Bigger Trout, and Streamers on Small Streams
This one's about using streamers to find the biggest trout in the smallest waters. In previous episodes we worked though locating the right water for small streams. We've talked about dry fly tactics, nymph fishing and now, with episode five in...
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Season 16
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Episode 5
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1:01:58
The Blue Liner's Bible -- Nymphs On Small Streams
In this fourth episode of the Blue Liner's Bible, we talk about nymphing on small waters. We discuss when and where we might turn to nymphs, and then we break down the adaptations for different styles.We cover dry dropper, mostly as a ny...
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Season 16
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Episode 4
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53:27
The Blue Liner's Bible -- Dry Flies On Small Streams
We’re here to break down small stream dry fly fishing. We’re tackling dry flies first in this series, because fishing dries on small water puts you in a great position, with the necessary skills, to fish the other disciplines of nymphs, streame...
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Season 16
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Episode 3
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57:16
The Blue Liner's Bible -- Finding the Right Water
We're back with Season 16, with episode two of the Blue Liner’s Bible. This one is all about finding the right water.We mean this in two different ways. First, you need to find a small stream that has public access (or you have private p...
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Season 16
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Episode 2
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1:00:21
The Blue Liner's Bible --The Good and Bad of Small Stream Fishing
With cold flows and eager trout, mountain water and small stream fishing can provide the perfect setup, the perfect escape, if you’re willing to put in the effort. There are some truly wonderful things about small stream fishing, and learning t...
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Season 16
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Episode 1
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1:08:40
The Airing of Grievances -- Four
Welcome to the fourth annual Airing of Grievances on the Troutbitten Podcast. Buckle up. Because it’s time to clear the air about a few things, to complain about some other things and get all the frustrations out in the open.We look for...
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Season 15
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Episode 10
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1:18:23
Is Gen X the Greatest Fly Fishing Generation?
We talk a lot about our frame of reference in fly fishing. Wherever you get into the game, a lot of your baseline is set by whatever is popular or widely accepted at that moment in time. My friend, Matt Mickey, recently argued that Gen X angler...
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Season 15
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Episode 9
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59:48
Caught, Lost and Missed Trout -- Keeping Track
So . . . how was it? How many did you catch? This is always the question for every fisherman, right? Whether I’m talking to my friends about a fishing trip from last week, or as I walked in the door this evening, my wife asked the same question...
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Season 15
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Episode 8
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54:13
Gear Fixes
When you fish long enough, things break. That’s the nature of life, really . . . things fall apart. But if you're resourceful, you put them back together.Sometimes it’s out of necessity. Honestly, a couple decades ago, I simply couldn’t ...
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Season 15
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Episode 7
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1:07:23
Our Most Important Breakthroughs
This episode is all about breakthroughs. For each of us, as a personal account, what have been the biggest changes, or the biggest steps forward, in our fishing?I call these breakthroughs because they're the landmarks or discoveries or c...
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Season 15
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Episode 6
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1:06:59
Season Fifteen Intermission -- Catching Up With Leader Sales, Books, Beers, Videos and Plans
For our Season 15 Intermission, my wife, Becky, joins me for a lighthearted look at what's going on in the Troutbitten world. We talk about the upcoming leader sale in the Troutbitten Shop (May 23rd).We talk about the New Trail Troutbitt...
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Season 15
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36:50
Why Are Some Trout So Selective?
The trout is prized as a gamefish because it’s picky. It’s selective. Often, it requires a refined presentation to fool a wild trout. And in large part, that’s the draw toward fishing for them.In every region, in every stream, trout habi...
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Season 15
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Episode 5
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1:08:39
Riverside -- A Fisherman's Thoughts On Spot Burning
There are two ways to tell the experience of an angler: how he holds a fish and how he keeps his secrets. The latter is probably more important.A seasoned angler intuitively understands the vulnerability of a river. Spot burning is a rea...
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24:01
Fishing Big Rivers-- Thoughts, Tips and Strategies
Let’s talk about fishing big rivers. For the most part, all of us here at Troutbitten are river anglers, meaning not much stillwater. Furthermore we’re mostly wade anglers. We spend most of our time wading rather than floating, because we enjoy...
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Season 15
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Episode 4
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1:02:31
Learn to Read the River Like a Trout
We spend a lot of time thinking about tactics and working on techniques. We devote our energies toward finding fly patterns, tying up our confidence flies and testing new flies. We research new waters and explore unfinished sections in familiar...
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Season 15
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Episode 3
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1:21:50
Know the River or Know Your Tactics? What Puts More Trout In the Net?
Here's a topic that starts with an interesting question: What puts more trout in the net? Is it knowing your water or knowing your tactics?Of course, the easy answer is . . . both. Refine your skills and learn your rivers. Then put...
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Season 15
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Episode 2
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1:13:17
Riverside -- Twelve Small Stream Fly Casting Tips
Here are twelve tips for delivering a fly into waters that are heavily canopied, with greedy branches, ready to grab your fly and make life difficult. The best small stream fishing happens in these places. We call it brush fishing.Learni...
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30:03
Strategies For Stocked Trout
Across the country, there are rivers, creeks and streams stocked by the state, often referred to as put and take (they put trout in, you take them out). And especially early in the season, opportunities for stocked trout can be a solid ch...
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Season 15
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Episode 1
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1:14:02
Riverside: The Best Fly Rods for the Mono Rig, Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
What's your favorite fly rod? This most frequently asked question now has its answer in the Troutbitten Riverside Series. Riverside is a place for sharing and presenting stories and articles from the Troutbitten website. And one of the most pop...
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43:09
Streamer Presentations #10 -- Strategies, Tips and Scenarios
This season has been all about options for moving the streamer. Our focus has been on the animations available to attract and then sell the trout on the streamer presentation. In this season finale, we talk about river scenarios and share some ...
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Season 14
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Episode 10
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1:00:58
Streamer Presentations #9 -- The Tight Line Dance
The tight line dance is another collection of movements to the streamer loosely grouped together into a system or framework for covering many water types and gaining reactions from the trout. It's all about taking the advantages of a tight line...
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Season 14
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Episode 9
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49:37
Streamer Presentations #8 -- The Crossover Technique
With episode seven of this Troutbitten Skills Series, we’ve finally come to the point where we’ve covered all the different ways to move a streamer and give it some animation. Now it’s time to put all of that together.This whole series h...
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Season 14
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Episode 8
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1:08:41
Streamer Presentations #7 -- Speed Leads and Lane Changes
Speed leads happen mostly in one lane, and they go faster than their parent current. Lane changes are exactly what they sound like — the fly is traveling in one lane, and then we deliberately bring the fly over to a nearby lane and travel down ...
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Season 14
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Episode 7
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34:54
Streamer Presentations #6 -- Jigging Styles (Slack, Contact and Pendulum Jigging)
We've covered many animations in these series. We’ve talked about the streamer head position and its direction, about cross current movement vs holding one lane. We've covered jerk strips, glides, slides, fast, slow, quick or smooth, we talked ...
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Season 14
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Episode 6
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50:44
Streamer Presentations #5 - Give Swings a Chance
This steamer presentation is what streamer anglers probably do most — swinging the flies. From what I see on the water, what I read in articles and watch in videos, I think it’s fair to say, swinging is a pretty popular look.But it’s als...
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Season 14
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Episode 5
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47:35