Nick Parish | CFS Fly Fishing
@nickparish.bsky.social
Author, editor, and angler from the Great Lakes, currently ranging near the Columbia River drainage in the Cascadia bioregion.
Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to make fly fishing a bigger part of your life: https://www.currentflowstate.com/subscribe
Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to make fly fishing a bigger part of your life: https://www.currentflowstate.com/subscribe
Pinned
Our July/Aug '25 issue is online now (and in member mailboxes soon). Features include a look at 125 yrs of the Blue Band; a Q&A with Tom Verducci, arguably the most respected voice in baseball; and a profile of George Daniel, who is leading Penn State’s iconic fly-fishing program. pennstatermag.com.
Beyond excited my profile of the inimitable George Daniel is appearing as the cover story in this month's Penn Stater! #fishing #flyfishing
Reposted by Nick Parish | CFS Fly Fishing
This spring, a few of us from the club went fishing with Ukrainian frontline medics who were here for a much-needed mental break.
The organisation Repower NGO rotates them off the front, but the gear they had was broken or basically unusable.
The organisation Repower NGO rotates them off the front, but the gear they had was broken or basically unusable.
November 26, 2025 at 8:35 PM
This spring, a few of us from the club went fishing with Ukrainian frontline medics who were here for a much-needed mental break.
The organisation Repower NGO rotates them off the front, but the gear they had was broken or basically unusable.
The organisation Repower NGO rotates them off the front, but the gear they had was broken or basically unusable.
The Feather Thief remains the best book to convince non-anglers to explore fly tying.
if you guys ever want a non-fiction book to read, please read the feather thief
it is literally such a fucking rollercoaster. and one of my favorite books.
its about the guy who broke into a museum and stole precious feathers and bird specimens to sell on the black market for fly fishing lures.
it is literally such a fucking rollercoaster. and one of my favorite books.
its about the guy who broke into a museum and stole precious feathers and bird specimens to sell on the black market for fly fishing lures.
November 25, 2025 at 8:06 PM
The Feather Thief remains the best book to convince non-anglers to explore fly tying.
Reposted by Nick Parish | CFS Fly Fishing
Detroit Lions Rookie Asks For Thanksgiving Off
Detroit Lions Rookie Asks For Thanksgiving Off
DETROIT—Double-checking that he had approval before finalizing travel plans, Detroit Lions rookie Tate Ratledge reportedly approached head coach Dan Campbell on Monday to see if it might be possible f...
theonion.com
November 23, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Detroit Lions Rookie Asks For Thanksgiving Off
Reposted by Nick Parish | CFS Fly Fishing
After 3 decades of work by Alameda Creek Alliance (& others), chinook salmon make it 20 miles upstream from San Francisco Bay, farther than ever since the 1950s!
www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...
www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...
‘Epic’: Salmon seen far upstream in Bay Area creek for first time in 70 years
After the removal of small dams and the addition of fish ladders, salmon have been seen swimming further up a Bay Area creek than at anytime since the 1950s.
www.sfchronicle.com
November 22, 2025 at 3:49 PM
After 3 decades of work by Alameda Creek Alliance (& others), chinook salmon make it 20 miles upstream from San Francisco Bay, farther than ever since the 1950s!
www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...
www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...
I’m trying to write a funny headline for this fever dream of a post about absurd esoteric fly fishing specifications and measurements and can’t stop laughing about that meeting in the oval office. www.currentflowstate.com/fly-fishing-...
Decoding fly fishing tackle sizing: A complete guide
Decoding the antiquated ways we inhabit in fly fishing, and measuring things, so it all matches up real nice.
www.currentflowstate.com
November 21, 2025 at 9:34 PM
I’m trying to write a funny headline for this fever dream of a post about absurd esoteric fly fishing specifications and measurements and can’t stop laughing about that meeting in the oval office. www.currentflowstate.com/fly-fishing-...
Winter Term is 50% full! If you're in the Portland area and want to start fly fishing in 2026, there's no better way to get going.
I really enjoyed the tone and pacing of ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAINS, this newsletter edition’s fly fishing film of the week. It’s so much richer than the bang-bang Hollywood action style currently en vogue. #flyfishing #flytying www.currentflowstate.com/winter-term-...
Register for Winter Term fly fishing classes
Sign up for Winter Term class, come tie flies on Friday, read CFS in the Financial Times, and watch two Swedish brothers bust chops while contemplating the good life.
www.currentflowstate.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Winter Term is 50% full! If you're in the Portland area and want to start fly fishing in 2026, there's no better way to get going.
I really enjoyed the tone and pacing of ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAINS, this newsletter edition’s fly fishing film of the week. It’s so much richer than the bang-bang Hollywood action style currently en vogue. #flyfishing #flytying www.currentflowstate.com/winter-term-...
Register for Winter Term fly fishing classes
Sign up for Winter Term class, come tie flies on Friday, read CFS in the Financial Times, and watch two Swedish brothers bust chops while contemplating the good life.
www.currentflowstate.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:52 PM
I really enjoyed the tone and pacing of ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAINS, this newsletter edition’s fly fishing film of the week. It’s so much richer than the bang-bang Hollywood action style currently en vogue. #flyfishing #flytying www.currentflowstate.com/winter-term-...
Is this...shitposting?
November 16, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Is this...shitposting?
Letter: Why Nevada is powerless to prevent history repeating itself
From Nick Parish, Portland, OR, US
www.ft.com
November 15, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Nets are like cops: Never around when you need 'em: www.currentflowstate.com/net-effect-g...
Your net is a crucial piece fly fishing gear
It’s time to stop thinking about nets as a tool for playing offense. Nets protect fish, and ultimately protect your ego.
www.currentflowstate.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Nets are like cops: Never around when you need 'em: www.currentflowstate.com/net-effect-g...
3,500 words on the conservation and psychological necessity of nets in fly fishing? What more could your Friday afternoon be crying out for?
www.currentflowstate.com/net-effect-g...
www.currentflowstate.com/net-effect-g...
A net's a crucial piece fly fishing gear
It’s time to stop thinking about nets as a tool for playing offense. Nets protect fish, and ultimately protect your ego.
www.currentflowstate.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:16 PM
3,500 words on the conservation and psychological necessity of nets in fly fishing? What more could your Friday afternoon be crying out for?
www.currentflowstate.com/net-effect-g...
www.currentflowstate.com/net-effect-g...
Reposted by Nick Parish | CFS Fly Fishing
A salmon never dies; she is merely recycled.
November 5, 2025 at 10:19 PM
A salmon never dies; she is merely recycled.
"Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation." - Alasdair Gray
November 5, 2025 at 5:06 AM
"Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation." - Alasdair Gray
I don't have much to say about Cheney; I've fished with folks who guided for him...the secret service basically closed river miles fore and aft for him. One of the worst parts of fly fishing is it attracts rich and powerful Dicks, but avoid destination angling and you'll never see 'em.
November 4, 2025 at 11:46 PM
I don't have much to say about Cheney; I've fished with folks who guided for him...the secret service basically closed river miles fore and aft for him. One of the worst parts of fly fishing is it attracts rich and powerful Dicks, but avoid destination angling and you'll never see 'em.
This is a great profile, and a great reminder that you can be a great stick on the river and still a piece of shit.
Here's Matt Labash's great 2008 Weekly Standard piece, Fly Fishing With Darth Vader.
"I learned that Cheney, whatever my objection to his policies, was a fine fisherman, a gentleman, a master smack-talker, and a guy who wasn’t bothered by what people think of him."
open.substack.com/pub/mattlaba...
"I learned that Cheney, whatever my objection to his policies, was a fine fisherman, a gentleman, a master smack-talker, and a guy who wasn’t bothered by what people think of him."
open.substack.com/pub/mattlaba...
Fly Fishing With Darth Vader
Dick Cheney, 1941-2025
open.substack.com
November 4, 2025 at 11:43 PM
This is a great profile, and a great reminder that you can be a great stick on the river and still a piece of shit.
Reposted by Nick Parish | CFS Fly Fishing
Sayonara, Dick Cheney. Being a fly fisher or lover of the outdoors will never atone for what you did or who you were. In many ways, you embodied the model for the gross-natured policies that you so despised in this current clown show of an administration.
November 4, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Sayonara, Dick Cheney. Being a fly fisher or lover of the outdoors will never atone for what you did or who you were. In many ways, you embodied the model for the gross-natured policies that you so despised in this current clown show of an administration.
Wondering how to amp up your nascent fly fishing practice this winter? Here's six tips to start fly-tying from Blue Ribbon Flies co-founder Craig Mathews: www.currentflowstate.com/tie-your-own...
Angling legend Craig Mathews offers six tips for beginning fly tiers
Blue Ribbon Flies co-founder and co-author of Pheasant Tail Simplicity offers six tips for beginning fly tiers to get the ball rolling behind the vise.
www.currentflowstate.com
October 31, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Wondering how to amp up your nascent fly fishing practice this winter? Here's six tips to start fly-tying from Blue Ribbon Flies co-founder Craig Mathews: www.currentflowstate.com/tie-your-own...
Need a kick in the butt to get your winter #flytying started? Join us this Sunday to chat about Pheasant Tail Simplicity: luma.com/akkf1x0e
CFS Fall Virtual Book Club: Pheasant Tail Simplicity · Zoom · Luma
Come join our virtual discussion of the latest Patagonia fly fishing book, Pheasant Tail Simplicity. The book details a dozen useful fly patterns, all using…
luma.com
October 29, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Need a kick in the butt to get your winter #flytying started? Join us this Sunday to chat about Pheasant Tail Simplicity: luma.com/akkf1x0e
ICYMI: Craig Mathews and I sat down to chat simple flies, what most fly fishing anglers get wrong, and the paradoxes inherent in stocking hundreds of patterns in a fly shop when you only need to use five or six. www.currentflowstate.com/talking-phea...
Pheasant tails and pleasant tales: The Craig Mathews Q&A
From tenkara-wielding biker gangs to roadkill feather ghouls to Yvon Chouinard's "stroke": A conversation with fly angling icon Craig Mathews never disappoints. Hear how Pheasant Tail Simplicity is cr...
www.currentflowstate.com
October 28, 2025 at 7:19 PM
ICYMI: Craig Mathews and I sat down to chat simple flies, what most fly fishing anglers get wrong, and the paradoxes inherent in stocking hundreds of patterns in a fly shop when you only need to use five or six. www.currentflowstate.com/talking-phea...
Craig Mathews is a heck of a storyteller. From tenkara-wielding biker gangs to ghouls scooping up roadkill feathers, it's all here:
Pheasant tails and pleasant tales: The Craig Mathews Q&A
From tenkara-wielding biker gangs to roadkill feather ghouls to Yvon Chouinard's "stroke": A conversation with fly angling icon Craig Mathews never disappoints. Hear how Pheasant Tail Simplicity is creating a new generation of fly tiers, observation as the key to angling, and much, much more.
www.currentflowstate.com
October 27, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Craig Mathews is a heck of a storyteller. From tenkara-wielding biker gangs to ghouls scooping up roadkill feathers, it's all here:
Just got off the line with the incredibly gracious and cool Craig Mathews, part of our continued Pheasant Tail Simplicity love-fest. Stay tuned, our wide-ranging conversation—from roadkill to his all-time most-tied fly—drops in next week's newsletter. #flyfishing #flytying
October 23, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Just got off the line with the incredibly gracious and cool Craig Mathews, part of our continued Pheasant Tail Simplicity love-fest. Stay tuned, our wide-ranging conversation—from roadkill to his all-time most-tied fly—drops in next week's newsletter. #flyfishing #flytying
One surprising side effect of writing this story about outdoor brands and Grateful Dead collaborations is a bunch of friends and contacts at said brands are sending info on upcoming GD collabs.
There's not much I can say beyond boy is that train _rolling_. www.currentflowstate.com/brand-dead-g...
There's not much I can say beyond boy is that train _rolling_. www.currentflowstate.com/brand-dead-g...
Is private equity ruining fly fishing gear?
A surefire sign your favorite outdoor brand is doing the old private equity shuffle? A Grateful Dead collaboration.
www.currentflowstate.com
October 22, 2025 at 8:07 PM
One surprising side effect of writing this story about outdoor brands and Grateful Dead collaborations is a bunch of friends and contacts at said brands are sending info on upcoming GD collabs.
There's not much I can say beyond boy is that train _rolling_. www.currentflowstate.com/brand-dead-g...
There's not much I can say beyond boy is that train _rolling_. www.currentflowstate.com/brand-dead-g...
Reposted by Nick Parish | CFS Fly Fishing
Fly fishing friends, Western Alaska got absolutely mollywhopped by a storm recently and Josh Mills is over on Instagram coordinating various auctions to fundraise for relief efforts. www.instagram.com/millsfly
And the hash tag #fliesforalaska
And the hash tag #fliesforalaska
October 20, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Fly fishing friends, Western Alaska got absolutely mollywhopped by a storm recently and Josh Mills is over on Instagram coordinating various auctions to fundraise for relief efforts. www.instagram.com/millsfly
And the hash tag #fliesforalaska
And the hash tag #fliesforalaska
Reposted by Nick Parish | CFS Fly Fishing
So everyone’s an “Angler” nowadays, they all dress a like, spend way too much money on their trucks and $1000’s on their gear just to put a bobber on a oversized rod that they can only cast 10’ in front of em. They’re fishers I guess but If you see a dude dressed in this with a fly rod he a catcher🎣
October 20, 2025 at 9:37 PM
So everyone’s an “Angler” nowadays, they all dress a like, spend way too much money on their trucks and $1000’s on their gear just to put a bobber on a oversized rod that they can only cast 10’ in front of em. They’re fishers I guess but If you see a dude dressed in this with a fly rod he a catcher🎣
Here it is, hot off the presses, this week's CFS newsletter: a crafty Q&A, tariff peril for the fly fishing industry, YETI chronicles the union of Japan and Jamaica, and more. www.currentflowstate.com/win-a-free-c... #flyfishing #flytying
Win a copy of Patagonia's Pheasant Tail Simplicity
Announcing our Pheasant Tail fall giveaway, a member Q&A on tenkara and creative woodworking projects, tariffs bite the fly fishing industry, and a Leaders roundup of must-reads from around the fly fishing world
www.currentflowstate.com
October 20, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Here it is, hot off the presses, this week's CFS newsletter: a crafty Q&A, tariff peril for the fly fishing industry, YETI chronicles the union of Japan and Jamaica, and more. www.currentflowstate.com/win-a-free-c... #flyfishing #flytying