The Best Fly Fishing Podcasts

November 5th, 2024

At last count, there are 51 fly fishing-related podcasts in existence. Some start out strong and quickly fade, others are mediocre and continue grinding year after year. How can you quickly find out which ones are the best?

I’ve listened to thousands of hours of fishing podcasts over the years, and can easily give you a list of the most productive and entertaining shows, which I’ll do in the below article.

Without further ado, here’s my list of the five best fly fishing podcasts in the world.

#4 – Waypoints Podcast with Jim Klug

The subtitle of this podcast is, “The podcast of Adventure Angling.” The reason is, it’s all about fly fishing the world.

Jim Klug started Yellow Dog Fly Fishing, which is a company that specializes in destination travel. So, if you want to cast a fly in Mongolia, you can visit their site and read about the guide services they recommend, costs, what to bring, what to expect, and more.  I appreciate that they actually hire the fly guides and stay at the lodges before considering them for the website.

With that said, their podcast dovetails nicely with their business, in that you can listen to in-depth conversations about fly fishing in Costa Rica, Russia, Australia, you name it. They also cover many spots in the United States–it’s not just international.

Not only are the adventurous conversations fun to listen to, but personally, I find them invaluable when I’m planning fishing trips.

Each podcast runs around an hour, give or take. There are 44 published episodes as of today.

#3 – Mill House Podcast

Produced by Andy Mill and his son Nicky, this fishing podcast is reliably entertaining and educational. They have a very well-designed website where you can listen or watch each of their episodes.

Their conversations are real and unfiltered, covering everything from permit to tarpon. Incidentally, Andy has spent decades on the water chasing tarpon and other saltwater gamefish.

While most of my fly fishing is in freshwater, I really enjoy learning more about the saltwater side of things. Most, but not all, of Andy’s guests are current or former Florida saltwater fishing guides. I’ve learned plenty while listening to the vasy majority of their podcasts.

The tone is conversational and the repoire he has with his guests is genuine. It often sounds like you’re eavesdropping on a discussion between two advanced anglers. If I had to come up with a critique, I’d say once in a while there are inside jokes that leave you feeling out of the loop.

This is where you’re going to hear interviews with fishing legends like Flip Pallot, Stu Apte, Tom Evans, Steve Huff, Al Pflueger, and many more.

Launched in January of 2020 (good timing!), there are 111 available episodes as of this writing.

#2 – The Orvis Fly Fishing Podcast

Tom Rosenbauer is synonymous with Orvis–he’s worked there for several decades and has become the face of the company. For his sake, I hope he retires soon and spends his days out on the water, instead of in a cubicle.

Tom’s been fly fishing for 50 years, and that means he’s learned a lot. I’ve come to respect his experience and knowledge. He’ll even go so far as to respectfully disagree with his guests occasionally–I appreciate that type of candidness.

Unfortunately, this podcast has been getting a bit woke lately. I recently heard him stop a guest mid-sentence and say that he (Tom) avoids the term “fly fisherman” and would prefer the guest use “fly angler” or “fly fisher” because it was more inclusive. It was cringeworthy.

Tom also mentioned that Orvis recently began a department of equality and inclusiveness, and he regularly derides “old, white fly fishermen” in playfully negative terms.

Political correctness aside, it’s a very informative podcast. My favorite snippet is what Tom calls “The Flybox.” It’s a section of each episode where he answers listener questions, and it usually lasts anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes. Episodes usually run around 90 minutes.

Tom’s been running this podcast for over a decade, and you can find episodes back to 2015 on the standard platforms, but I discovered that you can listen to older episodes if you go onto the Orvis website.

#1 – Anchored Podcast with April Vokey

In my opinion, the best fly fishing podcast out there is Anchored with April Vokey.

What strikes me about her interviews is her insightful questions. I can’t tell you how many times she’s asked the exact question I had on my mind. Many podcast interviewers will let a guest go on-and-on without interruption, but April will jump in and ask specific and timely questions.

She also regularly features female fly anglers and guides on her episodes, and I find it embarrassing how infrequently this occurs on other podcasts, with the exception of the Orvis show.

She’s not obsequious in the slightest, and is very authentic.

April has landed some of the most sought-after guests in the industry–two of my favorite podcast episodes ever were her conversations with Larry Dahlberg and Kelly Galloup.

She’s got episodes going all the way back to the beginning of 2015, each of which runs around 90 minutes.

Originally an accomplished fly guide in British Colombia, she now lives in Australia.

Don’t miss this podcast.

Fly Fishing Podcasts to Avoid

The DrakeCast

This podcast seems to be on several outdated “top podcast” lists, but it’s been defunct for years.

They produced one episode in 2022, four in 2021, zero in 2020, four in 2019…you get the picture.

Some of the older content is evergreen, but I personally found the host to be insufferable.

Ask About Fly Fishing

This podcast actually has some great information and quality guests, and the host seems like a good guy, but the audio quality is often very subpar making it difficult to listen at times.

Maybe it’s just me?

How to Find and Listen

If you click here, you can find a list of all the readily available fly fishing podcasts.

If you have an iPhone or Android, you’ve got several options for actually listening to these podcasts. The most popular apps include:

Apple podcasts

Spotify

Google podcasts

I Heart Radio

Each of these apps has a search function where you can quickly find any podcast by name.

PRO TIP: You can also search for specific names or words, such as “Kelly Galloup” or “Steelhead fishing.”

For example, if you searched for “Kelly Galloup,” it might pull-up six episodes on six different fly fishing podcasts, allowing you to listen to any or all of them.

Other Fly Fishing Media

I read a lot of books about fly angling, namely non-fiction and reference. After having gone through several shelves worth, I put together a list of the best fly fishing books and the best fly fishing authors. I think you’ll find them both worth checking out.

These lists are regularly updated whenever I come across something worth adding.

Summary

I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts about fly fishing, and while all are well intentioned, most fall short on one or several levels. This can be due to too little experience, less accomplished guests, lack of consistent publishing, or subpar interviewing skills.

In order to help make your listening time as productive as possible, the above rankings I’ve put together should provide you with an almost incomprehensible amount of hugely useful information and entertainment.