The Fly Guide | November 2025
The Fly Guide: Nov 2025
Fishmas Gift Guide
Fly Tying: There’s nothing quite like tying your own fly and catching a fish on it. With less fishing time and more reflecting time in the winter, it’s a great time to pick up the vice and learn new techniques. That said, fly tying is almost as complex as fly fishing. Choosing the right hooks, material, and patterns can leave you overwhelmed and frustrated. Whether you're interesting in trying one of our single tying kits or getting monthly replenishments, Postfly offers a variety of effective, fun patterns that catch fish and improve your fly tying skills. Our fly-tying kits and subscription is the ultimate cheat code for those looking to fast-track their way into learning how to tie flies.
Fishmas Advent Calendar: Our most popular Fishmas item - back for another year! Celebrate the season by uncovering a premium hand-tied trout fly behind each closed door. Selected by our team of expert guides and Santa Clause himself. Guaranteed to make your 2025 holiday season merry and your fly box stocked. The calendar is our number one seller, so be sure to hop on the release early before it goes out of stock.
Fly Assortments: Load up on flies for the holidays and prepare for the upcoming season. Our Fly Assortments are curated to take the guesswork out and get you in on the action. From speciality BugCycle Assortments to the ultimate classics, we've covered it all. Our assortment make the perfect stocking stuffers.
Gift Subscription: Need we say more? Share in the joy of premium hand tied flies, industry tips & tricks, and stoke delivered straight to your doorstep every month. The gift that keeps on giving.
At Postfly we are dedicated to making fly fishing accessible, digestible, and fun. We hope you have a great holiday season!
Questions you should be asking your guide
For those of you that have used a guide in the past, you may know they are a wealth of knowledge about fly fishing techniques and local fishing areas. You may even get an unsolicited story or twelve about any number of subjects. Even if you have used a guide, you may have not gleaned the most information you can about fishing in the area and general fishing tips.
Guides should be your go to resource when learning how to fish a new body of water or even learning how to fish your favorite hole better. Here are some questions that you should be asking your guide every time you go fishing.
What Flies are we using? This might seem like an obvious question, but surprisingly, many of my clients don’t ever ask which flies I’m tying on for them. Asking which fly your guide ties on is important not only because you need to know if the fly should be floating on top of the water (dry), floating just under the water (wet), or at the bottom (nymph/streamer); but also, when you’re fishing this water by yourself, you want to know which flies to put on. And don’t just ask for the name of the fly, many of which can have multiple names and nicknames, actually ask to see the fly itself or even take a picture of it if it’s a really dynamite pattern.
What time of day is best on this body of water? Frequently, when you’re fishing with a guide, you’ll hit either the morning hatch or the evening hatch, but not both. The morning hatch can be as early as 5am and the evening hatch as late as 10pm. There’s no way you can possibly squeeze that 17 hours into one guided trip.
Asking your guide when the best time to fish is will allow you to come back on your own time and fish that hatch yourself. (guide tip: a lot of guides will go night fishing, chucking huge streamers or mouse patterns from the bank from about 11pm to 2am. Most guides won’t be allowed to take clients that time of night due to safety and liability, but if you ask they should give you some tips on how to fish for the big boys after dark)
How should I fish this stretch of water? While you may know how to fish with dries, nymphs and streamers proficiently, you might not know the specific techniques the guides use to be more successful on the waters they guide on.
Maybe you need to skate your caddis across the water, maybe slowly retrieve your nymph to mimic an emerger, maybe stand upstream from this eddy and cast into it. Each body of water has its quirks and it’s your guide’s job to know how to use them to give you an advantage.
How do I access this water? This is probably the most important question, because if you can’t access it, you can’t fish it. Maybe it’s only accessible by boat, or the guide or fly shop has a special permit to access the land you’re fishing on. If you’re fishing in a spot where you’re unfamiliar with the laws and regulations, ask the guide to explain them to you.
Also, ask your guide where the public access points are and how to get to some holes on your own. While they may not give up all their personal favorites, they’ll give you a jumping off point to start from.
Something else on your mind? Don't be afraid to ask the question. This is how we all learn.
How to Get Out in the winter
Well, it would seem that Winter’s cold hand has taken hold around the country, but that doesn’t mean the fly fishing itch doesn’t need to get scratched. Whether you’re planning a multi-day weekend trip or just sneaking out for a few hours, we’ve got a few pointers for you, if winter trout are on your list this holiday season!
Snow is your friend: In my experience, I have found snow to be largely in my favor when it’s safe enough to drive out to the trout stream. Not only does it help reduce the angling pressure, but it can also work in your favor fishing wise. The grey cloud cover that comes with snow will help you out by reducing your shadow and making it more difficult for trout to make you out. Snow on the banks, while dangerous, will also help muffle your footsteps again, allowing you to sneak closer to where you think your trophy is holding.
Sub surface is your best friend: While there are still plenty of flies that will be hatching during the winter, these hatches can be sporadic and very dependent on conditions. When I head to the river in the winter, I usually either have a streamer or a nymph at the end of my tippet. Many say the wintertime can be the best time to get aggressive strikes on streamers as the browns and brookies finish up their spawning and are on the feed. But one thing is certain, trout will continue to eat all winter, all you need to do is get the right flies in front of them!
Focus on deep water: As water temperatures drop, trout tend to head towards deeper water, to find the warmer water in the middle and bottom sections of the water column. This typically means if you find water that is too deep to see the bottom, usually there will be fish holding there just out of sight. When we’re approaching holes and deep runs in the winter, we usually do our best to make sure our flies are ticking and rolling along the bottom. The takes may be subtle, but the fight will be anything but.
Fish during the warmest parts of the day: Just like you, in the winter, trout like to be as warm as possible. This means that the best time of the day to be out is from mid-morning until mid-afternoon. The warmer air and water temperatures will kick off any hatches that are in the system, and get the fish moving and feeding more actively.
