The Mayfly Project, with Jess Westbrook

In this week's podcast, I interview Jess Westbrook, co-founder of The Mayfly Project. This organization, a winner of an Orvis Breaking Barriers award, brings the joys of fly fishing to foster kids through individual, one-on-one mentorship throughout the country. For obvious reasons their programs have been put on hold for this year (I was looking forward to being a mentor myself last spring), but the organization moves forward, making plans for a time when we can comfortably get together in person. Jess has some heartwarming stories to tell of past successes that will make you smile and feel good about the fly-fishing community.

In the Fly Box this week, we have some great questions and I hope my answers are helpful to you. They include: I recently got a new fly reel and when it's filled with line it's too tight. What can I do to solve this? A story from a listener on catching a channel catfish on a fly tied for swinging for trout--a Montana Intruder that he tied during one of our Monday live fly-tying sessions. Why do the eyes on my saltwater flies keep coming off? What feathers on grouse and woodcock can I use for fly tying? Can you recommend some books so I can learn more about how watersheds work? Why does my fly line keep catching itself on my forward cast and how can I fix it? Can I use weighted streamers to catch walleye? Why would a bunch of large trout be holding in slow, shallow water during a hatch? What is the best saltwater floating line for Northeast fly fishing? I have some fly materials with bugs in them. Would repeated thawing and freezing kill them? What is the difference between a sink tip and an intermediate fly line? Why does anyone ever use flies smaller than size 18? I can't see them on the water. Why do I keep losing steelhead when they jump?