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April Vokey

April Vokey
April Vokey is a fly fishing writer, fly-tyer, and speaker. After guiding in British Columbia for ten years, she now splits her year between camp in northern BC and Australia. She is an FFF certified casting instructor, forager, bowhunter, and mother.

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Freshwater

Are You Casting Too Far?
Every new angler wants to be able to cast an entire fly line or launch a lure all the way across the lake. But that drive for technical prowess often leads people to miss the fish at their feet.
Fish of all species are often found hugging the banks of lakes and rivers, hiding or hunting in shoreline structure and under riparian vegetation. Pike, bass, salmon, trout—there’s hardly a freshwater fish I’ve encountered that consistently requires long...

Saltwater

Snag Solutions: How to Get Yourself Unstuck
We’ve all been there. Your line pulls taut, pulse quickens, and you set the hook fiercely into a solid, unmoving object. You fire off a string of expletives, pulling and jerking the rod—more an attempt to vent frustration than an actual effort to free the line.
A snag can infuriate even the calmest angler. I’ve seen rods snapped in fits of anger and watched friends humiliate themselves, splashing and flailing with Elaine Benis-style dance moves...

Freshwater

So, You Want to be a Fishing Guide? Part Four: Guiding Isn’t Fishing
This is the fourth installment in a five-part series outlining the experiences of working fishing guides and what it takes to survive a dream job. Here’s where you can find part one, two and three.
Some of the best “fishing bums” I know are the worst guides. They’re superstars with a rod in their own hands, but guides don’t hold rods—they hold tillers, push poles, oar grips or nets. The measure of a good guide isn’t if she  can catch fish, it’s...

Freshwater

So, You Want to be a Fishing Guide? Part Three: Qualities of a Good Guide
This is the third installment in a five-part series outlining the experiences of working fishing guides and what it takes to survive a dream job. Here’s where you can find part one and two.
Guiding takes more than passion and skill for fishing. A talented angler understands fish. A talented guide understands fish and people. The latter tends to be more complicated than the former. Most clients expect to catch fish, or at least have...

Saltwater

So, You Want to be a Fishing Guide? Part Two: Financial Realities
This is the second installment in a five-part series outlining the experiences of working fishing guides and what it takes to survive a dream job. If you missed part one, you can read that here.
It’s easy to assume that fishing guides make more money than they actually do. Multiplying an outfitter’s $500 per day rate by a vague estimate of “guidable days” each year can lead aspiring guides to imagine themselves getting rich by taking people...

Freshwater

So, You Want to be a Fishing Guide? Part One: April’s Origins
This is the first installment in a five-part series outlining the experiences of working fishing guides and what it takes to survive a dream job.
In my early 20s, I worked part-time at a tackle shop in Abbotsford, British Columbia. I wasn’t there for the paycheque, rather for the hefty discount on expensive gear and fly-tying materials. I ran a tab with the shop owner and paid back my debt on weekend shifts, selling Bouncing Betties to salmon...

Freshwater

Ice Fishing: A New Perspective
I’ll be the first to admit that I had no interest in trying ice fishing. Fishing in the cold is one thing, but to do it on purpose while staring at a hole in the ice? Well, that’s another story. It wasn’t only the cold that deterred me; I’d seen ice-fishermen stay warm with fires, steaming cups of coffee and body heat. For me, the issues were the ethics of targeting starving trout, as well as my fear of boredom. I’m the sort of person who needs...

Fly

Are You Ready For Winter Steelhead Spey Fishing?
While most people hang up their waders when the interior rivers turn to ice, the fishing season is just beginning for many of us in the Pacific Northwest. Many anglers have waited all year to pull their fishing gear out of storage. Winter steelhead fishermen and women are some of the most passionate anglers out there. Keeping on through snowy days, icy guides, wet under-layers, cold thermoses and frozen reels—they’re a dedicated bunch.
However...

Freshwater

Fish Facial Recognition: Technology to Help Fish Stocks
Over the last few years there have been some exciting new technological developments that may help improve fish stocks. Facial recognition software programs that compare photographs to images stored in databases can provide valuable information to be used for a multitude of applications, both for recreational anglers and fisheries biologists. Most facial recognition programs are illegal to use on humans, but the technology could be invaluable to...

Steelhead

Egg Sucking Leech: A Deeper Look at a Controversial Fly
It’s not hard to see why fly fishing might be confusing to the non-fly fisher — after all, we do come up with some pretty crazy ideas.  
Take the IGFA’s marlin fly fishing guidelines as an example.  These include trolling a baited lure until a marlin chases it, only to then rip it out of the marlin’s mouth to cast a fly at it instead.  But wait — there’s more.  If the boat’s not out of gear at the exact moment the fly cast is made, the fish...