The top 10 stories of 2025 | Hatch Magazine

Another year is in the books and this one’s a bit of a milestone — our fifteenth. As is our annual custom, we’re taking a look back at which Hatch Magazine stories captivated readers the most during the past year.

Typically, the most read stories are a healthy mix of gear-focused coverage, tips and how-to pieces, conservation journalism, and plain old fly fishing stories. This past year was no exception with reader favorites ranging from talk of fly rods, fly lines, and books, to climate change impacts on fish populations, wild trout, fly casting, as well as, for the second year in a row, some very unwelcome, somber news.

1. Can fly fishing for trout change your life?

Media is awash in stories about our favorite sports and activities. And yet in spite of its popularity with celebrities, and its ubiquity in television commercials, fly fishing receives relatively little attention.

So why do more than 7 million Americans pick up a fly rod and go fishing every year? What’s so appealing about the sport?

2. New Zealand trout: Crass and unsophisticated?

New Zealand trout have developed almost a mythical reputation for being the “smartest,” most wary, most difficult to catch trout that anglers can find anywhere on the planet. But — what if they weren’t?

3. Beasts of the Bighorn

An up-close-and-personal look at one of Montana’s — and the entire Rocky Mountain West’s — most storied tailwaters.

4. Tips for trout anglers on a limited budget

Not everyone can afford to go out with high-priced guides, or stay at fancy fly fishing lodges, or attend top fly fishing schools. At the same time, most folks I know lack the disposable income to buy $1,000 fly rods, $800 waders and $300 sunglasses. But that doesn’t mean fly fishers with more modest financial resources can’t become stellar anglers.

With that in mind, Todd Tanner offers a bevy of suggestions that anglers on any budget can take advantage of.

5. 4 underrated western trout towns

There are some legit trout towns that just kind of get overlooked — forgotten amid the glory grabbers and the river culture, where deep conversations usually start and end at the fly shop, only to be rekindled at one of the many famous diners or bars that cater to long-rodders eager to swap stories.

6. 5 all-time favorite fly rods

Todd Tanner takes a look back through the history of graphite fly rods, selecting his current five favorites from a lifetime of fishing rods from almost every major rodmaker.

7. Unwritten rules when fishing from a boat

Watercraft usage for fishing has increased significantly in recent years. Much like a growing city whose infrastructure was not designed to handle excessive numbers of people and vehicles, many of our rivers, boat launches, and access points are dealing with issues related to an uptick in usage—and the resulting crowded boat launches and busy waterways are creating the potential for greater user conflicts. To help reduce those conflicts, George Daniel offers a primer on how to avoid errors with your drift boat, raft, or other watercraft.

8. Influential angler and conservationist Flip Pallot dies

Sometimes, sad, unwelcome news is big news. The sport’s loss of longtime angler, author, television personality and conservation Flip Pallot was no exception.

9. Colorado native trout found reproducing in new home waters

Chris Hunt reports on a rare, native cutthroat trout found only in the Arkansas River drainage of southern Colorado and once on the brink of extinction now reproducing naturally in waters where it was reintroduced after a devastating wildfire wiped out much of its native habitat nine years ago.

10. Has one of the world’s best brown trout fisheries been hiding in plain sight?

“World-class” is one of those monikers that gets thrown around in the fly fishing world, much like the terms “epic,” “legendary,” and the profanely ubiquitous “trophy.” Those charged with marketing angling destinations are an unimaginitive bunch and even for those that are somewhat literarily inclined, there are only so many ways to say “big fish and lots of them.” In truth, there are few destinations that are genuinely unique amongst their counterparts on the globe. There is no shortage of good fisheries and even plenty of great ones. But world-class? Those are few and far in between and one most certainly does not expect to find them hiding in plain sight. On northwest Iceland’s Blanda River, one of the world’s premiere wild brown trout fisheries appears to have been doing just that — sitting conspicuously present, commingled with the river’s historic north coast Atlantic salmon fishery, all but ignored by half a century of anglers too enamored with its itinerant, silver-sided fish to notice.

It’s been our privilege over the last 15 years to share our journalism and other award-winning content with fly anglers and other readers all over the world. We look forward to another year of reporting, stories, tips, travel features and more as the calendar turns the page to 2026.

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