About TryAFly
Built by an angler.
Powered by curiosity.
TryAFly is built by an angler who genuinely loves the science behind fly fishing — bugs, fish behavior, river systems, weather, hatches, and all the tiny environmental variables that make every day on the water different.
Why it exists
Fly fishing information is everywhere. Just not in one place.
Before heading out, an angler might check flows, weather, fishing reports, hatch charts, water temperatures, old forums, fly shop reports, maps, and three separate Google searches — just to piece together what is happening on a river.
TryAFly brings that information together and, more importantly, helps explain what it means.
Instead of only saying "throw a size 16 PMD" — TryAFly helps you understand: What is a PMD? Why is it here? What stage of its life cycle are fish eating? Where should I expect fish to be feeding on it? How are today's conditions changing that behavior?
The goal isn't to replace local knowledge, guides, fly shops, or learning how to read water.
It's to help more anglers become curious about the rivers they're standing in.
Conservation
The river doesn't get anything back. That needs to change.
This is not an add-on to TryAFly. It's one of the reasons it's being built.
AI and technology increasingly benefit from outdoor recreation. They learn from fishing reports, photographs, conversations, species information, public data, local knowledge, maps, articles, and decades of information created by people who care about these places.
They gain from the outdoors. But the river doesn't get anything back.
The trout don't. The insects, habitat, public access, and land don't.
Revenue generated by TryAFly will support nonprofits and projects protecting fish, rivers, habitat, public lands, and access to the places where we recreate. As the platform grows, the goal is to make that giving transparent and eventually user-directed — so the community using these tools can help decide where that money does the most good.
Technology is going to become part of outdoor recreation whether we like it or not.
I want to build a version that gives back more than it takes.
Who it's for
From beginners to guides.
TryAFly isn't about dumbing fly fishing down. It's about making the incredible amount of science behind it easier for everyone to explore.
New to the sport
Starting from scratch
Open TryAFly and learn what you're looking at. What bugs are around. Why fish may be behaving a certain way. What fly might imitate what is actually happening in the river.
Experienced anglers & guides
Going deeper
Dig into localized insects, flows, temperatures, weather, seasonal changes, fish behavior, and river-specific patterns tailored to the exact watershed you're fishing.
Y'all are already Googling this stuff and reading fishing reports anyway.
At least support the resource you're Googling about while you're at it.
Common questions
A few quick answers.
Which rivers are supported?
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TryAFly is starting small and building river by river. Rather than pretending one generic AI fishing answer works everywhere, each field guide is intended to become increasingly specific to the insects, fish, seasons, conditions, and ecology of an individual watershed. Current coverage focuses on select Western trout fisheries, with more rivers being added over time.
Is TryAFly free?
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Right now, the focus is on building and improving the field guide generator and making it genuinely useful. The long-term goal is to create a sustainable platform that can fund itself — and put money back into the environments that make outdoor recreation possible.
Don't see your river?
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Tell us which river or watershed you want TryAFly to build next. Community requests help determine where we expand.
Explore Current Rivers →The recommendation is useful.
Understanding why is the point.
Generate a Field Guide →Learn the river. Try a fly. Protect the place.