The Flyfisher's Podcast

Scotty Xanthoulakis from Wilderness Fly Fishing and Jason van Koll join us to talk about River Lab, a new app that turns live river data and Scotty’s guiding knowledge into a daily game plan for northeast Victoria.
Jason was a frustrated flyfisher who could cast but couldn’t find fish. After a guided day with Scotty, he built an AI tool to make sense of his notes, started catching fish on his own, and showed Scotty. A year of coffees and development later, River Lab is nearly ready.
We cover how the app works, the River Mood gauge, skill level filtering, access maps, the guide Intel feature, the AI podcast that briefs you on the drive up, and whether it’ll push more people onto the same water. Plus an early season report from the Goulburn catchment, including a couple of surprise brookies.
Beta testing is planned for December. Register your interest at riverlab.app

Good mate of The Flyfisher, Gus Ingram is on the Upper Sarca near Pinzolo, in the Trentino region of northern Italy, for a day with local guide Paolo. Three rivers, plenty of fish, most of them on the dry, and then a chat in Paolo's family mountain cabin while a rain shower rolled through.
The Alto Sarca is an easy fishery to fall for. One permit covers around 300 kilometres of water, so you can nymph the main river for marble trout in the morning and be up a glacial tributary fishing dries after lunch.
We cover the marmorata and how big they get in this system, Arctic char caught at 2,700 metres, the flood recovery work the local association has done with Vibert boxes, and what the reserva stretches offer for very little money.
Paolo also runs through gear, and it is refreshingly simple. A 9 foot 4 weight, a floating line, and big dries with a small nymph dropper. Waist waders and studded boots most of the year, or wet wade it in summer.
Plus a word on why hiring a guide in a foreign country is less about casting lessons and more about not wasting three days in the wrong valley.

Jackson Murray, aka Bending with Muzz, joins us to talk flyfishing off the rocks for GTs, Australian salmon and longtail tuna. We cover the solo island trips, the training, the gear, the danger, and how his film Grasshopper made the RISE F3T fly fishing film tour. A great yarn about doing things the hard way.

Max Vereshaka is one of Australia’s most accomplished competition fly fishers, but this conversation goes well beyond medals, teams and tournament results.
Max has now stepped into a new chapter: travelling, fishing full-time, filming his adventures, and chasing everything from Tasmanian trophy trout to permit and barra across northern Australia.
In this episode, Max talks through his early days learning to fly fish on Lake Eucumbene, the lessons competition fishing drilled into him, the rise of Euro nymphing, and how trout tactics have shaped the way he approaches saltwater fly fishing.
We also get into Tasmania’s backcountry lakes, the Whitsundays, Cape York, Western Australia, moon phases, tides, flats fishing, the Inshore Flats Project, and why Max believes Australia might have the best fly fishing in the world.
Raw, funny, technical and full of hard-earned perspective, this is a conversation with someone who has built his life around fly fishing and has no plans of slowing down.
As Max puts it: fish till I die.

Peter has just returned from another trip to Bermagui on the NSW Sapphire Coast, and this one had it all.
From mahi mahi and kingfish smashing bait around the FADs, to estuary flats packed with bream and flatties, bass in Brogo Dam, surf salmon, and even world-class trout water only a short drive inland, Bermagui might just be one of Australia’s most versatile fishing destinations.
In this episode we chat road trips, boats, bluewater current charts, fly tackle for pelagics, overlooked shore-based options, seafood, conservation, and why Bermagui keeps pulling anglers back year after year.
If you’re the kind of flyfisher who loves variety, adventure, and figuring things out as you go, this one will fire you right up.