Today's episode lives in the space between tradition and transition where classic wetflies meet modern trout behavior and where patterns that are centuries old still outfish the newest thing in the box.

Scott Sanchez has spent his life in that zone. And today we're going to find out how he started at 12 years old and learned from some of the best out there and has been refining his craft over the years.

From working at Dan Bailey's in Livingston to his long run at JD High Country Outfitters in Jackson, Scott's approach has always been the same.

Keep it simple. Make it move right and let the fish decide. In this episode, we're going to break down why it matters, and we're going to get into

all the details today.

This is the travel podcast where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing

and how to find the best resources and tools to get ready for that big trip.

I'm excited to share today's episode with you.

We're going to get

into a bunch of great topics today, including you're going to find out how to tell where trout

are feeding on emmergers versus dries by reading their noses and the dorsal fins. We're going to get

into that today. We're going to find out what actually defines an emerger and a cripple and why

the trailing shuck and the partial part of the body is a key part of this? We're going to talk about swinging soft tackles and why this works so well, especially during caddice hatches and other hatches and how a lot of people get this wrong that are fishing out there. We're going to get into the step-by-step to fishing mergers, wet flies. We're going to talk about Scott's go-to patterns. This one is jam-packed today. I'm so excited to share it with you, and we are going to be following up with Scott as we go as well. So let's just get into it. You can visit Idaho and support Yellowstone-Teton territory as you go. We're going to be heading there this year. We mentioned at the East

Idaho Fly Tying Expo. This is a big one this year, March. So we're going to talk about that as well.

So here he is. Scott Sanchez. Let's get into it. Here's Scott Sanchez. How are you doing, Scott?

Good. Good. Good. Great to have you on here. I've heard a lot about you over the years on the

podcast. Definitely your name has come up a lot. So I'm excited to talk today. I think fly tying is

probably one of the first things that a lot of people, you know, hear about with your name. I know

you're out doing a lot of stuff. So we're going to talk about that. But I think also focus on, you know, mergers, tying, you know, mergers, fishing them, maybe get into that process. I think that's a struggle for a lot of people is the difference between dry flies or mergers, how to fish them. So, but first off, before we get into all that, take us back real quick on fly fishing. I know you've been doing this a while. What's your first memory out there?

I started fly fishing and fly time. I was 12 years old. I grew up in Salt Lake, and my brother-in-law, John Whiteman, was our scoutmaster. They had old Herders Flytine kit, and, you know, you're 12 12 years old all you have its time in the summer right

just get on our bikes and ride around and going out of fly fish and city creek and salt lake

unfortunately there's some really stupid fish they'd eat some really bad flies and some really

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