This site is the brain-child of two people who don’t agree on much, Kramer and Jonathan. We’ve both been fishing for decades, but we have very different backgrounds. We have very different fishing styles and interests. Kramer is a contentious ass who wants his flies to have a maximum of two materials and be as fast to tie as possible (he says he likes minimalism but he’s probably just lazy and impatient), and is not above throwing Rapalas and Trout Magnets on occasion. Jonathan’s also a bit cantankerous (just say something bad about tenkara around him), but is steeped in history and tradition and loves finding new ways to fish old fly patterns and techniques. At times, our friendship seems unlikely, but the truth is that our common ground lies in a mutual love of pissing off grumpy old purists at the river. Okay, that’s not the only thing, we also just love fishing, and while our styles and techniques are often very different, we both believe that the best way to fish is the way you most enjoy it.

We created The Unsponsored Angler in an attempt to counter the ceaseless corporatization and monetization of the trout angling world and provide a space where those with interesting ideas and unorthodox thinking can share their thoughts, techniques, tactics, and general musings on angling and it’s many subtopics. Society-wide, and certainly within the angling sphere, we have lost the art of doing things simply for the sake of doing them. Everything is about getting ad revenue on YouTube, enough likes on Instagram that some manufacturer will offer an “ambassadorship”, getting a “signature tier” gig, or promoting some new fly with a new “revolutionary” design or material to keep the sales cycle churning for some big company that relies on anglers believing fish got too smart for Pheasant Tails. There’s no real problem (usually) with people making a living doing what they enjoy, but in a world of eleven hundred dollar fly rods, constant needless “innovation”, and an endless barrage of advertising both overt and subtle, we believe there is a longing in many people to get back to doing things just because, and that is what we hope to provide a home for here.

While the main focus of this site will be “fly fishing” since that is simply the most common way to pursue trout, we were intentional in our choice of the word “angler”. One, its the proper term historically for anyone who pursued fish with hook and line. Secondly, we detest the superiority complex of many “fly fishers”, the use of consumerism and wealth (real or not) to establish an egotistic feeling of dominance over the peasant filth sullying their waters with abominations like nymphing rods, tenkara rods, or (horror of horrors) conventional gear, and the purist attitudes that result in people believing they gain some level of moral high ground for only fishing a certain way, or even a certain type of fly.

Fishing is no longer a matter of sustenance for most of us, and thus, its value is as recreation. If an angler is enjoying their tactics, and is respectful of the environment and the fish, then the purpose of angling has been achieved, no matter what style of reel and rod they carry. I hope that this site provides something of interest, and a community for every true angler.

If you are an interesting or thoughtful angler, and you would like to share your knowledge or musings with our community, please reach out to us at theunsponsoredangler@gmail.com. Please send an example or two of the type of content you would like to contribute for consideration. What kind of content would we like to see? Just send something interesting, thoughtful, informative, or usefully countercultural. We don’t need articles about how you tied an Adams with a new tailing material and called it “Kevin’s Totally Unique and Unheard of Revolutionary Adam’s Variation #45” or something, but we will consider just about anything else! 🙂

Finally, while the main focus of this site is trout fishing, if you are an angler in another community and think you have something that would be interesting to us, send it on over!

Please enjoy, engage with us if we say something you don’t like so we can argue with you about it even if you are right, and go have yourself some fun on the water.