Everybody had a good year.
Everybody caught a big brown.
Everybody pulled their waders up.
Everybody laid a line down.
We’d apologize for that terrible Beatles/fishing dad joke, but we’re not sorry. We’re not sorry for reminding you that the whole point of fly fishing is joy. We’re not sorry for floating a little levity and celebrating the grand ridiculousness of chasing fish with fly rods. We’re not sorry for making fun of ourselves.
While we’re river stone cold serious about building the absolute best fly fishing gear you’ve ever worn, we’re equally serious when we say that we hope you don’t feel serious while you’re wearing it (just seriously comfortable).
If 2022 was the best first year ever, our sophomore effort was anything but sophomoric. We dropped a whole new line of miraculously comfortable Merino insulation; created the lightest high UPF sunshirt on the market; came out with an insulated button up shirt that you’ll find any excuse to wear; reinvented the hoody as a performance fishing layer; gave you pants worthy of riding under Skwala waders. We met some new friends, won some awards, and made a whole lot of fishing days better.
Who cares what happened last year? That’s old news. You’re not thinking about the fish you’ve already caught (or failed to catch); you’re thinking about the fish you’re going to catch. Forget looking back, what are we going to do next?
We’re glad you asked.
You can expect to see a whole lot more of us next year. We’re thrilled to sponsor this year’s Fly Fishing Film Tour. Catch us, and the F3T, at a venue near you this winter. Come experience a traveling menagerie of piscatorial debauchery, vicarious adrenaline injections, and visual storytelling that reminds you how this culture punches above its weight, artistically speaking.
But wait, there’s more. We’re also sponsoring the International Fly Fishing Festival’s newest endeavor: the Trout Tour, a global celebration of cold-water salmonids. Be they brown, rainbow, cut, brook, char, lake or even splake—we unapologetically love them all and we’re thrilled to help bring them to you on the big screen.
On the subject of things we love, fly shops! Expect to see Skwala gear in more great shops this year. If you’re fishing anywhere in the West this year, we’ll be there. We’re now in Wyoming, Utah, and Alaska and expanding all over the great state of Colorado.
Seems like a good time for a road trip, right? We’re making appearances at The Fly Fishing Shows and hosting events at some of our favorite fly shops. Come hang with us at the shows in Marlborough, MA; Denver, CO; Seattle, WA and Edison, NJ. Stop by the Skwala booth or our parter retailers’ booths for a chat. We look forward to seeing you there. Check our Instagram feed for all the details on where we’ll be when, and catch us somewhere along the line. Let’s drink beer (or seltzer) and talk about fly fishing gear.
Specifically, we can talk about all the new gear that we’ve got coming out of the lab. While we can’t tell you exactly what we have in store for 2024, we can confidently say that it’s going to be another big year at Skwala. In addition to adding groundbreaking new pieces to the RS and Carbon collections, we’ll be launching a whole new line of top-quality fishing gear designed to solve your fishing problems. Here are a few hints:
Do you enjoy long floats in the rain? Bumpy, wet rides in a flats skiff? Taking an icy wave over the raft thwart? You might soon.
It rhymes with Luke Skywalker’s father’s surname—after he converts to the dark side.
Got a cold weather trip planned? We’re cooking up something that will keep you roasty toasty no matter how deep the temps fall.
Did someone say vest? We didn’t, we’re just curious.
We know it’s not all rising fish crushing dry flies in perfect weather out there. We’ve all got challenges and some of our favorite fisheries are in serious trouble, but we’re optimists. When it comes to meaningful conservation efforts, what we do matters far more than what we say. Our partnership with SaveWildTrout.org last year was a good start, but it was just that—a start. We expect more from ourselves in the year to come, and you should expect more from us also.
Our sincere thanks to all of you who took us fishing last year. We hope Skwala gear enhanced your time on the water, and if it did, we want to hear about it. Send us pics, stories, fishing reports, or coordinates to your secret spots. If you like what we’re doing, leave us a review, or send us an email. We’re a small team here at Skwala HQ in Bozeman and we appreciate every note, comment, review, and message we receive. Here’s to another great year on the water for all of us.
Happy New Year,
The Skwala Crew.
