It has been nearly 20 years since the first issue of Fly Anglers Online made its appearance on the Internet. It was a new and revolutionary concept in 1997 to offer a fly fishing publication on the Internet and to offer it for free to anyone that wanted to read it. The original idea originated with The Ladyfisher; Deanna Birkholm. With her husband James, some computer nerds and a few paying sponsors they ventured into the unknown world of Internet publication.


Much has changed over those 20 years. FAOL is no longer the only fly fishing website on the Internet. Today there are many fly fishing websites, fly fishing blogs and bulletin boards. FAOL is proud to have been a trend setter and we have featured many writers and we have hundreds of pages of archived articles, still free for anyone to access and read. We continue to offer new content each month and we have readers around the world. We are still here because of our loyal contributors and loyal readers.


In this issue we are offering one of the first articles written by The Ladyfisher in 1997, which is still as timely as it was when it was first written. Given the increased interest in fly fishing today and the number of anglers that one encounters on the more popular waters it may be even more relevant today.