Frustrated that The Drake Magazine only comes out four times a year? Well now there’s more. Introducing The Drake’s new weekly flyfishing podcast, The DrakeCast. Just like the magazine, we’re bringing you stories–some fun, some serious. Except this time, you don’t have to read. All you have to do is press play.
There are a lot of great flyfishing podcasts out there that interview legends within the industry or tell you how to catch more fish. Each episode of this podcast contains interviews and tips, but neither are the main focus. Our goal is to put listeners on the water and make them laugh. If they learn a thing or two, all the better. In the first few episodes, we chase trout on a nearly frozen stream in Northern Wisconsin, check in on Great Smoky Mountains National Park after a fire tried to burn it to the ground, and swing flies for Great Lakes steelhead on Michigan’s Pere Marquette River.
Each episode relates back to flyfishing, but sometimes the connection can be subtle. For example, how did the reconstruction of a dam in Kentucky affect the non-native trout below? How are the changes in the ecology of Lake Michigan affecting lake-run fish and the anglers that target them?
We release a new episode of The DrakeCast every Friday morning. Our hope is that you listen to our show as you drive to your favorite fishing hole. If you’re not able to make it out of the office that weekend, plug us in while your boss isn’t looking.
When you press play, we hope to tingle that ever-so-sensitive spot inside your ear drum.
You can subscribe to The DrakeCast via these links: iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud. Make sure to check back each week to see behind-the-scenes photos taken during the recording of each episode.
PC: Declan Rogers
For those of you who subscribe to the Drake Magazine, you’ll notice it’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about Clyde, the magazine’s 1974 Mercury Marquis that travels the country. This car invites mishaps, cops, and adoration from anyone who sees him. But where has he been, and what’s he been up to? Today on the podcast, we speak with writer John Agricola to check in on Clyde and hear about his latest adventures.
In this episode of The DrakeCast we head to the backwaters of the Mississippi River to attempt a northwoods cast and blast, chasing a dinner of pike and squirrel from my newly refinished Gheenoe. As a committed catch and release angler, this was a new and somewhat uncomfortable experience for me. Later on, we’re joined by outdoors writer Patrick Durkin to contextualize our mission and talk about the fluctuations in hunting and angling participation over the years.
In this episode of The DrakeCast, we sit down with Drake Magazine founder and editor, Tom Bie, to talk through the Fall 2025 issue of the magazine. We’ll provide some background information on the stories we ran, why we ran them, and hear contributor Mike Fitzgerald read his essay that we both thought was fantastic.
In this episode of The DrakeCast we return to Alaska’s Bristol Bay with The Lodge at 58* North. This is the second part of a series, so if you missed the first one, go back and listen to Episode #70: A Week in Bristol Bay w/ The Lodge at 58* North.
In this episode of The DrakeCast we head to The Lodge at 58* North for a week of fishing Alaska’s Bristol Bay. In between chasing trout, char, grayling and salmon, we chat with the people who add to this already remarkable place.
Badger 2, loading at Antigo, Wisconsin, 1921. A.J. Kingsbury photo, MCRM collection. December 1978 Gazette.
I first met Israel on a steelheading adventure in Southeastern Alaska back in 2018 (a trip we documented in an earlier episode of the podcast). It had been a while since we had seen each other so this past summer he drove sixteen hours north to join me on a search for the best fishing Wisconsin has to offer: smallmouth bass on poppers. It took a couple of days but we eventually found an entire river teeming with willing, surface-feeding fish. But seeing as he had driven all that way, on day three, we decided to shift gears. Or as Israel phrased it, “We absolutely waylaid smallmouth all day yesterday on poppers. So we figured why not kick ourself in the [expletive] and try and go after musky today.”
In 2021, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources completed the removal of a derelict dam from the Dowagiac River. For the first time in over 120 years, the bottom four miles of the Dowagiac were reconnected with the 150+ miles of water in the main stem and its many tributaries upstream, making this possibly the most dramatically changed river in the Midwest. But whether or not that change has been for the better is still up for discussion. This episode is about how the people, the water way, and the fish have adapted.
In May of 2025, I found myself in a boat with someone who on paper, I did not like. I was on the oars and my nemesis was watching a popper, twitching it every three or four seconds, along a line of lily pads. It was Wisconsin’s trout opener so instead of battling crowds on the small streams of the Driftless Area, we decided to hit a slough off of the Wisconsin River in search of anything that would bite.
On the morning of June 25th, my friend and guide Luke Annear swung by in his truck with his Towee in tow. When Luke isn’t pursuing his third post-graduate degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, you can usually find him chasing carp on the rivers of southern Wisconsin. Luke’s guide service, Freshwater Flats, specializes in site fishing opportunities for carp. But that day, we were trying something a little bit different.
Scanning Sudan's legendary flats for triggerfish, permit, bones, barracuda, GTs and whatever else decides to show up.
Alex Gonsiewski is a flyfishing guide in Oregon, where he targets trout and summer steelhead on the Deschutes River, summer steelhead on the John Day, and winter steelhead on the North Oregon coast. Between rainbow runs, Alex hosts angling trips around the world. He’s taken clients to Mexico, Belize, Bolivia, Alaska, Christmas Island, and Puerto Rico.
In 2023, Alex and a group of clients flew to Sudan for nine days of fishing on the Red Sea’s Nubian Flats. Unfortunately, while Alex and company were on the water, the country fell into a vicious civil war that has since claimed the lives of 150,000 people and displaced more than thirteen million.
The essay Cold & Clear by John Larison originally appeared in the Winter 2016 issue of The Drake Magazine and to this day, it is one of best stories about steelheading we’ve ever run. On this episode of The DrakeCast we bring you the author reading his story followed by an interview with Larison from 2019.
A few months ago a family friend gave me a taxidermied brown trout that had been mounted in the 80s. When I went to the friend’s house to get the story behind the fish I somehow left with the rod and reel that had caught it, plus a whole lot more. This episode is the story of that fish, the rod, and the anglers that came before us.
Not a Steelhead. Photo by Israel Patterson
It’s been a while, but The Drakecast is back by popular demand, at least for a little bit. We’ve got six episodes slated for release between now and the end of 2021.The first of these episodes (which also happens to be the second of the Steelhead Miniseries) is a story of the fine line between exploration and exploitation.
PHOTO: Corey Kruitbosch
In this episode of the DrakeCast we meet two characters with similar pasts who have ended up in very different places. They both love steelhead, but in very different ways. We’ll also hear from Trout Unlimited Steelhead Biologist John McMillan as we attempt to understand how we can prevent loving these fish to death.
WMY9P7 Aerial view from U.S. Coast Guard helicopter supporting search and rescue and humanitarian aid efforts in Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian. (9-4-19)
Just a week ago, Hurricane Dorian carved a scar into the soul of the Bahamas. In this episode we profile a lifelong Bahamian guide, talk to a lodge owner about the current state of the island, and learn how you can help those affected by the storm from the seat of your fly-tying station or…
“This summer I had a single task: spread my mother’s ashes somewhere in Alaska. In May I set out, two black Labs in tow, with the idea of finding the ideal resting spot. I drove the 3,000 miles of the Al-Can Highway, my mom’s ashes bumping along somewhere among the camping gear, bags of dog…
This episode of the DrakeCast takes a deep dive into the seedy underworld of a fishy religion in the Ozarks. Think Deliverance but with john boats instead of canoes. And at the center of this aquatic orthodox are two deities: the almighty streamer and the holy brown trout. But these aren’t your typical streamers or browns.…
Drake Magazine Howling Brothers Monkeys Fly Fishing Podcast
After a brief hiatus, The DrakeCast is back. This episode aims to answer one question: How did a band of fishing and surfing bums living in Virginia create an iconic Texan brand? To help tell this story we’ll be assisted by musican and Howler Brothers cofounder, Andy Stepanian. Along the way, we’ll also get to…
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This episode of the DrakeCast tracks the effects of several natural disasters that have struck the Eastern United States in the past few years. After starting with the Sevier Country Fire that ripped through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we move further south to North Carolina where we’ll hear how folks are faring after Hurricane…
Every year, millions of Alaskan fish make their way back from the ocean to their natal streams. Hot on their tails are tens of thousands of anglers looking to capture that perfect obituary photo with the catch of a lifetime. This is the story of a couple guides who had the pleasure of taking those…
For those of you who tuned in to Episode #45, you’ll know that we travelled down to East End Lodge in Grand Bahama to chase after the ghost of the flats with Captain Cecil Leathan and Bjorn Stromsness. This episode continues that journey but stops along the way to take a look at the darker…
In today’s audio story, we scan the flats of Grand Bahama in search of a single species: Bonefish. Sit back and enjoy the sounds of veteran East End Lodge guide Cecil Leathan poling Bjorn Stromsness (of the Bonefish on the Brain blog) and listen as they tell the tales of their first bonefishes and find many more.
In this episode of the DrakeCast we float down Wisconsin’s Chippewa River in search of Midwestern, river-dwelling smallmouth bass. But what do you do if the fish just aren’t biting like they normally do? While searching for answers, we hit the water with Lucky Porter, a guide who makes a living on these fish, learn…
Often referred to as the Rodney Dangerfield of fish, shad don’t get no respect. In this episode of the DrakeCast, we head to the Potomac River in Washington DC to catch America’s forgotten fish. While we’re at it, we’ll learn about the historic importance of the shad run, the troubles these fish have faced since the…
This episode of The DrakeCast is a two-fer, and both segments focus on the backyard bass of Southern California. We start in Long Beach Harbor with Captain Vaughn Podmore where we search for sea creatures in the shadow of lighthouses, cranes, and military helicoptors. For the second half of the episode, we head south to…
In 1998, we discovered Montana. Turns out, it had been there all along. Montana is where it all began, and also where it all nearly ended. It was summer, a high-water year, a year of thunderstorms and heat, a serious bluewing hatch, the year the river almost took us both. –Dave Zoby, taken from his…
“I knew I wanted to write ever since I was a little kid. I studied journalism in college and I’ve come at the magazine from the writer’s perspective. I’ve always felt that if you make the writing and photography strong enough the rest of it will kind of take care of itself. And that’s been…
