The Orvis Fly Fishing app is not only a great resource for the novice fly-fisher such as me, but would be useful to the experienced anglers as well. The amount of information packed into this app is unbelievable. In fact, before I made this purchase I had been literally dragging around the LL Bean Ultimate Book of Fly Fishing anyplace I thought I may be able to steal a little reading time. Now that information is neatly tucked away inside of my phone.

Immediately after downloading the OFF I started browsing through the casting videos. They expertly reinforced my understanding of the steps to get started, providing videos for basic casting techniques like the double haul and the roll cast. They round out the instruction with demonstrations on various methods to cast directly into the wind and in-depth information on the most common casting mistakes and how to correct them. Even a well-seasoned angler can benefit from refining their techniques.

The fly reference charts are searchable by fly size, color, fishing region, and by season, not to mention you can browse the charts by using the name or type of fly. Once into a specific fly’s information page the professionals expand the information adding the when, where and how to use it and a list of other flies that are similar.

As if this isn’t already a lot of useful information there is an entire section on knots with the capability to search by name then view the demonstrations as animations, video, or step-by-step illustrations. You can also search for a specific purpose such as tying the line to the backing, the tippet to the leader, or wire to a fly. All of the recommended knots for that use are displayed so you can choose the one you’re most comfortable with. This is all information that is pretty hard to recall when you’re relatively new to the sport, sitting on a kayak in the middle of a river, racing to get that line back into the water.

The folks at Orvis went even farther to build the ultimate angler’s pocket guide by including updated Fishing Reports for a large number of waterways, and Podcasts from the pros and staff at Orvis.

Being from Kentucky I do feel the need to mention that our state is not listed in the regional maps. I’m sure if someone would step up to provide them with fishing reports they would get us listed. I’m going to contact them next week to learn more about this.

The OFF app costs $14.99 and is available for both I-Phone and Android platforms. Sweet? Oh, and upon registering they give you a $10.00 gift card to spend at the Orvis website bringing the cost down to $4.99 which in my point of view makes this app priceless!