Trout Fishing Blogs: 48 Fly and Spin Sites With Domain Rating and Last Post

Trout blogs are the opposite of most hobby niches: the problem is not that they are dead, it is that there are too many alive ones and no way to sort them. A guide's fishing report, a fly shop's river conditions page, a magazine and a one-person tenkara blog all rank for the same search and all look the same in a roundup.

On 11 September 2026 we opened all of them, kept the ones that publish about trout, and recorded a domain rating for each host and the newest date in each site's feed. The activity rate is the highest of any niche we have run this check on: 34 of the 41 sites that expose a feed had posted in the previous 90 days.

How the list was checked

Eleven searches across trout, fly fishing and tenkara produced 109 unique domains. Sixty one were dropped after loading: tackle retailers with no writing, a rafting company, a boating-licence course, three fly-tying supply shops, a Russian-language fly fishing site, a German trout-stocking outfit and the general-fishing forums. Forty eight remained.

The three checks were run on the same afternoon. Homepage loaded with a browser user agent and the title kept. Ahrefs domain rating looked up for the host. Feed requested and the newest date recorded. Forty one sites gave a date, which is the highest feed coverage we have seen: fly fishing is a WordPress niche and almost everyone has left the feed switched on.

Three sites served a bot challenge to MentionAgent's crawler. We opened Troutbitten in a real browser and read its feed by hand, so it carries a date. Rivers and Feathers and The Fly Fishing Basics were not re-checked that way and are marked Blocked to our crawler, with their ratings intact.

Technique blogs and the writers

Troutbitten (troutbitten.com, DR 39) is Domenick Swentosky writing about wild trout in central Pennsylvania, with a podcast and a guide service attached, and it is the site most other trout blogs link to. Its feed showed a post from 9 September 2026 when we opened it in a browser.

Gink and Gasoline (ginkandgasoline.com, DR 48) posted on the day we checked. Troutnut (troutnut.com, DR 43) is a hatch and aquatic-insect reference from a trout biologist, and publishes without a feed. Trout & Feather (troutandfeather.com, DR 36) is Tim Cammisa's instruction and gear site, also without a readable feed.

Jeff Currier (jeffcurrier.com, DR 38, 8 Sep 2026) writes a global fly fishing diary. The Venturing Angler (venturingangler.com, DR 32) covers travel and gear and posted 10 Sep 2026. Troutrageous! (troutrageous.com, DR 22) is the long-running trout, tenkara and pop-culture blog, last post 23 Aug 2026.

The small personal blogs are where the writing is most alive: The Fiberglass Manifesto (thefiberglassmanifesto.com, DR 7, 10 Sep 2026), Due West (duewestanglers.com, DR 5, fly fishing, conservation and science), Dave Weller (wellerfish.me), The Urban Fly Fisher (urbanflyfisher.com, a satirical take on fishing dirty water) and The Trout Bandit (thetroutbandit.com, DR 4.3), which at 4.3 is the lowest-rated site here and currently sits at position four on Google for this exact search. Authority is not what ranks in this niche.

Fly shops and guide services that publish

A fly shop's blog is a river report, and river reports are dated by nature, which is why so much of this list is current. They are also, for anyone pitching, the sites most likely to run a gear mention because gear is what they sell.

Headhunters (headhuntersflyshop.com, DR 40, Missouri River, 10 Sep 2026), Anglers Covey (anglerscovey.com, DR 42, Colorado Springs), Murray's Fly Shop (murraysflyshop.com, DR 36, Virginia), Kirk's Flyshop (kirksflyshop.com, DR 33, Estes Park) and the Caddis Fly Shop (oregonflyfishingblog.com, DR 28, McKenzie River) all carry recent dates.

Among the guides: About Trout (abouttrout.com, DR 29, San Juan River), Pat Dorsey (patdorseyflyfishing.com, DR 25, Colorado guide and author), Georgia Wild Trout (georgiawildtrout.com), R and R Fly Fishing (randrflyfishing.com, Smokies), The Trout Zone (thetroutzone.com, east Tennessee), Montana Fishing Guides (montanafishingguides.com), Montana Trout Outfitters (mttroutguides.com) and Mainely Fly Fishing (mainelyflyfishing.com). Every one of them posted in the summer of 2026.

Magazines, organisations and the tenkara corner

Trout Unlimited (tu.org, DR 76) is the strongest domain in the set and its blog posted 10 Sep 2026. Fly Fisherman (flyfisherman.com, DR 62) is the magazine of record and exposes no feed. Flylords (flylordsmag.com, DR 60), Hatch Magazine (hatchmag.com, DR 54), The Drake (drakemag.com, DR 50) and MidCurrent (midcurrent.com, DR 57) are the digital titles, all dated within the year.

Tenkara has its own small press. Tenkara Angler (tenkaraangler.com, DR 38) is the community magazine and posted 31 Aug 2026. TenkaraTalk (tenkaratalk.com, DR 32) is the blog and podcast, last dated 12 Jul 2024. TenkaraBum (tenkarabum.com, DR 32) is a rod shop whose writing is more reference than blog.

Two sites are included with a caveat about the fish. Louisiana Fishing Blog (lafishblog.com, DR 18) is about speckled sea trout, a different species that shares the search term, and Bow River Blog (bowriverblog.com, DR 15) is a spin-fishing resource on a river most people fly fish. Both rank for trout searches, so both are here.

What the ratings say about this niche

Median DR here is 27.5, with 21 sites at 24 or below and only three at 60 or above (Trout Unlimited, Fly Fisherman and Flylords). That is a flat, open field. Page one of Google for this search currently holds Troutbitten at 39, Trout & Feather at 36, The Trout Bandit at 4.3, Native Trout Fly Fishing at 7 and The Current Angler at 8, which is about as clear a demonstration as exists that a trout blog ranks on being about trout, not on links. Domain Rating is included so you can see which sites have an audience, not so you can chase the biggest number.

Pitching a trout blog or fly shop

Fly shops will consider a gear mention because gear is their business; a technique blog will not, and a guide's report will only ever be about the river. Match the ask to the site type before writing anything.

Reports are dated, so a shop that has not posted in six weeks is closed for the season or closed for good; the table tells you which shops are writing this month. The angler-run blogs answer to people who fish and to nothing else, and a pitch that names a specific post they wrote does far better than one that names their category. Link outreach covers the mechanics; if you would rather the prospecting and the first email ran without you, MentionAgent's outreach agent handles that part and leaves you the reply.

The full table, with domain rating and last post

Ordered by the newest post we could read. The five sites without a readable feed and the two blocked ones follow, by domain rating. Ratings pulled on 11 September 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best trout fishing blogs?

Troutbitten (DR 39) for wild-trout technique, Gink and Gasoline (DR 48) for stories and photography, and Troutnut (DR 43) for hatch knowledge. All three were live on 11 September 2026 and Troutbitten and Gink and Gasoline had posted that week.

Are trout fishing blogs still active?

More than any niche we have checked. Of the 41 sites in this list that expose a feed, 34 had published in the 90 days before 11 September 2026. Fly shops and guides post river reports through the season, which keeps the whole niche current.

Does this list cover spin fishing for trout?

Mostly no; the writing in this niche is overwhelmingly fly fishing. Bow River Blog is the one spin-fishing resource included, and Louisiana Fishing Blog is about speckled sea trout, which is a different fish that shares the search term.

Why is a DR 4 blog on page one for this search?

Because trout blogs rank on being about trout. The Trout Bandit (DR 4.3) and Native Trout Fly Fishing (DR 7) both sit on page one of Google for "trout fishing blogs" ahead of sites ten times stronger. Domain Rating measures links, not relevance, and in this niche relevance wins.

How were the dates found?

From each site's own RSS or Atom feed on 11 September 2026. Five sites expose no feed and are marked as such. Three sites served our crawler a bot challenge; Troutbitten was re-checked by hand in a browser and carries a date, the other two are marked "Blocked to our crawler".

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