From pleasant farm ponds to hidden mountain streams to huge saltwater, from largemouth bass to native brook trout to stripers, Virginia is for anglers. However like so many nice American pastimes, fishing has fallen on laborious occasions. For generations, youngsters spent their summers with a fishing pole in a single hand and a sort out field within the different; right this moment, too a lot of them—and us—are glued to smartphones and social media.
Prepared to vary all that?
On January 9 and 10, 2026, the 25th Annual Virginia Fly Fishing & Wine Competition will draw attendees from all through the Commonwealth and Mid-Atlantic in addition to from Ohio, Georgia, South Carolina, New York, and even Vermont. Held on the Meadow Occasion Park, simply 15 miles north of Richmond on the positioning of the state fairgrounds, the Virginia Fly & Wine is the primary occasion of its type to mix fly fishing and wine tasting. Fly fishing producers, lodges, guides, artists, fly tyers, wineries, distilleries, and specialty meals firms are among the many greater than 100 distributors who hail from everywhere in the nation.
All Talent Ranges Welcome
The Virginia Fly & Wine is for novices and skilled anglers alike. “Right this moment, many individuals have by no means fished earlier than,” says pageant director Beau Beasley, creator of Therapeutic Waters: Veterans’ Tales of Restoration in Their Personal Phrases. “They’ve actually by no means thought-about selecting up a fly rod. We work laborious to demystify the quiet sport of fly fishing. Many novices are too intimidated by their conception of fly fishing and fly tying to even give them a strive. I can relate: I felt precisely the identical manner earlier than somebody took the time to introduce me to the game. On the Virginia Fly & Wine, we have now scoured the nation to convey collectively the consultants—the welcoming, approachable consultants—who make fly fishing easy and rewarding for anglers of each stage.”
Get Ideas from the Specialists
One such angling skilled is Wanda Taylor, who labored as a fly-fishing information for a few years, and was the primary feminine Grasp Licensed Casting Teacher with Fly Fishers Worldwide. Fly Fishing is like all the pieces else,” insists Taylor, who’s keen about bringing others into the game and sharing her information with others. “When you study some primary expertise, it’s not laborious in any respect.” Taylor ought to know, she is likely one of the finest fly casters within the nation.
Taylor is one in every of a number of acclaimed instructors heading up the 2026 Past the Forged Ladies’s Fly Fishing Symposium, the Virginia Fly & Wine’s well-liked show-within-a-show taught by and for ladies and sponsored by Miss Mayfly, a girls owned wader firm primarily based in Virginia. In 2026, Past the Forged will likely be held in Meadow Corridor Mansion on the pageant grounds. Past the Forged will kick off with a girls’s wine-and-fly-tying mixer on Thursday evening, January 8, from 6:00 to eight p.m.; symposium programming continues on Friday, January 9, from 8:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. and covers quite a few subjects of curiosity to outside girls of any angling ability stage. This symposium additionally features a catered lunch, and girls enterprise proprietor’s panel dialogue.
New this yr is a Grasp Anglers Class. This specialty class with restricted seating for less than eight college students will likely be held at Meadow Corridor Mansion on Thursday from 8:00-4:00. College students will get one on one instruction with each creator Tom Rosenbauer and Captain Bruce Chard. Matters embrace Constructing your individual Chief, How To Battle & Land Massive Fish, Studying the Waters and different subjects. The category contains catered lunch and is capped off with a bourbon tasting from Hilltop Distillery.
One thing for Everybody
Whether or not you’re a novice or an skilled angler hoping to stage up, the Virginia Fly & Wine has one thing for everybody. Fly fishing legend Tom Rosenbauer will educate lessons on studying the water and matching the hatch. Captain Bruce Chard, Josh Miller. Wanda Taylor, Ian & Charity Rutter, Captain Gary Dubiel, Beau Beasley, and lots of extra will educate specialty lessons on all the pieces from fly tying to casting to fishing for crimson drum in saltwater. New in 2026 are lessons that mix fly fishing subjects with wine and bourbon tasting. In all, greater than two dozen instructors will educate greater than 50 lessons, most of that are included with pageant admission.
Fish and Sip!
For many who merely love somebody else who fishes, ten of the Commonwealth’s finest wineries will likely be on the 2026 Virginia Fly & Wine, together with 4 Virginia distilleries. Better of all, tastings are included in pageant admission (for patrons 21 years and older). Landlubbers may also get pleasure from trying out specialty meals distributors, artists, and jewelers.
Competition attendees also can enter a drawing to win every week’s fishing with Wesley Hodges Fly Fishing on the New River. This journey of a lifetime contains all meals, skilled guiding, and lodging. Different Virginia Fly & Wine sponsors embrace the, Shenk Capital Administration, Harman’s North Fork Cottages, Norvise, TrailHead Artistic, and Trout Limitless.
Click on right here to study extra in regards to the 2026 Virginia Fly Fishing & Wine Competition.
