Fly fishing is so much more than 1990s Brad Pitt standing in a sparkling river looking winsome in waders.
Fly fishing, referred to as “the quiet sport,” is a culture unto itself that has nothing to do with Hollywood and everything to do with stunning landscapes and a love of community. Oh, and trout.
Fly fishing is angling shops filled with enthusiasts who want nothing more than to be with each other discussing the best local fishing spots and the latest feature in Trout Unlimited magazine.
It’s seminars where devotees gather to learn how to make their own fake bugs around a tiny hook—an endeavor involving vises, pliers, single hairs from animal pelts and a working knowledge of every contour of the insects a trout might want to eat.
Fly fishing is fly shop dogs, usually Labrador retrievers or hunting dogs named after fabled waterways, that sleep under racks of fishing poles or SPF 50 shirts in muted tones (you mustn’t wear loud colors or it scares the fish).
But mostly, fly fishing is a constant need to plan the next trip to a cool stream with all your gear, and if you’re lucky, your buddies.
Richard Farino, owner of District Angling in Arlington, feels all of this in his bones.
From Tuesday through Saturday every week, he holds court in his Cherrydale shop, which attracts area fly fishers like a powerful magnet. Even in the middle of a weekday, regulars stop in on their lunch breaks or sneak away while working from home. On Fridays in summertime, they come for social gatherings from 5 to 7 p.m.
Sam Mikell, an assistant director at the University of Maryland Global Campus, has been fly fishing for three years and is now a self-described District Angling “shop rat.”
“I swing by the shop even if I don’t need anything, just to say hello,” says Mikell, adding that she learns just as much from her conversations at the store as she does from seminars and books, like fly tying tricks and local places where the fish are biting. She loves Farino’s two dogs, Madison and Luca.
Farino, 50, worked for a fly fishing retailer in Manhattan before coming to the D.C. area in 2008 to open up someone else’s fishing shop. In 2017, he decided to open his own place on Langston Boulevard. Turns out the majority of the former shop’s customers were Northern Virginians who lived inside the Beltway.
According to the American Fly Fishing Trade Association, fly fishers in the U.S. grew to 8 million in 2023, and each of those folks goes fly fishing an average of 11 times a year. That’s a lot of fishing that needs to be discussed at the store.
Traditionally, older men have made up the sport’s core demographic, Farino says. His mission is to bring the joys of fly fishing to younger generations, including women. He works with Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts on getting their fishing badges. He likes to hire young people.
Farino offers a free fake fly-making (referred to as fly tying) seminar at the back of the shop every other Saturday. To get the uninitiated up to speed, he also hosts intensive two-day bootcamps about 10 times a year, during which he explains—among other things—how to take pictures so your fish look huge.
Then he takes the group fishing along Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah Valley against sweeping mountain views. “Trout don’t live in ugly places,” he says.