Tail Fly Fishing Magazine is the only international magazine (21 countries and counting) devoted exclusively to saltwater fly fishing, its culture, and the outdoor lifestyle. We’re always looking for great content. We want to see your best stuff—and so do our readers. Your submissions should reflect the fact that we focus exclusively on saltwater fly fishing (with a strong emphasis on conservation and the environment). Our readers want useful, accurate, and entertaining articles—whether they’re about a particular species or fishery, flies or fly tying, tackle or technique, or an angling destination. We’ll also consider articles that are outside the box—as long as there’s a connection to saltwater fly fishing, conservation, or the environment. We strongly suggest you study several recent issues before submitting (back issues available for purchase from our online shop tailflyshop.com).

Features and Short Features

As a rule, feature articles should run between 2,000 and 2,500 words, although we’ll consider longer pieces on an individual basis. Short features should run about 1,000 to 1,500 words. Recent features include “Flying High for a Tarpon” (Joe Doggett’s humorous remembrance of the Costa Rican tarpon fishery of the early 1980s), “Man Eater” (Tom King’s look at the circumstances leading up to Massachusetts’ first fatal shark attack in 83 years), and “Homer Rhode Jr.” (Ed Mitchell’s historical profile of one of saltwater fly fishing’s pioneers).

Fly Tying

Each issue contains a step-by-step fly tying feature. We’re focused on giving our readers accessible fly patterns and solid fly tying instruction that’s going to make them better tiers and more successful anglers. We consider the stories that complement a particular fly pattern as important as the instructional portion—so include a thorough introduction.

The Undertow (formerly An Angler Opines)

Have an opinion related to saltwater fly fishing, conservation, or the environment? We’ll give you the soapbox to share it with your fellow fly anglers.

Inside the Box

Show and tell for the imitation arsenal.
If you have a nicely dressed fly box or a set of flies that have a particular story, let us know.

The remainder of our columns – Gear Guide, On the Plate, and our libations feature – are primarily staff written.
However, if you think you can do a stellar job with one of them, send us a sample.

Submissions

Submit articles to:
Joseph Ballarini (ballarini@tailflyfishing.com)
George Roberts (roberts@tailflyfishing.com)
Trey Reid (3reid@tailflyfishing.com)

Formatting

Articles should be formatted, preferably, in Mac or iOS Pages; Microsoft Word is also acceptable. Do not use any special formatting within the article itself—it only makes more work for us. Use single-spaced black text only with a space between paragraphs—the way these Submission Guidelines are formatted. PDF submissions will not be considered.

Do not insert accompanying images into the text where you think they should go. Give all images an appropriate name (Figure 01, Figure 02, etc.) and indicate in the text where they belong. If the figures require captions, include them in a list at the end of the article. Attach accompanying images to the submission email or share via Dropbox or Google Drive.

Each submission should include complete author contact information—name, mailing address, telephone number, email address, and website address (if applicable) at the beginning of each article. Be sure to include a short author biography at the end of the article so our readers can get a sense of who you are. Include all contact information in the bio that you wish to share with readers.

Photos

Article submissions should include relevant photographs; all photos must be high-quality digital photos in 300 dpi, full size, either in JPG, RAW, TIFF or CR2 format. If you have a great article but do not have appropriate photos to include, we’ll try to work with you to provide them. If you aren’t sure, send us a sample image for evaluation.

Share files to:
admin@tailflyfishing.com or flyboss@flyfishbonehead.com

Acceptance

After you submit your article, you’ll hear back from us shortly either way. A tightly-written, reader-centered article has an excellent chance to see print. Our workload prevents us from critiquing articles we don’t accept.

TFFM reserves the right to edit all submissions for grammar, style, and content, and to use or not use your photographs, at our discretion.

Payment

Payment is contingent upon the quality of the article and the accompanying photos. Needless to say, we’ll pay more for a well-polished article accompanied by great photos than we will for a piece without photos that’s going to require a substantial amount of editing.

We’ll include your contact information and website in your biography as a thank you and free promotion/benefit.

We are NOT interested in publishing shameless promotion or thinly-veiled advertising, so please do not waste your time. Any article you submit should be relevant, engaging, and needs to stand on its own merits.

Payments are generally made within 45 days of publication by check.