September 19, 2025
By Fly Fisherman Staff
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Yvon Chouinard is a philanthropist, conservationist, climber, fly fisher, co-founder of 1% for the Planet, and founder of Patagonia. He has played a vital role in shaping the landscape of the entire outdoor community for over 40 years. He was named one of the “100 Most Influential People” by Time Magazine in 2023. He has authored numerous books such as Let My People Go Surfing, Simple Fly Fishing, and his latest book, Pheasant Tail Simplicity, co-authored with Craig Mathews, founder of Blue Ribbon Flies, and Italian angler Mauro Mazzo, is available in Octboer 2025. Chouinard finds clarity and a Zen-like perspective on tying flies that are simple in form, such as the Flymph, but are highly-effective with the proper technique and presentation.
“For me . . . perfection is achieved through simplicity, instead of complexity. If you can get your technique down to absolute simplicity by replacing all of that material with knowledge, it’s really satisfying...” –Yvon Chouinard
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Truncated transcript:
00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:58.410: Hi, I'm Ross Purnell, editor and publisher of Fly Fisherman magazine. Welcome to Loop to Loop, where we make deeper connections with the people behind the magazine. We're sponsored by Patagonia. Check out their new line of Swiftcurrent Waders. Both have zip front models. They've been redesigned and re-pattern so it doesn't just make 'em tougher, it makes them easier to repair and get you back on the water. And they work really well with the Stealth Switch Packs that you can convert and wear 'em different ways. You can wear 'em on your suspenders, you can of your waders, you can wear 'em on your wader belt or as a sling pack. So they work really cool together. Check those out.
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00:00:58.410 --> 00:01:21.180 : We're also sponsored by G. Loomis, American-made rods made in Woodland, Washington. I got started using those rods when I started fishing with my friend Steve Rajeff, and even today I am still using my Asquith, NRX Plus and IMX Pro rods for different fishing situations, different species. Absolutely love them.
00:01:21.180 --> 00:01:48.420 If you enjoy this podcast, you can support our sponsors. And you can support us by subscribing to Fly Fisherman magazine. Please support our sponsors, and you can support us by subscribing to the magazine. It's quick and easy. Go to flyfisherman.com. There's a little subscribe button in the top right-hand corner, and you can subscribe to the leading magazine of fly fishing. You can also follow us on social media. On Instagram, we are @flyfishermanmagazine, on Facebook @flyfisherman. And hopefully you are watching this podcast in its YouTube format on our YouTube channel it's @flyfisherman magazine. Please subscribe and follow us there.
00:01:48.420 --> 00:02:17.280: Our guest today is Yvon Chouinard. He's the founder of Patagonia, a co-founder of 1% for the Planet, the author of several books, including Let My People Go Surfing. And he's been a big influence on me personally in the ways I enjoy and participate in rock climbing, ice climbing and fly fishing. He's had a huge impact on the entire outdoor community and protecting the environment. And he's changed the ways many companies do business and treat their employees and our planet.
00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:33.420: About 10 years ago, he was co-author of the book, Simple Fly Fishing, and he's now co-author of the new book, Pheasant Tail Simplicity, which will be out in October, 2025. We'll talk a bunch about that book today. Welcome Yvon, and thanks for sitting down with me.
00:02:34.290 --> 00:03:00.635: Thank you. The book's beautiful, and I want to dig into that. Lots of great photos of fly tying materials. I, you know, we were just talking about Hungarian Partridge and stuff. Some of those capes are beautiful and I, I really want to dig into, dig into the book, but I, I would like to go further back first and cover some other topics.
00:03:00.635 --> 00:03:16.780: I, I think the first one that I'm most curious about is, recently Patagonia had a change in ownership, basically. Can you explain how the earth owns Patagonia now and how that how that works.
00:03:16.780 --> 00:03:40.780: Was, it's pretty complicated and we were one of the first companies in the US to do this 'cause the laws just changed to allow it. But we basically took all our voting stock and, and donated it to a nonprofit. And so we no longer own Patagonia.
00:03:43.000 --> 00:04:14.140: And, you know, some people think that it is a tax scheme to avoid paying death taxes or something, but no, we paid 18 million in taxes and, and now it's owned by the planet basically because all our excess profits every year goes to a dividend, which goes into Holdfast Foundation (Collective) and four other NGOs…
