Hand Health for Fly Anglers

Wade Well Tactical Performance Guide No. 04

In my recent article, The Most Neglected Tool in Fly Fishing, I made the case that our hands deserve far more attention than they typically receive. Every knot, cast, landed fish, oar stroke, and strip of fly line depends on them.

The great news is that caring for your hands doesn’t require any hour-long workouts or specialized equipment. A few intentional minutes each (or even just some) days can go a long way toward maintaining mobility, dexterity, tissue quality, and grip strength over the course of a lifetime.

1. Mobilize the joints

Healthy joints are meant to move, they’re meant to move frequently, and they’re meant to move through their full range of motion.

Pulling from my work as a Functional Range Conditioning Mobility Specialist, I recommend taking your wrists through slow, deliberate and controlled circles (Wrist CARs), and exploring as much comfortable range of motion as possible without forcing anything. Then move each finger individually, bending and straightening every joint while gently spreading the fingers apart before bringing them back together.

The goal isn’t intensity, it’s simply reminding every joint that it’s still designed to move, while also helping to maintain the movement of essential fluid throughout the entire joint system. A short daily session (this shouldn’t take you more than 2 minutes) is ideal, but getting them in periodically is always better than never at all.