WRITTEN BY Free Fly Staff
We’ve teamed up with the incredible folks over at Trout Unlimited on an exclusive run of sun hoodies featuring a custom rainbow trout design. We’re proud to partner with this legendary nonprofit org that’s been protecting and restoring coldwater fisheries, along with the wild and native fish that call them home, since 1959. And with a shared mission of protecting our waters for future generations, everything about this collab just feels right.
The artwork features a rainbow trout painted by Taos-based angler and artist Sophia Smith. A portion of the proceeds from this limited-edition drop will be donated directly to Trout Unlimited to support their ongoing conservation efforts. Each hoodie ALSO includes a one-year Trout Unlimited Membership—netting you an annual subscription to TROUT Magazine, membership in your local TU chapter, and the knowledge you’re helping protect and restore our nation's coldwater fisheries.
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With Every Hoodie Purchase:
A Shared Mission
Here at Free Fly, we aim to protect our wild places, while making way for the next wave of water seekers. And for over 65 years, Trout Unlimited has been at the forefront of science-based coldwater conservation—caring for our rivers and mobilizing thousands of anglers, conservationists, and volunteers to be champions for their rivers and streams—from their backyards to our nation's most cherished places, like Bristol Bay in Alaska to the Kennebec in Maine and everywhere in between. All so the next generation can experience cold, clean, healthy rivers and the joys of wild and native trout and salmon.
Meet the Artist: Sophia Smith
Sophia’s inspiration behind her trout artwork stems from a long lineage of fly fishing in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Surrounded by granite peaks and pine forests, she grew to love the colorful variations that each individual trout presented with each cast. Growing up practicing art, she found a medium, in addition to fishing, where she could capture the individual beauty of each species and their variations between streams, lakes, and even states, as life took her across the country.
While art has always been a part of Sophia’s life and exploration, her true passion resides in fly fishing and the intersections of the sport and natural resource conservation. For her, and many others, the more you learn about fish and how to catch them, the more in tune you become with your natural surroundings and the world around you.
Most recently, she has extended her conservation efforts to volunteering with her local TU chapter, the Enchanted Circle Chapter in Taos, NM, working as a fly fishing guide for the Taos Fly shop, and partnering with the other environmental nonprofits such as Friends of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument to conserve the natural environment and the trout that reside within. She hopes this native trout species collaboration with Free Fly and Trout Unlimited will help bring to light the beauty and critical nature of protecting each of these species.
About Trout Unlimited
Trout Unlimited is the nation’s leading conservation organization working to care for and recover rivers and streams and their trout and salmon populations. They bring people together across the country to be champions for their rivers and help make our water cleaner and our communities healthier. 
Ennis, MT | Photography by Free Fly Ambassador, angler, and photographer, Jackson Bland (@troutcowboy)
Photo of Sophia by @thomasjdoerr
