Todd Moen travels the world to find some of the best fly-fishing destinations.

But don’t ask him how many fish he landed when he returns home to Sisters after one of his many trips.

Moen, 41, can more likely be found behind a video camera filming somebody else fishing, or in front of a computer editing his video and photos, than with a fly rod in hand.

“You know, I just don’t even go fishing that much … I hate to say it,” Moen says. “I’m watching a lot of fishing. When I’m traveling, it’s like, get there, get it done, and get out. I’m not able to stick around for a couple days and fish. It’s so funny, most people do think that I fish all the time.”

Moen, owner of the online Catch Magazine that features fly-fishing photos and videos, will show a selection of his films Saturday night in Bend as part of Confluence Fly Shop’s 2018 Trout Opener Celebration. The event, to be staged at the fly shop in the Old Mill District and at the nearby Hampton Inn, includes casting clinics, fly-tying demos and other activities to celebrate the start of trout fishing season in Central Oregon. (The Lower Deschutes from the northern boundary of the Warm Springs Reservation, near Maupin, upstream to Pelton Regulating Dam opens for trout and hatchery steelhead on April 22, and a few high Cascade lakes open for trout on that date as well.)

Moen’s videos will not feature any local locations, but he figures they will draw enough interest to whet the appetite of eager fly anglers.

Last November, Moen traveled to the Amazon in Brazil to capture footage of fly-fishing for peacock bass and araipama, among the world’s largest freshwater fish. Saturday’s presentation in Bend will feature highlights from that trip as well as videos of fishing for cutthroat trout in northern Idaho and rainbow trout on the upper Columbia River in Washington, among other footage from around the Pacific Northwest.

“It was pretty crazy,” Moen says of his trip down the Amazon. “We flew in on a floatplane, and then we got on this boat. It’s a live-aboard boat and it takes you 100 miles upstream to the headwaters of the Amazon River. That’s where these big peacock bass live. That was all top-water fishing so you’re stripping these big poppers across the surface and these bass just come up and just … they’re just super aggressive.”

The second part of the Amazon trip included fishing for arapaima, which can grow up to 400 pounds. The area where Moen was filming included caiman (similar to alligators) up to 18 feet long, he says.

“We were right in the middle of the Amazon,” Moen says. “And that’s where everything is alive and everything wants to eat ya. It’s unbelievable. The wildlife was amazing. You can see monkeys … just everything was alive.”

Catch Magazine is a bimonthly online publication, and each issue features a video of a fly-fishing destination. That means Moen must make at least six trips per year. He recently returned from Argentina, where he filmed fishing for sea trout. Last year, he traveled to the Australian island state of Tasmania while doing work for the Australian government agency Tourism Australia.

Moen started Catch Magazine 10 years ago with renowned Central Oregon fly fisherman and photographer Brian O’Keefe, whom Moen often films and who appears in the videos about the Amazon. The two still work together frequently, but Moen owns the magazine outright.

“It keeps me busy, and the fly-fishing industry is not super easy,” says Moen, who has a wife and two young children. “It’s such a small little niche industry, but we’re living. I’m not saving a whole lot of money, but it’s a good lifestyle and it’s healthy and I get to be outside — I can’t complain. I’ve been able to do some really cool stuff.”

Moen’s Catch Magazine YouTube channel boasts nearly 45,000 subscribers.

“That’s pretty good for the fly-fishing industry,” he says.

When he does find time to fish, Moen — a longtime Sisters resident — says he enjoys waters close to home, such as Suttle Lake and the Metolius River.

“I think for me it’s waiting until that snow finally melts off to where you can get up to the higher lakes,” he says. “We get excited about that.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0318,

mmorical@bendbulletin.com