The John D. Voelker Foundation and the American Museum of Fly Fishing (AMFF) are pleased to announce the winner of the 2025 Robert Traver Fly-Fishing Writing Award: “Oncorhynchus” by Joseph Jackson. This is a touching story of man on a quest to catch a king salmon and choose a name for his soon-to-be born daughter while contemplating his future as a father.
The winning entry will receive a $2,500 prize and will be published in the Winter 2026 edition of the American Fly Fisher, the journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing. It will also be published in an upcoming anthology of Traver Award stories since 2008, which will be available from Stackpole Books.
Joseph Jackson is a social studies teacher and outdoor writer in Alaska. He is the author of two books of outdoor essays, It’s Only Fishing (2023) and Chasing the Dark (2024), and his writing and photography have appeared in numerous magazines. When he’s not getting up early to chase rainbow trout or king salmon or hunt ptarmigan with his wife, Emmie, he’s learning how to be a father to the world’s next greatest fly fisherwoman. Mr. Jackson won Honorable Mention in the 2024 Traver Award contest with his story “How to Say Gila.”
Mr. Jackson commented, “I endeavor to find words for everything, but here they fail me. I am deeply, deeply honored to join the echelon of Traver Award winners. It was a Robert Traver story, actually—“The Intruder”—that got me hooked on fly fishing writing in the first place, so this whole thing feels like a wonderful circuit has been completed. My heart is very full.”
Read the winning story by clicking the title below.
The 2025 competition drew a field of 118 stories and essays. Entries were judged anonymously, resulting in seven finalists. In addition to the winner, judges bestowed honorable mention recognition on three entries:
The other three finalists were:
“The Fish Counter’s Daughter” by Lucas Cunningham of Chicago, Illinois
“The First Day of the Year” by Julie Zapoli of Maple City, Michigan
“Conflagration” by Jon Tobey of Duvall, Washington