Contents

Prepared: August 27, 2026
Phase: 1 — Foundation
Calendar period: September 2026 → August 2027
Cadence: 3 posts/month · 36 posts total
Publishing day: Tuesdays (all dates below verified as Tuesdays)
Destination: /journal/{slug} — see Site Architecture Review.md §3.2

📅 Week 0 = the week of Monday, August 31, 2026

This is the shared anchor between this calendar and Site Architecture Review.md §7. Every week number in either document resolves against it. If either document re-times, both must be re-checked together.

Week	Week beginning	Migration milestone	Publishing consequence
Week 0	Aug 31, 2026	Phase 0 — baseline only	Nothing publishes
Weeks 1–2	Sep 7 / Sep 14	/journal + 4 category pages live Fri Sep 18	Nothing publishes — there is nowhere to publish to
Weeks 3–4	Sep 21 / Sep 28	Nav restructure, URLs frozen	Posts #1 and #2
Week 5	Oct 5	Tranche A	Post #3
Week 6	Oct 12	Tranche A2 — /method goes live	Post #4
Weeks 7–8	Oct 19 / Oct 26	Tranche B	Post #5 (cornerstone), Post #6
Week 9	Nov 2	Tranche C — /castinglessons	Post #7
Week 10	Nov 9	Tranche D — /guidedtrips, last	Post #8

Two corrections this anchor forced, both applied below:
1. Post #1 moved from Tue Sep 1 → Tue Sep 22, 2026. /journal does not exist until Fri Sep 18. Publishing on Sep 1 meant publishing to a URL that had not been built. September now carries two posts, not three — which is what Site Architecture Review.md Phase 1.7 always said ("publish the first 2 posts"). Posts #2 and #3 shift with it; October absorbs the third slot and carries four. The Q1 total is unchanged at 9 posts.
2. The cornerstone (#5) keeps its Tue Oct 20 date, because /method was pulled forward. /method previously landed in Tranche D (Week 9, early November) — two weeks after the post that names it as a hard dependency. It now ships in Tranche A2, week of Oct 12, ahead of the post. See Site Architecture Review.md §7.

Interim internal-link rule. Posts #1–#4 publish before or during the /method migration. They must link the Method hub as /about-the-science — its live URL at the time — not /method. The Phase 4.2 internal-link sweep in Site Architecture Review.md rewrites those anchors after the 301 lands. Do not publish a link to a URL that does not yet resolve.

Note on inputs: This calendar was drafted before Keyword Research.md was available and has since been reconciled against it — see §9 for the pillar-to-cluster mapping, the six keyword adjustments to apply at drafting time, and the page dependencies that must ship before posting begins. Competition tiers in §4 are strategic estimates; where Keyword Research.md gives a difficulty score, that document wins. The pillar structure, sequencing, and seasonal timing are unchanged — those are driven by the fishing calendar and the sales calendar, not by volume.

1. STRATEGY SUMMARY

The problem this calendar solves

Trout Psychology's most valuable asset — the Method — currently lives in Kristen's head and in Instagram reels that vanish from the feed in 48 hours. There is no durable, indexable, citable version of it. Meanwhile Red's Fly Shop owns the Yakima content space regionally and Orvis owns "how to learn fly fishing" nationally.

This calendar does three jobs simultaneously:

1. Builds the authority corpus. Nine Method posts over twelve months, all pointing at /method, that make the behavior-analytic argument in public, in text, in a form Google and AI answer engines can quote.
2. Contests local search. Nine Yakima/central-WA posts that establish the site as a legitimate Yakima River authority — the beachhead against Red's.
3. Sells the right product in the right month. Every post carries a CTA aimed at whatever is actually purchasable that week. Streamer trips in fall, virtual lessons and gift certificates in winter, guided days in booking season, retreats in early summer.

Why 3 posts/month and not 4

A two-instructor guiding business publishing four posts a month during peak season will miss weeks and quietly stop. Three is achievable, hits 36 posts (enough to build genuine cluster depth in four pillars), and leaves a fourth slot free each month for a timely piece — a hatch report, a flow event, a podcast appearance — without breaking the plan. Consistency beats volume for topical authority. If capacity turns out to be higher, add the fourth slot as reactive/timely content rather than adding a fifth evergreen post.

The differentiator to press in every single post

No competitor in fly fishing education is running credentialed behavior-analytic pedagogy. Red's has more content; Orvis has more authority. Neither can write these posts. Every piece below should contain at least one paragraph that only Trout Psychology could have written — the why behind the behavior, stated in the language of learning theory. That is the moat, and it is what makes the content citable rather than merely present.

Expected outcomes by quarter

Seasonality logic

Timing rule: hatch-and-season posts publish 2–4 weeks before the window opens, so they are indexed and ranking when people search. The Skwala post goes out Feb 23 for a hatch that starts in March. The gift post goes out Dec 15, not Dec 22.

2. CONTENT PILLARS

Pillar 1 — The Trout Psychology Method 🧠

The authority engine. This is the pillar the whole engagement exists for.

Pillar 2 — The Yakima & Central Washington 🏞️

The local SEO beachhead.

Pillar 3 — Technique & Craft 🎣

The proof-of-competence pillar. Split by instructor specialty.

Pillar 4 — The Human Side 💬

The differentiation pillar. The one nobody else in this space will touch honestly.

3. MASTER SCHEDULE — AT A GLANCE

⭐ = cornerstone post (2,800–3,000 words, quarterly refresh, priority internal linking)

Pillar balance: 🧠 Method 9 · 🏞️ Yakima 9 · 🎣 Technique 9 · 💬 Human 9
Funnel balance: TOFU 13 · MOFU 16 · BOFU 7
Total words for the year: ~65,700

4. THE CALENDAR IN DETAIL

Competition tiers are strategic estimates pending Keyword Research.md: Low = few or no direct competitors ranking · Med = national fly fishing publishers ranking · High = Red's Fly Shop or Orvis holding position 1–3.

🍂 SEPTEMBER 2026 — Prime streamer season opens · 2 posts (launch month)

Sales focus: streamer trips · Streamer Stomp · late-season guided days
Month's job: show up hard at the start of the best fishing of the year, and establish the Method voice from post one.

⚠️ September carries two posts, not three. /journal and its four category pages do not go live until Fri Sep 18, 2026 (Site Architecture Review.md §7, Phase 1.7 — which has always specified "publish the first 2 posts"). That leaves two Tuesdays in the month. The third September slot moves to October, which carries four. Q1 still totals 9 posts. Do not try to recover the slot by publishing before Sep 18.

1 · Why Trout Eat Streamers in the Fall: The Behavioral Science of the Aggression Window

2 · The Yakima Flip-Flop: What September's Flow Drop Does to the Fish

🎃 OCTOBER 2026 — Peak streamer, October caddis · 4 posts

Sales focus: streamer trips · Streamer Stomp · private education
Month's job: publish the cornerstone Method post while traffic is at its seasonal peak.

📌 October absorbs the September slot and runs four posts: #3 (Oct 6), #4 (Oct 13), #5 cornerstone (Oct 20), #6 (Oct 27). This is a deliberate one-month exception to the 3-per-month cadence, caused by the launch ramp, not a change of cadence.

/method is live from the week of Oct 12 (Tranche A2). Post #5 on Oct 20 therefore publishes after its dependency, not before it. Posts #3 and #4 still predate the migration — they link the hub as /about-the-science.

3 · Streamer Retrieves That Trigger a Chase: Five Presentations and When to Use Each

4 · Fly Fishing and the Nervous System: What Actually Happens to You on the Water

5 · ⭐ The Trout Psychology Method, Explained: Behavior Analysis for Anglers

6 · October Caddis on the Yakima: The Big Orange Bug and Why the Fish Commit

🌧️ NOVEMBER 2026 — Late streamer, transition, gift season opens

Sales focus: late streamer days · virtual lessons (warm-up) · gift certificates
Month's job: begin the pivot from on-water selling to off-season product.

7 · Cold Water, Slow Strip: Adjusting Streamer Tactics as Temps Drop

8 · Women in Fly Fishing: What the Sport Still Gets Wrong, and What Actually Helps

9 · River Journaling: The Habit That Turns a Good Day Into a Repeatable One

❄️ DECEMBER 2026 — Gifts, planning, the virtual pivot

Sales focus: gift certificates · virtual casting lessons · 2027 deposits
Month's job: convert an audience that cannot fish into an audience that buys instruction.

10 · Winter on the Yakima: What's Actually Fishable from December to February

11 · Fix Your Cast Indoors: Five Off-Season Drills You Can Do in a Hallway

12 · The Gift That Isn't Gear: Why Instruction Beats Another Rod

🗓️ JANUARY 2027 — The planning window

Sales focus: virtual casting lessons · 2027 trip planning and deposits
Month's job: own "how do I get better before spring" and publish the local cornerstone.

13 · How We Break a Cast Into Pieces: Task Analysis and Shaping for Anglers

14 · ⭐ A Yakima River Season: The Month-by-Month Guide to Central Washington's Blue-Ribbon Water

15 · Reading Water in the Off-Season: How to Study a River From Your Couch

🌱 FEBRUARY 2027 — Booking opens, first dry flies

Sales focus: private education · schools · March/April trip bookings
Month's job: capture booking-season research and publish the most differentiated post on the calendar.

16 · Neurodivergent-Friendly Fly Fishing Instruction: What It Looks Like and Why It Works

17 · Trout Are Not Smart, They Are Conditioned: What "Selective" Really Means

18 · Skwala Season on the Yakima: The First Dry Fly Window of the Year

🌸 MARCH 2027 — Peak booking season

Sales focus: guided trips · casting camp · schools
Month's job: convert. Every post this month has a booking-adjacent CTA.

19 · March Browns and the Art of the Drag-Free Drift

20 · What a 3:1 Ratio Actually Buys You

21 · Positive Reinforcement on the River: Why Getting Yelled At Never Taught Anyone to Cast

🌷 APRIL 2027 — Booking peak, spring hatches

Sales focus: guided trips · casting camp
Month's job: hold booking momentum and catch beginner intent.

22 · Spring on the Yakima: Hatches, Flows, and Where to Be in April and May

23 · Your First Ten Casts: A Beginner's Checklist That Prevents Bad Habits

24 · Bringing a Friend Who Has Never Fished: How Not to Ruin It for Them

🌊 MAY 2027 — Runoff and retreats

Sales focus: guided trips (runoff expertise sells guides) · group retreats · schools
Month's job: turn the year's hardest water conditions into a demonstration of why guiding is worth paying for.

25 · Fishing Through Runoff: Making Decisions When the River Won't Cooperate

26 · Mother's Day Caddis on the Yakima: The Hatch Everyone Talks About and Half of Us Miss

27 · Runoff Is Secretly Streamer Season

☀️ JUNE 2027 — Post-runoff, retreat season

Sales focus: group retreats · private education · dry fly trips
Month's job: sell the highest-ticket immersive products while the river is at its most generous.

28 · Three Days on the Water Changes People: What Actually Happens at an Immersive Retreat

29 · ⭐ Strategy Blueprints: How to Solve a River You've Never Fished

30 · Summer Flows on the Yakima: Fishing a Tailwater at 3,000 CFS

🌾 JULY 2027 — Hoppers, heat, ethics

Sales focus: dry fly trips · group retreats · schools
Month's job: own terrestrial season and publish the year's most linkable ethics piece.

31 · Hopper Fishing Is Not About the Hopper: Presentation, Angles, and the Splat

32 · Fishing in the Heat: Water Temps, Trout Stress, and Knowing When to Stop

33 · The Refusal: What a Trout Is Telling You When It Rises and Turns Away

🌾 AUGUST 2027 — Low water, and the turn toward fall

Sales focus: late-summer guided days · Streamer Stomp and fall streamer trips (pre-sell)
Month's job: finish the technical clusters and hand off cleanly into year two.

34 · Low and Clear: Fishing the Yakima in Late Summer Without Spooking Everything

35 · Tippet, Leader, and the 90% of Refusals Nobody Blames

36 · Why Fall Is the Best Time to Learn Something Hard

5. INTERNAL LINKING MAP

5.1 Cluster structure

Every post links up to its pillar hub, across to 2–3 siblings, and out to one service page. No orphans, ever.

                        ┌──────────────────┐
                        │     /method      │ ← every post, every pillar
                        └────────┬─────────┘
        ┌────────────────┬───────┴────────┬────────────────┐
        ▼                ▼                ▼                ▼
┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐
│ 🧠 METHOD    │ │ 🏞️ YAKIMA    │ │ 🎣 TECHNIQUE │ │ 💬 HUMAN     │
│ hub: /method │ │ hub: /trips/ │ │ hubs: trips/ │ │ hubs: method/│
│              │ │ yakima-...   │ │ streamer +   │ │ neurodiv. +  │
│              │ │              │ │ dry-fly      │ │ retreats     │
│ ⭐ #5  #29   │ │ ⭐ #14       │ │ #3 #7 #11    │ │ #4 #8 #12    │
│ #1 #9 #13    │ │ #2 #6 #10    │ │ #15 #19 #23  │ │ #16 #20 #24  │
│ #17 #21 #25  │ │ #18 #22 #26  │ │ #27 #31 #35  │ │ #28 #32 #36  │
│ #33          │ │ #30 #34      │ │              │ │              │
└──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘

5.2 Cornerstone posts and their feeders

Each cornerstone links down to every feeder. Each feeder links up to its cornerstone. Refresh cornerstones quarterly and re-promote after each refresh.

5.3 Post → service page link targets

Bold = the post's primary CTA target.

5.4 Reverse links — service pages → posts

Every service page should carry a "From the Journal" block with 2–3 posts, refreshed quarterly:

5.5 Anchor text discipline

Rotate naturally; never use bare "click here" or "read more."

6. REPURPOSING SYSTEM

Each post feeds three channels on a fixed schedule. This is not optional extra work — Instagram is currently the strongest brand asset and the blog needs it as a distribution engine while organic rankings build.

The rule that makes this work: the blog post is written first and everything else is cut from it. Not the reverse. Right now the reasoning lives in reels and disappears; the point of this calendar is that the durable version exists first, and social becomes the distribution layer for an asset that persists.

Reel-to-post priority — the six most likely to drive real traffic:

17 (trout aren't smart) · #8 (women in fly fishing) · #32 (fishing in the heat) · #35 (tippet/leader — proven audience fit) · #24 (bringing a friend) · #11 (indoor drills)

7. MEASUREMENT

⚠️ DIRECTIONAL TARGETS — NOT A FORECAST

Nothing in this table is a measurement, a projection, or a promise. These are planning assumptions written before any Search Console data existed, and they must not be quoted in a client-facing forecast, a traffic model, a revenue projection, or a proposal. Keyword Research.md §1 sets this rule for the whole engagement — "These bands are estimates, not measurements… Do not put them in a client-facing forecast, a traffic model, or a revenue projection" — and this table is bound by it.

Derivation, stated so it can be argued with. The session figures are not built up from keyword volumes, because no validated volumes exist for this niche — Keyword Research.md refuses to invent them, correctly. They are a simple compounding assumption instead: a new site publishing 3 well-targeted posts a month, starting from zero indexed blog content and zero baseline, with long-tail and near-zero-competition Method terms as the first ranking surface. The shape assumed is roughly 4× growth in Q2, then ~2.5× in Q3, then ~1.7× in Q4 as early posts age into rankings and the cluster compounds — a decelerating curve, which is the normal shape. The 2,500 sessions/month figure at Q4 is the end point of that assumed curve, not an independent estimate; it carries the accumulated error of every assumption above it and should be treated as the least reliable number in the table.

The Keywords ranking top 20 row (15 / 50 / 110 / 180) is derived the same way — roughly 5 terms per published post reaching the top 20 by Q4, which is plausible for long-tail clusters and unverifiable today.

Replace this table with real numbers as soon as GSC has 90 days of data. At that point the baseline stops being a guess, and these rows should be re-derived from measured impressions and average position rather than re-used. Until then, the only rows here that are genuinely controllable — and therefore the only ones worth managing against — are Posts published and /method organic clicks vs. its own baseline.

Quarterly review, first week of the quarter: kill or rewrite anything with zero impressions after 90 days; expand anything ranking positions 4–15 (that is where the fastest gains live); refresh the two live cornerstones; re-time the next quarter against actual river conditions.

8. OPEN ITEMS FOR KRISTEN

1. Confirm Yakima seasonal specifics — flip-flop timing, hatch windows, and which months genuinely fish best. Every date in §4 is set from public information and should be corrected against 20 years of firsthand knowledge. This is the highest-value review item in the document.
2. Confirm Nate's byline appetite — five posts are assigned to him (#19, #31 as author; #18, #22, #26 as contributor). If he does not want to write, Kristen interviews him and ghostwrites; the attribution still matters for E-E-A-T.
3. Two lead magnets to build before their post dates: the river journal template (before Nov 24) and the strategy blueprint flowchart (before Jun 15).
4. Approve the #16 neurodivergent-instruction angle before drafting. It is the most differentiated post on the calendar and the one most important to get right, in tone and in substance.
5. Email platform + list size — the calendar assumes an active list. If there isn't one, that becomes a Phase 1 dependency, because the winter virtual-lessons push runs on email.
6. Photo and video inventory — several posts assume specific assets (underwater eats for #1 and #33, flow before/after for #2, real journal pages for #9). Audit what exists now and shoot what's missing during the fall season, while the water is good.
7. Publishing capacity gut-check. Three per month during peak guiding season is real work. If it isn't sustainable, cut to two per month by dropping the third post in Apr, May, Jun, and Jul (the peak-guiding months) — that yields 32 posts and preserves every cornerstone and every seasonal timing anchor.

9. RECONCILIATION WITH KEYWORD RESEARCH.MD

Keyword Research.md (187 keywords, 4 clusters, 13 sub-clusters) was published after this calendar was drafted. The two documents agree on strategy — both independently concluded that the authority cluster is uncontested, the local cluster is not, and the neurodivergence sub-cluster is the most underserved opportunity on the board. This section records the mapping and the specific adjustments to apply when drafting.

9.1 Pillars → keyword clusters

Cluster 4 (Brand/Entity, 22 keywords) is not served by the blog — it is handled by the technical fixes and entity pages in Site Architecture Review.md §7 Phase 1. Do not write blog posts targeting brand terms.

9.2 Adjustments to apply at drafting

9.3 Dependencies — what must exist before posting starts

The keyword research's build order (§9) and Site Architecture Review.md §7 both put page work before content work. Respect that sequence:

9.4 What this calendar does not cover

Per the keyword research, these are page work, not blog work — they belong to the architecture and service-page tracks:

• All 22 Cluster 4 brand/entity keywords → title-tag fix, 301, Organization/Person schema, disambiguation FAQ
• near me and map-pack terms (~15) → hard-blocked on GBP claim + published address. No amount of content unblocks these.
• Cle Elum / Roslyn / Suncadia location pages → dedicated location pages; the blog only reinforces them (see 9.2 #2)
• yakima river fly fishing report → requires a sustained weekly cadence through a full season, which is a different commitment than this 3-posts-per-month calendar. Discuss separately before promising it.

Companion deliverable: Site Architecture Review.md (Phase 1). The four pillars above map 1:1 to the /journal categories defined in that document's §3.2. Do not publish posts until the /journal structure exists — that is Fri Sep 18, 2026, which is why the first post is Tue Sep 22.

📌 Shared calendar anchor: Week 0 = week of Aug 31, 2026. This document and Site Architecture Review.md §7 resolve every week number against it. If either re-times, re-check both. The migration schedule is that document's call; the publishing schedule is this one's; the anchor is shared and neither may move it alone.