Tying Flies and Fishing

You may have noticed I’ve been tying lots of flies lately. Keeping up with my custom fly orders has been a challenge because fishing has picked up. Tying flies and fishing…what a tough problem to have, right?

Did you notice that little fly in the corner of the rainbow’s mouth? It’s an IOBO Humpy.

The IOBO Humpy is a new fly for me. The IOBO initials stand for “It Oughta Be Outlawed”. The fly was introduced to me by one of my customers who asked if I could tie some for him. Since I had never heard of it, I did a little research and liked what I saw…a simple, but effective fly using one of my favorite materials – CDC feathers.

If you are a regular RiverKeeper Flies reader, you might have seen it before because I used it as one of my Throw Back Thursday Flies a little over a month ago – IOBO Humpy TBT.

I hadn’t used this fly, but recently my wife and I were watching a selective trout rise occasionally and I gave her this fly to try. Needless to say, she hooked and landed that beautiful fish. I now have an order from her to tie a few more IOBO Humpy flies!

I pride myself in the variety of flies I can tie. An example is the spey fly project I just finished and then immediately went to tying the Improved F Fly in sizes 18, 20, and 22.

I haven’t tied size 22 flies in awhile, but thought they turned out so well, I pulled out a size 24 hook and tied an Improved F Fly.

Yes, that’s a match head and this fly is TINY!

But I have been keeping up with fly orders and fishing as well. I’ve always said this is the toughest time of year to fish because there are TOO MANY choices where I should fish. The lakes have opened…

Salmonflies are hatching on the Lower Deschutes…

and Green Drakes will start soon on the Metolius.

Choices…choices…choices.

That’s all for today…I’ve got a few more flies to tie…or catch more of these.

Enjoy…go fish!