This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the California Mosquito TBT.
A couple of weeks ago I posted a Mosquito as a Throw Back Thursday Fly. At the time, I had this thought in the back of my head about learning about the Mosquito in one of Randall Kaufmann’s books I purchased in the early 1990s. When I returned from our fly fishing road trip, I located the book and it turns out Randall presented the California Mosquito.
In Kaufmann’s Tying Dry Flies (1991) book, he tells the story of tying this fly in the 1960s and 1970s to fish in the eastern Sierra mountains during his backpack trips. He tied it in a variety of variations including a wingless Mosquito, Lake Mary Mosquito, Green-Bodied Mosquito, and a Red Tail Mosquito.
Randall suggests the fish take them to imitate midges as well as mosquitoes. The profile of the two wings over the body is exactly the same as a midge.
I sure don’t remember what I did 30 years ago when I bought his book, but I more than likely tied a few of these. It was a way for me to fill a fly box and learn new fly tying techniques.
And before I forget, it looks like I had another mosquito fly pattern as a Throw Back Thursday Fly a few years ago – Dan Bailey’s Mosquito.
I guess that’s one of the reasons I have a website so I can “search” to see what I’ve done in those six years.
An easy way to see all of the flies I’ve highlighted over the years is to click on the Throw Back Thursday Flies “category” located to the right on this page. I’m getting close to 300 entries!
Enjoy…go fish, stay safe!
