A Grey Hackle Peacock is this week’s Throw Back Thursday fly. An old one I found in one of my vintage fly wallets. Notice the leader tied into the fly. We don’t tie them like that anymore. Like I said – OLD. A wet fly originated in the 1700’s. Have any in your fly box?
I’m headed to Albany, OR for the 2026 Fly Tyer & Fly Fishing Expo on March 13 & 14. I found out late last year my RiverKeeper Soft Hackle Cripple had been selected for the show fly. I’m proud of that, but also acknowledge the fly is a variant of some sort I’ve tweaked a…
This week’s post will highlight a few flies coming off my vise AND include a comment about how to fish them. I hope it will help you determine what flies to include in your fly box when we can start fishing again. I recognize not all readers of my RiverKeeper Flies weekly posts tie flies….
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Disco Midge TBT. The Disco Midge is a very simple fly to tie and one I found in Ed Engle’s Tying Small Flies (2004). He writes it was developed on the Frying Pan River in Colorado. There are variants which utilize synthetic materials for the body. I…
Here is a Matts Fur fly I tied and fished in the 1970’s. Found it in Kaufmann’s Tying Nymphs book which was my bible in those days. It still works! Use it for a Golden Stone nymph imitation.
I started writing today’s post on May 1. Can you believe it’s May already? Perhaps it’s one of your favorite months as Salmonflies and Golden Stones are right around the corner. Are you ready for one of the best hatches of the year? Before I get too far, I’d like to quickly bring up a…
Our fly fishing road trip continues as we return to the Madison River. I think we were experiencing a phrase we’ve heard multiple times …”you’re between hatches”. Fishing was different when we returned to the Madison River after fishing four days in Yellowstone National Park. I don’t know why. Perhaps the larger fish moved out…
If you look closely, the lower fly uses grizzly hackle. The old black and white hackle has a gray cast to it.
John
Where is the gray grizzly hackle?