Just Another Week of Flyfishing and Tying Flies

It feels good when I get to the river. It has a beauty I never get tired of. It’s the reason I live where I do. I try to capture the moment, whether as the sun begins to shine on the river, closeup images of insects, or the beautiful fish that swim in it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I.

But for me, it was just another week of flyfishing and tying flies.

Mid-September through October is one of the best times of the year to be on the river. There are SO many insects available to trout…Flavs, Caudatella, Green Drakes, Mahogany Duns, Cascades Stone, Little Olive Stones, BWOs, PMDs, October Caddis, Silver Sedge, and a variety of other Caddis.

I had a casual conversation on the river today with a lady flyfisher from Idaho who asked what was hatching.

I shared a few of the insects mentioned above, but not all as I didn’t want to overwhelm her. I gave her one each of my Sparkle Dun Green Drakes (#12) and CDC Little Olive Stone (#16) because fish have been rising to them. But a Green Drake Hatchmaster works too.

I’ve been lucky to land several trout, but many more have risen to my fly without getting hooked…part of the game. This beauty is from last week.

And another closeup. I love the gill plate colors and scale detail.

If you are a regular here at RiverKeeper Flies, you know how much I enjoy capturing closeup images of insects I find along the river. I take my Nikon Z 6iii with me everyday I fish and carry several lenses. The following insect images were taken with my 105mm macro lens.

The Cascades Stone is out now, although they aren’t prolific and are quite good at hiding in the streamside vegetation.

If you’ve never heard of this Stonefly, click HERE to learn more.

This is a Silver Stripped Sedge.

A catapiller found on the streamside grass. Look at the feet!

They look like slippers!

The detail is amazing even with this low resolution image I use for the website. It looks like someone glued feathers on the body.

THere his is a Cranefly. You’ll see them flying around the river.

And a closeup…

I finished a fly order this week of five dozen Quigley Cripple Variants and wanted to share them with you. The first one is a Gray Drake #14.

Red Quill #16

PMD #16

BWO in sizes 18 and 20

My customer relayed the Quigley Cripple BWO in size 20 worked well for him around Grand Teton where he was catching Snake River Cutthroat. I always enjoy hearing stories of my customers catching fish with the flies I tie for them!

I’ve got a couple other customer orders I’ll start. I may tie a few more Green Drake imitations as that is what I hope to fish in the next few weeks.

I’ll certainly be on the river again very soon.

Enjoy…go fish!