A couple of weeks ago, I helped my wife Karen teach 12 kids from ages 10 to 14 about fly fishing during the Next Cast Flyfishers Camp. It’s part of our fly club’s Next Cast Flyfishers (our youth program) goal to get kids into fly fishing in Central Oregon. This is a picture of the kids…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Purple Peril. Since I wrote about Purple Flies in this weeks blog, I felt it appropriate to select it as a Throw Back fly. The Purple Peril was developed by George McLeod from the Seattle area before World War II. Paraphrasing from Classic Steelhead Flies by John Shewey, George’s…
I don’t know why they work so well, but purple flies seem to catch the fish’s attention. What really made me a believer is the biggest rainbow trout I’ve ever seen on the Metolius River was caught on a size 16 Purple Haze. That was a few years ago. I taped it at 26 1/2″….
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Partridge and Orange Soft Hackle. Soft hackles are an old style of fly and were developed before Izaak Walton wrote the Compleat Angler in 1653. I’ve used various versions of soft hackles and eventually developed the RiverKeeper Soft Hackle Cripple and fish it as a dry fly. Others…
OK, I’ve got a few questions for you today. How many fly boxes do you have? How do you organize a fly box? How many fly boxes do you take fishing? Here are the fly boxes currently in my fishing pack. Every fly fisher does things different. Managing their flies and fly boxes is no exception….
The Tellico Nymph is this week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly. This is one I probably tied in the 1970’s. It was a fly pattern out of the American Nymph Fly Tying Manual by Randall Kaufmann. I tied many flies from this book as I learned new fly tying techniques. It fishes well today and is…
We’ve been fishing the river quite a bit lately and have noticed LOTS of spinners on the water. My wife, the Bug Lady, searches back eddies for bugs while waiting for the hatch to happen. Green Drake Spinner What is a spinner you ask? Well, spinners are the final phase of a mayfly’s life, be…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Brassie. Here is a fly I tied many years ago. I found the fly pattern in Randall Kaufmann’s Nymphs book. As you can tell, it’s a simple pattern to tie. The Brassie was developed by Gene Lynch in the 1960’s. Lynch among other South Platte River fly tyers…
Here are a few thoughts about how to play and land fish. Over the years, I’ve changed my tactics. I use a different leader size to fish my spring creek these days. I used a Rio Powerflex 9 foot 5x (5.0 lbs) leader right out of the package for years and was fortunate to catch…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is a Fan Wing Green Drake. I chose this week’s fly in hopes the Green Drake hatch on the Metolius will start soon. I’ve seen a handful, but not enough for the fish to take notice. If this fly has a different well-known name, I don’t know it. And…
