• Supporting Casting for Recovery

    I just finished tying a box of 7 dozen flies I’m donating to an upcoming Casting for Recovery (CfR) auction supporting Casting for Recovery. I hope these flies will bring in a few dollars for the Southern Oregon CfR retreat my wife leads. Casting for Recovery (CfR) is a retreat designed to help women in…

  • Silver Admiral Steelhead Fly

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Silver Admiral steelhead fly. I tied this pin recently for my wife as she left to lead a Casting for Recovery retreat. I thought it appropriate to highlight this Polly Rosborough fly as the first TBT fly in October to bring recognition to breast cancer awareness month….

  • How to Select Where to Fish

    If you’ve followed my RiverKeeper Flies posts for a while, you know my fishing partner and I fish a lot. You might interpret today’s title of how to select where to fish as one river over another. Or perhaps it might resonate with you to mean a summer fishing trip to a different state and…

  • Van Sant Steelhead Fly

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Van Sant Steelhead Fly. The fly pattern is found in John Shewey’s Classic Steelhead Flies, page 178. Shewey attributes this steelhead fly to Josh Van Sant, Jr. (1861-1950) of Eureka, CA. The fly is reminiscent of popular trout wet flies of the early to mid-1900s, namely those…

  • Feathers, Feathers, Feathers

    Yes, I have a problem…feathers, feathers, feathers! I’ve been known to say you can never have enough feathers, but even I must admit my collection has grown substantially over the years. And I might have added to it this summer during our time on the Madison River, MT. No, I didn’t buy all these a…

  • St Joe Special TBT

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the St Joe Favorite TBT. (I mislabeled the title – should be St Joe Favorite!) I first found this fly at the Idaho Fly Fishing Company in Avery, ID during our fly fishing trip to the St. Joe River in Idaho. I always enjoy going into local fly shops to…

  • September Fly Boxes are Filled

    Can you believe September is almost half over? I wish the calendar would slow down a bit. But the days are getting shorter, and it means Fall is almost here, with winter not far behind. Let’s get the most out of our fly fishing and ensure our September fly boxes are filled with imitations we…

  • Old Master

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Old Master. Since I referenced T.E. Pritt’s North Country Flies (1886) in this week’s post, I thought it appropriate to highlight one of the flies found in his book. This one is listed as No. 39. Materials Hook: 1 Wings: Hackled with a feather from the inside of…