Spring is here, the middle of April. What that tells me is some of my favorite insects will begin hatching in less than a month. We went to the river recently, once with fly rods in hand and another day to enjoy the river on a 5 mile hike. Both days were enjoyable and perhaps…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is a Frank Johnson CDC fly I found in a fly box Frank donated and I was fortunate to select during a Fly Tyer’s Rendezvous fly swap at the 50th Anniversary of the International Federation of Fly Fishers Fair in Bend, Oregon (2015). (Note: the IFFF has since changed its…
We’re back home after spending almost two weeks in Montana and fishing the Bitterroot River Skwala hatch for six of those days. We did find a few naturals along the riverbanks, but spring weather was out in force. “Spring weather” means temperatures up to seventy degrees and below freezing. Remember the image of snow on…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is a Prince Nymph encore. I featured the Prince Nymph in October 2014, the first year of my blog. It was one of my first TBT flies. In case you missed it, here is the story I wrote: It originally was known as the Brown Forked Tail and created…
We’re in the Montana this week, searching for Skwala stoneflies on the Bitterroot River. I’d read the fishing report from the Grizzly Hackle Fly Shop in Missoula that the Skwala stoneflies were hatching along with a few BWO’s and March Brown mayflies. In fact, the report stated the fishing was 4 out of 5! The…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Dette Yellow Stonefly Nymph. I pulled out Mike Valla’s The Founding Flies and paged through to locate an interesting fly for this week’s post. The Dette Yellow Stonefly Nymph spoke to me. Walt and Winnie Dette are known for their beautiful Catskill dry flies. At least that’s…
I thought I’d share a few more flies from the vise this week. I finished another fly order for a customer planning to fish the upcoming Salmonfly and Golden Stone hatch. They’ll begin showing themselves in late April and early May. In addition, you’ll find a link below to my recent YouTube videos. This pile…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Buz’s Float N Fool Multi-Color. The Float N Fool Multi-Color (AKA – Flot’N Fool Multi-Color, Float-n-Fool, Float N Fool, even Flot-N-Fool) is a parachute fly tied with calf tail for the tail and wing post, a peacock herl body, and a hackle that varied in color from Adams…
I was asked recently to make a presentation to a fly club about selecting flies from a fly tyer’s perspective. It’s a great topic for new fly fishers who might be overwhelmed walking into a fly shop and picking a few flies for their next fly fishing adventure. Here are some highlights from my presentation….
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Swisher and Richards Floating Nymph. I was searching my fly fishing and fly tying library for a little inspiration on what fly to feature this week. I decided to pull out Mike Lawson’s Spring Creeks (2003) book and thumbed through it. After several chapters, I thought I…
