I finished a fly order recently, tying very small flies which challenged my fly tying skills. The order was for flies in sizes 18 to 22. Tying small flies is difficult if you don’t tie a lot. You feel like you’re tying with two thumbs! Trust me, I’ve been there! I remember a statement I…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Skunk steelhead fly, one of Frank Moore’s favorite flies. Frank Moore passed away last Sunday at the age of 98. Here’s Frank at the 2015 NW Fly Tying and Fly Fishing Expo in Albany, OR demonstrating his casting technique at 90 years old. He was the Dean…
I wanted to share a recent experience on my home waters, fishing the Metolius. My preferred style of fishing is casting a dry fly to rising fish, but if I want to increase my odds of catching a fish, I would have a better chance fishing with nymphs during winter months. Read on and I’ll…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday fly is Pritt’s Water Cricket. Here is a fly from T.E. Pritt’s Yorkshire Trout Flies (1885). The link will take you to one of the free download books from an extensive list I have created on my Links to Free Old Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Books page. You can normally…
If you’ve followed RiverKeeper Flies for a while, it won’t come as a surprise I might be a little obsessed with Green Drakes, from tying effective imitations, fishing the flies during a hatch, and creating images through my photography. In fact, I’ve been thinking about them all week. I taught a Zoom fly tying class…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Stuck-In-The-Shuck Midge TBT. I was on my favorite river yesterday looking for rising fish. I didn’t see very many, which wasn’t surprising to me. After all, it’s winter and I didn’t expect summertime hatches. I was hoping for a Blue Wing Olive hatch of 30 minutes or…
I’m back at the vise this week, tying flies for customer orders. I ended up with a customer wait list because my tying slowed down during the summer and fall months as we enjoyed our fly fishing road trips. I should be current by the end of the week. Before I get too far on…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Scott Sanchez’s Double Bunny streamer. Sanchez states he first thought about this fly in 1988 on a trip to Belize. His inspiration for the fly were two other flies they were using, a Kiwi Muddler and a FisHair Cuda Fly. He wondered what might happen “if I put…
I received a Comment from one of my readers asking if I could provide information about using effective material substitutes for natural materials when tying flies. It was a general question and something I’ve been thinking about lately. Instead of developing an all-encompassing post, I thought I’d provide information on effective fly tying substitutes for…
It’s the last Thursday of the year and I thought it was appropriate to share a few of my favorite Throw Back Thursday Flies for 2021 on RiverKeeper Flies. I hope you liked them as much as I did! In case you missed the flies and their stories, just click on the fly’s name to…
