Having trouble finding fish? Locating the right holding water will increase your success immensely. Here are three tips to increase your fly fishing success. In today’s post, I’ll briefly discuss seams, boulders, and foam. Look for seams Perhaps you’ve heard the term “seams” before, but didn’t know exactly what it meant. A seam is where…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Jim Slattery’s OD Stimulator. The OD stands for “original design”. I’ve frequented Jim Slattery’s Campfire Lodge Resort, located on the Madison River between Hebgen and Quake lakes quite a bit when we are in the Madison Valley during our fly fishing road trips. I first learned about it…
I’ve been fortunate to spend quite a bit of time on my home water, the Metolius. Some days I don’t see an insect on the water. Other days, bugs float downstream on the water’s surface, but no fish rise. What I hope for is finding a few rings or noses, a sign fish are actively…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Mike Mercer’s Profile Spinner – PMD. I found this fly pattern in Mike Mercer’s Creative Fly Tying (2005) book. He relays a problem he had fishing spinner patterns on California’s Fall River where thousands and thousands of natural PMD Spinners were floating downstream with trout gorging themselves on these insects….
Our last road trip found us in Hamilton, MT for some fall fly fishing on the Bitterroot River the last week of September. The weather was beautiful, with fall colors beginning to show in the valley. And we had some good fishing as well! The Bitterroot Valley this time of year is spectacular. The fishing…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Ray Bergman’s Yankee. It’s been a while since I featured a classic Ray Bergman fly. The Yankee is a very simple soft hackle fly that is listed on Plate No.9, page 234 of Bergman’s Trout (1940 – fourth printing). As I’ve mentioned many times, I enjoy highlighting a Bergman…
Last weekend, we participated in the 2021 Cast One for Hope (Cast One) event in Hamilton, MT on the Bitterroot River. It’s one of the major fundraisers of Casting for Recovery (CfR). This year’s event was different due to Covid-19. Normally, there is fly fishing and a banquet where items are auctioned. The event was…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Ray Bergman’s Sanctuary. It’s been a while since I featured a classic Ray Bergman fly. The Sanctuary is a very simple soft hackle fly that is listed on Plate No. 8, page 222 of Bergman’s Trout (1940 – fourth printing) As I’ve mentioned many times, I enjoy highlighting a…
I’ve been filling lots of customer fly orders lately when I’m not fishing my home waters. I’m a custom fly tyer, not a commercial tyer. What’s the difference? To me, a commercial tyer ties dozens and dozens of the same fly pattern, many times in assorted sizes. I would be bored with that. I enjoy…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Stalcup’s CDC Emerging Dun – Green Drake. Stalcup’s CDC Emerging Dun – Green Drake is another example of Shane’s creative mind. In this fly, he combines a goose biot for the body and CDC as the wing just beginning to emerge from the nymphal shuck. Here is a…
