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…
I feel blessed to live in Central Oregon. Why? Because I live close to my favorite river, the Metolius. I’ve been fortunate to fish this river for almost 50 years. The last couple of weeks, I’ve had opportunities to reflect on the river while waiting for rising trout. I thought I’d share a few stories…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Dette Caddis. The Dette Caddis is another fly I found in Eric Leiser’s book about Walt and Winnie Dette and their daughter Mary Dette Clark and their impact on classic Catskill flies. The book is entitled The Dettes – A Catskill Legend (1992). On the instruction page about how to…
I wrote about the Cascades Stone a few years ago, but have seen them on the river recently and thought it was time to highlight this seldom seen hatch by fly fishers. It’s actually called the Doroneuria baumanni, a cousin of the Golden Stone. But I’m getting ahead of myself. When we first noticed this…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Improved Governor. This is another steelhead fly found in John Shewey’s Classis Steelhead Flies book. It’s one of my sources of flies for TBT posts. I’ve read recently about the low steelhead returns in the Columbia Basin and it got me thinking about the last time I…
I look forward to the month of September every year because I know I’ll have some great fishing the next two months! In addition, it’s the time of year when several bigger bugs hatch. How about October Caddis or the fall drakes? Fall is a fly fisher’s dream. Below, you’ll find the flies that make…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Harrop’s CDC Rusty Paraspinner. I hope you were able to read a recent post, Importance of Imitating Mayfly Spinners. Since I’ve been thinking about spinners for a few days, I thought I’d find one to feature in a TBT post. Harrop’s CDC Rusty Paraspinner was created by Bonnie…
I’ve been working on a very large fly order of over 300 flies, which included 3 dozen Rusty Spinner Biot Body flies in sizes 14, 16, and 18. I thought it would be a great time to write again about the importance of imitating mayfly spinners. Here is a refresher or if you are new…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Roy Palm’s Special Emerger, tied below in size 20. I was introduced to this fly recently when a customer asked if I had heard of Roy’s Special Emerger, a midge pattern. He relayed a story of watching a guide with clients catching fish on a river in Colorado….
