• Odds and Ends

    I continue to work on fly tying orders and head to the river to try my luck. Fishing has been a slow for me, which is normal in April. It’s one of the reasons I wrote If I Only Had Two Flies last week. I was reminiscing about hatches I’m looking forward to rising fish….

  • Wright’s Fluttering Caddis

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Wright’s Fluttering Caddis. This is a fly that was recently brought to my attention by a customer asking me to tie some. I hadn’t heard of the fly before, but it’s similar to Buz Buszek’s Kings River Caddis below. The only real difference is the wing. Leonard Wright…

  • If I Only Had Two Dry Flies

    I’ve been at the fly tying bench lately working on orders. I’m currently tying a few Green Drake imitations. It got me thinking about three important hatches I’m really looking forward to this year…Green Drakes, Salmonflies & Golden Stones, and Caddis. Are you looking forward to a favorite hatch? Yes, my mind wanders a little…

  • Schroeder’s Parachute Caddis

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Ed Schroeder’s Parachute Caddis. I found this fly while searching for a fly for this week’s post. I pulled out Randall Kaufmann’s Tying Dry Flies (1991). I probably tried tying it in the mid-1990’s, but that’s so long ago, I don’t remember. I read somewhere that Schroeder tied…

  • Checking My Fly Box

    I finally got around to checking my fly box to see if I need to tie a few March Brown mayfly imitations. I hope to fish them later this week on a favorite river. I know, it’s not March, but April is when they hatch on this water. I checked the Fly Imitations for Spring…

  • Royal Stimulator TBT

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Royal Stimulator TBT. The Royal Stimulator is a fly I tied recently for a customer and thought is would be a good candidate for a TBT post. I checked Randall Kaufmann’s Tying Dry Flies (1991) to see if the fly was listed. The fly pattern at the…

  • Jumbo Flies

    I’ve been tying flies for customer orders and thought I’d share a few flies I’ve been working on. A recent customer asked if I could tie some jumbo flies for his grayling fishing. I was intrigued. The image above includes a “normal” size 14 soft hackle for comparison. I’ve used two feathers on each of…

  • Overton Wax

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday post is about Overton wax. If you aren’t a fly tyer, you might be wondering why I chose this item. I attended a Zoom fly tying class last week taught by my friends Gretchen and Al Beatty. Many of the flies they demonstrate utilize touch-dubbing, which they learned from Gary…

  • Practice Tying Your Knots

    Did you practice tying your knots this winter? No, I didn’t either. I’ve been fishing a little and tying knots as usual when I change flies. But I did have to stop and think the first time I hit the water this year. Lucky for me, my muscle memory took over and I tied a…

  • Green Drake Hatchmaster

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is a Green Drake Hatchmaster. This fly pattern was developed in the 1930s. I’m fairly sure the first one didn’t imitate a Green Drake like the fly I tied above. I’ve been working on another RiverKeeper Flies instructional video for my YouTube channel and thought I’d highlight the Hatchmaster…