• Cate’s Turkey Flies

    Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly are some Cate’s Turkey flies. I tied these many years ago. I found this fly pattern in Randall Kaufmann’s American Nymph Fly Tying Manual (1975). It was one of my first fly tying books. There were 8 colored pages out of the 90 plus pages showing…

  • Tie Flies for Customers or Myself

    I’ve been tying flies, trying to complete orders for several customers. But I have a dilemma. Fish are still rising on my home waters, although for shorter durations. Shall I tie flies for customers or myself? I’ll try to squeeze in both! Included in the image above are #14 Sparkle Dun Green Drakes (left), #8…

  • Pray’s Optic Steelhead Fly

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is another Pray’s Optic Steelhead Fly. This is the second of Pray’s Optic steelhead flies in a friend’s collection with a note on the fly stating it was tied by C. Jim Pray (1885 – 1952) of Eureka, CA in 1947. I did some research but didn’t find a…

  • In-The-Film CDC Midge Emerger

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the In-The-Film CDC Midge Emerger. I found this fly recently while reviewing Ed Engle’s Tying Small Flies book. I tied up four size 22 In-The-Film CDC Midge Emergers and placed them on a dime to show how small they are. I met Ed through a friend while fishing…

  • Tying Flies and Filling Orders

    I’m back to tying flies and filling orders. Why? The weather changed. Remember last week’s Fall Fly Fishing on the Metolius post where I mentioned someone throwing a switch on November 1? Well, they finally did, although a few days later. What a difference a week makes. A week ago our high temperature was 67…yesterday…