• Holiday Greetings

    Wishing everyone holiday greetings of a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from RiverKeeper Flies! I hope you were on Santa’s “good list” this year and received an item or two for your fly fishing adventures in 2020. Enjoy…go fish!

  • Jacklin Woolly Worm

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Jacklin Woolly Worm. The Jacklin Woolly Worm pictured above is another fly tied by Bob Jacklin and loaned to me by a good friend. He told me Bob has used this fly with success on the Madison River between Hebgen and Quake Lakes in Montana. Jacklin is…

  • Choosing a Fly Box

    If you fish long enough, at some point your fly boxes will wear out and need to be replaced. The question is what to replace them with? It’s something I dealt with recently and why I’m writing today about choosing a fly box. In addition, it’s a good time of year to get your fly…

  • White Miller Dry Fly

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the White Miller dry fly. This is a fly a customer gave me as a sample to tie for him, a size 12 short-shank hook. I did some quick research on a White Miller dry fly and couldn’t find much at all about the origins of the fly….

  • Start of Winter Fly Fishing

    I finally got back to the river last week. This year’s November weather was a little different than usual. We were able to fish a good week and a half into November. I’ve said in past years the dry fly fishing usually stops around November 1. It’s like someone throws a switch and the fishing…

  • LaFontaine’s Floating Flex Crayfish

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Gary LaFontaine’s Floating Flex Crayfish. LaFontaine’s Floating Flex Crayfish is another of the flex-style flies highlighted in LaFontaine’s Legacy (2008), by Gretchen and Al Beatty. It’s difficult to see in the image above, but there are pheasant tail fibers sticking out on both sides to represent the crayfish pincers. Gretchen and…

  • Damsel Fly Nymphs

    I just returned from the Post Office where I mailed a couple dozen damsel fly nymphs to a new customer. The image above shows several Wood Duck Damsel nymphs. The one below shows the nymph close-up. The project started with a Comment left on my RiverKeeper Flies website. I responded with an email and after…

  • Diving Damsel

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Diving Damsel nymph. I learned about the Diving Damsel nymph from a customer who contacted me to tie up a few custom flies. He had saved an article from the March/April 1997 edition of American Angler magazine. The article title was Designs on Damsels by John Shewey….

  • Jacklin’s Salmonfly

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is a Bob Jacklin’s Salmonfly. A friend of mine loaned me this fly and told me Bob actually tied the fly. I was grateful to be able to feature one of Bob’s flies as a TBT. Jacklin is a fixture in West Yellowstone, having arrived in 1967. Bob worked…