• Good to Be Home

    It’s good to be home. This week has found me transitioning from fly fishing to fly tying. It happens every year about now. In my experience, there’s only a week or two of good dry fly fishing remaining until the insects take a break until next year. I’ve said it many times before, it’s like…

  • Chuck Stranahan’s Golden Stone

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Chuck Stranahan’s Golden Stone. We stopped at Chuck Stranahan’s Flies & Guides to see what we could find. The Golden Stone is one of the flies he pulled out for me to post. He stated it was a variant of Randall Kaufmann’s Stimulator. Here is a quote from Chuck’s website…

  • Eddy fishing

    Foam is home. Have you ever heard that phrase? The longer version (my version) is…foam is where fish feel safe and food is readily available. When I fish new rivers, I am always on the lookout for what I hope is some good eddy fishing. Why? That’s where I usually find very nice fish. You…

  • Purple Spectral Parachute

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Purple Spectral Parachute. We stopped at Chuck Stranahan’s Flies & Guides on a recent fly fishing road trip to see what we could find. The Purple Spectral Parachute is one of his hallmark flies. Chuck talked a lot about UV and how trout see colors we don’t. He believes…

  • Light Caddis Variant

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Light Caddis Variant. This is a fly I found while I was in Hamilton, MT to participate in the Cast One for Hope fundraiser. We stopped at Chuck Stranahan’s Flies & Guides to see what we could find. While waiting to talk with him, I checked out…

  • 2019 Cast One for Hope

    Last weekend, my wife and I were at the Flying Horse estate in Hamilton, MT to participate in the 2019 Cast One for Hope, a celebration and major fundraiser for the National Casting for Recovery program. Cast One is limited to 34 anglers fishing out of 17 drift boats. Guides from the Bitterroot Valley volunteered…

  • Perk’s Perilizer

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Perk’s Perilizer. It’s a steelhead fly and used at that. OK, I admit it’s a tough fly to really see. It’s really about the story… We attended the Pendleton Round-Up a couple of weeks ago, just like we do most years. My fishing partner has been looking for…

  • October Caddis Time

    October Caddis time begins in September and October. In fact, I’ve seen several flitting around lately and thought it might be a good time to provide an update to the blog post I wrote in previous years. You’ll see these size 10 – 8 bugs around the vegetation and over water. They are a large,…

  • Lawson’s Caddis Emerger

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Mike Lawson’s Caddis Emerger. This is another one of Mike Lawson’s flies I picked up at Henry’s Fork Anglers on a recent fly fishing road trip. I asked the guys working behind the counter if they could point out a few flies Mike developed. I purchased several of…