This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Light Spanish Needle. The Light Spanish Needle is another old fly pattern listed in The North Country Fly – Yorkshire’s Soft Hackle Tradition (2015) by Robert L. Smith. Many of these older soft hackle fly patterns come from the Yorkshire Dales in northern England. Wharfedale is a small area…
It’s May already. Can you believe it? And I have a problem…where will I fish? As I review my own May RiverKeeper Flies posts from previous years, I see it’s a common occurrence. There are so many options now…the Metolius (my home river), Crooked, Middle Deschutes, and Lower Deschutes. Then I could list a few…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday post is my first Fenwick fly rod. Yes, this is a departure from my normal TBT post where I highlight a fly pattern. But these posts are designed to trigger good memories and this is one of mine. This was my first REAL fly rod, the classic Fenwick 8 1/2′…
Last weekend, I had the pleasure to be a River Helper at the 2019 Casting for Recovery Oregon South Retreat. Casting for Recovery (CfR) is a retreat designed to help women in various stages of breast cancer enrich their lives through fly fishing. I’ve helped with CfR Oregon North retreats for the past six years…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Ray Bergman Dark Spinner. The Ray Bergman Dark Spinner is a wet fly listed in his book entitled Trout (1940 – fourth printing) on page 38, Plate No. 2. I usually tie just one fly for my TBT posts. I’m not trying to make them perfect, just…
I’ve been busy tying flies for customers and trying to refill the provider box. Since the first of the year, I’ve tied over 60 dozen flies. That’s more than 700 hooks, which means I need to re-stock the hook supply. I reviewed my hook inventory recently to determine how many hooks remained for the wide…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Ray Bergman Abbey. The Ray Bergman Abbey is a wet fly listed in his book entitled Trout (1940 – fourth printing) on page 22, Plate No. 1. As I’ve mentioned many times, I enjoy highlighting a Bergman wet fly because it forces me to sit down and…
I wrote a post a few years ago entitled My April Fly Box. I tried to provide some ideas for you to consider when filling your fly box. I’m encouraged this time of year because more insects begin to show in April, whereas winter seems to concentrate on small flies, like Blue Wing Olives in…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is a Quigley Film Critic. The Quigley Film Critic imitates a mayfly emerger, specifically half nymph, half dry fly struggling to get out of the nymphal shuck. The curved hook allows the nymph half to partially sink. Here’s the description of the fly from Quigley: This emerger’s entire body…
What’s a person to do when a storm goes through and dumps a ton of rain and melts the remaining snow? Well, spring runoff means it’s time to tie more flies! Here is an image of the Metolius River at the Wizard Falls Bridge. This is the upstream side. And no, it’s not a common…
