• Theodore Gordon’s Bumblepuppy

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Theodore Gordon’s Bumblepuppy. To be honest, when I heard the name of this fly, I thought it was a joke. After a little research, I think the joke is on me. I’ve been reading Mike Valla’s book entitled The Founding Flies – 43 American Masters, Their Patterns and Influences…

  • Galloup’s Compara Spinner

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Galloup’s Compara Spinner. I stayed at Galloup’s Slide Inn on the Madison River during our 2017 fly fishing road trip and I thought it appropriate to feature a few of Kelly’s flies for my Throw Back Thursday Fly feature. I spent some time with him at the shop…

  • Rio Grande King

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Rio Grande King, another fly from the Ray Bergman collection. I haven’t posted a Ray Bergman fly for awhile, so I thought it was high time I tied another classic wet fly pattern. For some reason, I just like the elegance and simplicity of a Bergman wet…

  • Forest Fire Fish

    Forest fires. That seems to be the theme the last few weeks and why I decided to name this week’s post Forest Fire Fish. This is a picture of the day our fire grew out-of-control. That was two weeks ago. As I write today’s post, the Milli fire has grown to over 18,000 acres. The…

  • Preparing for October Caddis

    It might be a little early to begin talking about and preparing for October Caddis, but while fishing last week, we happened to see a large number of caddis cases … big caddis cases … attached to a rock partially submerged in the water. It looked as though someone had collected all of them and…

  • Troutsman Hex

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Troutsman Hex. I stayed at Slide Inn on the Madison River recently during our 2017 fly fishing road trip. One afternoon, I went to the shop and talked with Kelly about my Throw Back Thursday Fly feature and asked him if I could take pictures of a…