This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Girdle Bug. Frank McGinnis of Anaconda, Montana is credited with developing the Girdle Bug, sometimes call a McGinnis Rubberlegs. The fly was first fished on the Big Hole River in the 1930’s and 1940’s. You might recognize this fly if it used a variegated chenille body and…
I’ve been tying Schroeder’s Parachute Hoppers for an order and decided I needed a few as well. While I tied 2 dozen flies, it got me thinking about fishing terrestrial fly patterns and my three favorite terrestrial fly patterns I wouldn’t be without. Here they are – Schroeder’s Parachute Hopper, Harrop’s CDC Ant and of…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Black Gnat dry fly. I had an earlier Black Gnat wet fly as a TBT fly, but Dancing Trout found this fly along the river and it’s been in her fly fishing pack for a while. It looked like a good candidate for today’s TBT post. To…
I bit the bullet and started tying and fishing the Davy Knot recently and wanted to provide a review of my experience with this knot. If you’re a regular reader of RiverKeeper Flies, you might have seen a recent post about Testing Fly Fishing Knots. The main subject was how I’m preparing to teach Making Effective…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Mottled May, a fly developed by Charles DeFeo. I found this fly pattern in Forgotten Flies by Paul Schmookler & Ingrid Sils. This is a spectacular book and includes flies from Ray Bergman, Preston Jennings, Mary Orvis Marbury, and Carrie Stevens. I used Forgotten Flies as a reference for…
I’ve been helping my wife this week with Fish Camp, a 3-day fly fishing camp for 14 students, 10 – 14 years old. It’s part of our fly club’s Next Cast Flyfishers (our youth program) goal to get kids into fly fishing in Central Oregon. We’re teaching them about casting, knot tying, aquatic bug basics, fly tying,…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Sheep Creek Special. I found the fly was developed by George Biggs of Jerome, Idaho in the 1960’s where he fished it at Sheep Creek Reservoir on the Nevada/Idaho border. Some say the Sheep Creek Special imitates leeches is larger sizes and midges in smaller sizes. It might…
We fished the Lower D recently while drifting from Warm Springs to Trout Creek and happened to run into Eric’s Deschutes River Bar and Grill. Have you seen it along the river as you’ve floated? The location is a secret, but if you can find it, I highly recommend it. Launch your drift boat at Warm Springs…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Del Cooper. I’ve been reading John Shewey’s Classic Steelhead Flies and decided to look in my Steelhead fly box to see if I had a few of the flies. Low and behold, I found a couple Del Coopers. I must have tied this several years ago. Shewey attributes…
I wrote a post entitled Fly Fishing with Beetles almost two years ago touting how effective fly fishing can be with a beetle on the end of your line. I’m still a believer. I fish a fly I call Beetle Bailey. I shake my head in disbelief and smile at how effective Beetle Bailey catches fish! Beetle Bailey…
