This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Blue Bottle, another Ray Bergman wet fly. I found the Blue Bottle on Plate 1, page 23 from Ray Bergman’s Trout, first published in 1938. Bergman’s book includes 15 colored plates to illustrate the dry and wet flies with a description of each fly in the back. It was…
Earlier this month, I wrote a post entitled Where to Fish where I tried to describe the difficulty of all the fly fishing choices available to me. Today I’m headed to the Lower Deschutes to see if the Golden Stoneflies are still around in numbers to have a few fish looking up. And that means…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Hackle Stacker, a style of fly developed by Bob Quigley in the late 1980’s. Bob fished the Hackle Stacker in Southern Oregon and Northern California. The fly utilizes a paraloop technique by winding the hackle around a flexible post of some type. The fly above is a…
I was on the river last week and happened to witness a tremendous PMD hatch. I’ve been waiting for the Green Drake mayflies to begin hatching, but it was great to see PMDs hatching again. PMDs, otherwise known as Pale Morning Duns, are an important hatch for fish and fly fishers. Generally, you’ll find these…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is The Rose. The Rose is a fly from the collection of Mary Orvis Marbury. I’ll call it a “variant” as I didn’t have the original materials to tie the fly. I used a Golden Pheasant body feather for the hackle and added black ostrich herl at the head…
I’ve written about my favorite fly fishing knots in previous posts, but I’m preparing to teach a class entitled Making Effective Leaders for Rivers and Lakes at the International Federation of Fly Fishers Fair in Livingston, Montana on August 4. The Fair runs August 2 to 6. I thought I should use the knots I’ll…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Sidewinder No-Hackle, by Doug Swisher and Carl Richards. This size 18 fly was given to me recently by a friend who tied it a few years ago. I think he did a terrific job! Notice the small drop of Dave’s Fleximent at the tip of the wing,…
I wrote a post about Chubby Chernobyl fly patterns flies a couple of years ago. Did you read it? This is the time of year when you should have them in you fly box and another opportunity for me to tout how effective Chubby Chernobyl flies can be. For some reason, the Chubby Chernobyl is…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is The Loyal Sock, another fly from Ray Bergman’s book Trout. For more information about Ray Bergman’s Trout, check out a previous Throw Back Thursday Fly, the Bostwick. You’ll find the Loyal Sock in Plate 5, page 84. The Loyal Sock Body: Pale Yellow Floss Hackle: Black Wing: Black This fly…
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been like a deer in the headlights because I don’t know where to fish. There are too many choices! Seems like many rivers and lakes are getting good all at once and I don’t know which way to turn. Shall I fish the Deschutes? Did you see my post last…
