This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Forest Maxwell’s Purple Matuka. I first started tying this fly in the 90’s after I met Forest. At that time, he worked part-time at Keith Burkhart’s Valley Flyfisher fly shop in Salem, Oregon. Forest talked me into a couple Powell steelhead rods for Karen and me to fish….
During the IFFF Fair in Bend, Oregon earlier this month, I had a chance to sit down and watch some pretty good fly tyers. I thought I’d share a few flies from the IFFF Fair. Lee Clark has a new version of the Clark’s Golden Stone he calls the Clark’s Lady Stone. The fly is…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Henryville Special. I’ve had this fly in my caddis box for awhile. Not sure where I bought it. The Henryville Special is a caddis imitation and was created by Hiram Brobst of LeHighton Pennsylvania in the 1930’s for the Broadhead Creek section of river called the Henryville…
Got a question for you. When you’re fly fishing your favorite river, do you cast to a spot, cast as far as you can, or just let your fly land on the water anywhere and hope a fish will swim by and eat it? I think you’ll have more success if you deliberately cast to a…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Woolly Bugger. Like many flies, fly tyers are always tweaking tried and true flies to make them fish better. The Woolly Bugger is very similar to the Woolly Worm, but with a different tail of marabou. The picture above includes a bead head as well. The fly…
As they say…”and fun was had by all”. I had a great time last week at the 50th Anniversary of the International Federation of Fly Fishers Fair in Bend, Oregon. So I thought it would be appropriate to say goodbye IFFF. I started the week finishing a few flies (3 dozen in total) RiverKeeper Flies provided to…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is another steelhead fly pattern – the Freight Train. This fly was the creation of Randall Kaufmann. The Freight Train was developed along the Deschutes River where the railroad track follows the river for many miles. Other steelhead fly patterns were developed with the railroad theme…Coal Car, Signal Light, and…
Well, it’s here…the dog days of summer. You may recall I recently wrote a post called The River Wins. I’ve had some up and down days since writing that. But that’s to be expected this time of year. I haven’t given up. So I thought I’d provide a list of August flies I’ll be fishing. The…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Green Butt Skunk. I would venture to guess it is one of the most popular steelhead flies of all time! It was developed by Dan Callaghan, date unknown, but sometime after 1950. He took the original Skunk steelhead fly and added the green butt. Just that minor change…
The IFFF 50th Anniversary will be held in Oregon next week (August 13 – 15) at the Bend Riverhouse Hotel & Convention Center. If you are in the area, please plan to attend. There are two venues for Fly Fishing Fair Activities: The Riverhouse This is where the actual Fair is taking place Thursday, Friday and…
