• Time at the Vise

    I’ve spent time at the vise lately and finished an order of 96 dry flies for a customer and thought I’d share a few images of the flies. The first two are Klinkhamer and Quigley style flies. I enjoy tying these flies with turkey biot furled bodies. Both of these flies are size 20, a…

  • Tying Very Small Flies

    I finished a fly order recently, tying very small flies which challenged my fly tying skills. The order was for flies in sizes 18 to 22. Tying small flies is difficult if you don’t tie a lot. You feel like you’re tying with two thumbs! Trust me, I’ve been there! I remember a statement I…

  • Small BWO/Baetis Fly Imitations

    I’m back at the vise this week working to fill orders that have been stacking up during our fly fishing road trip. I started on an order of 324 flies that included several small BWO/Baetis fly imitations in sizes 16, 18, and 20. The fly order includes several of my favorite BWO imitations. I have…

  • Flies Coming Off My Vise

    This week’s post will highlight a few flies coming off my vise AND include a comment about how to fish them. I hope it will help you determine what flies to include in your fly box when we can start fishing again. I recognize not all readers of my RiverKeeper Flies weekly posts tie flies….

  • BWO Fly Box

    In mid-December, I wrote a post about Choosing a Fly Box. I still need to fill a fly box with BWO flies, so it’s timely for me to highlight a few important flies I plan to place in the fly box. I’ll provide some of my favorites to help you create your own BWO fly…

  • Sparkle Dun Deer Hair

    I wanted to highlight one of the Sparkle Dun deer hair patches I’ve been using. In the last week, I tied 6 dozen Green Drake Sparkle Duns and it reminded me how important finding and using the right deer hair is to successfully tie these flies. Half of the flies were for a customer and…

  • Winter and Blue Wing Olives

    Thanksgiving is only a few days away, which means winter is right around the corner. Do you know what that means? Blue Wing Olives will be the mayflies I plan to imitate. Gone are the bigger mayflies. What will get me through the next few months are hatches of BWO’s. So are you ready for…

  • Fishing with Nymphs

    I’ve been busy tying flies lately. But I was able to get to the river a couple of times recently and reconciled to myself if I really wanted to catch fish, fishing with nymphs was the best solution. What a difference a year makes. Last year by this time, we had five feet of snow…