This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Green Drake Hairwing Dun. The fly was created by Rene Harrop in the 1980’s. In fact, I found a Fly Fisherman magazine article Rene wrote explaining how he developed the Hairwing Dun. Looks like the fly was born in Rene’s mind as he fished the Firehole River. Evidently,…
I’m finishing a lake fly order today. Karen and I were fishing Diamond Lake with friends last fall and had great success on Dennys Stillwater Nymph. While our friends caught fish, we had a tremendous day and only used one fly pattern…Dennys Stillwater Nymph. (I wrote about our experience in a previous post – Fly Fishing at…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Olive Thorax mayfly, tied here in size 18. This fly pattern is one of several I found in Randall Kaufmann’s Tying Dry Flies book that I tied and fished in the 1990’s. The Olive Thorax mayfly imitates a Baetis or Blue Wing Olive. Dry Flies helped introduce me to aquatic…
Here are the flies I’m carrying in my October fly box. I’ll begin with the October Caddis just because of it’s name. These are big bugs, sizes 8 – 10. You’ll see October Caddis flitting over the water laying eggs. I usually blind cast an imitation because fish don’t take them like a normal “hatch”….
I love to see fish rise. That’s why I fish dry flies. Splashy rises are my favorite. It’s the type of rise form which tells me the fish are exploding at the surface with reckless abandon. I like those two words…reckless abandon. These takes may be the most memorable. Makes me smile just thinking about it….
Yes, fall fishing is here. My wife is still clinging to the notion summer is not over, but the weather and changing leaves tell a different story. And the fishing is different too. Dry fly fishing is back with a vengeance. Gone are the dog days of summer and it’s been replaced with fish rising to strong…
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…
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…
I was fishing East Lake again on Monday. But before we went, I had to restock the “provider box”. So I tied up some Callibaetis Sparkle Dun and Harrops Callibaetis Paraspinner flies along with my latest favorite Callibaetis pattern, the RiverKeeper Callibaetis Emerger. My latest theory about Callibaetis fishing is to not bother fishing with a Callibaetis dun. That’s the…
Pale Morning Duns (PMD) are the major hatch I’m fishing lately. The Green Drakes are done, so PMDs are what I’m looking for. This is a picture I took of the real Pale Morning Dun. The distinguishing features of a PMD are 3 tails and light gray wings with a leading edge of yellow stain. The body…
