I’ve been tying flies for customers recently. And perhaps a few for Dancing Trout and me as I try to fill the provider box. More tying than fishing lately. I thought you might be interested in a few of the flies flying off the vise. You might have seen a couple of pictures on my…
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…
I returned to the river yesterday looking for rising fish, which didn’t happen. What I found were a variety of bugs floating down the river without fish eating them. Most of them were blue wing olives (BWO), a small mayfly that can hatch almost any month of the year. That got me thinking about my fly…
This week’s post is about 3 basic dry fly styles for mayflies. I recently wrote a blog about Parachute Flies and that got me thinking about the variety of fly styles available to the fly fisher to imitate the adult mayfly stage. I thought it might be good to provide the options available with only one…
Last week I talked about how much I enjoy fall fly fishing. It’s been great this year! What I wanted to share this week is how effective one fly has been for me…a Green Drake Sparkle Dun. Yes, Fall and a dry fly just go together. Even the smaller fish eat this bug! It amazes…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Lunn’s Particular. William J. Lunn was the river keeper for the Houghton Club’s fifteen mile stretch of the river Test in England from 1887 through 1931, a total of 45 years. Lunn is credited with the first representation of the Rusty Spinner. The fly design incorporates a key component…
October fly fishing is a special time of year. It’s the last hurrah for both fly fishers AND fish. I’ve said before that fishing tapers off dramatically around November 1, so that means I have less than one month to get my fix for awhile. So I need to make sure I have the right…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Fran Better’s Haystack. This is another fly I found while reading Mike Valla’s book entitled The Founding Flies – 43 American Masters, Their Patterns and Influences. You might recognize this fly because it is very similar to the Sparkle Dun mayflies I tie and fish so much. But the Fran…
I was thinking the other day about the dry flies I use most of the time and the fact they don’t include parachute flies. Sure, I’ll use parachute flies on some rivers and perhaps tie on a Purple Haze in the evening at the spring creek I fish. And sometimes it works. I gave away a…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Galloup’s Compara Spinner. I stayed at Galloup’s Slide Inn on the Madison River during our 2017 fly fishing road trip and I thought it appropriate to feature a few of Kelly’s flies for my Throw Back Thursday Fly feature. I spent some time with him at the shop…
