• Create Your First Fly Box

    Did you happen to read my post last week entitled Simply Identify Bugs Fish Eat? I explained the three basic insects you’ll find on the river, a caddis, mayfly, and stonefly. This week’s post takes the next step to help create your first fly box with flies to imitate these bugs. If you’ve fly fished…

  • Quigley Cripple PMD

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Quigley Cripple PMD version. The Quigley Cripple was developed by Bob Quigley in the late 1970’s for Northern California’s Fall River. As the story goes, Bob was fishing a Humpy and catching fish with it. The wing got chewed up and he caught many more fish with…

  • Stalcup’s Adult Green Drake

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Shane Stalcup’s Adult Green Drake. I’m getting to ready to tie some Green Drake flies for an order and remembered I had seen Stalcup’s Adult Green Drake recently. The fly can be found in Shane’s book titled Mayflies “Top to Bottom”. Here are a couple comments about the fly design: Other…

  • First Flies of 2019

    Yesterday, I cleaned up my fly tying bench and sat down for the first time this year to tie a few flies. It’s been about two weeks since I tied a fly. Tonight I’m teaching the first class at Central Oregon Flyfisher’s Winter Fly Tying. In addition, I’m traveling to Boise, ID this week for…

  • 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…

  • Filling the Provider Box

    November 1st is right around the corner and I’ve talked in previous posts about how fishing changes at this time of year. In the last week or so, I’ve noticed it’s come a little early.  What’s a fly fisher to do? It might be too early to begin filling the provider box, but that’s exactly…

  • Importance of Mayfly Spinners

    I sometimes forget about the importance of mayfly spinners. I was on the river the other night with no visible activity. I decided to blind-cast in a couple locations where I know trout live. What fly should I tie on? I remembered PMD’s had been hatching recently and knew from past experience a Rusty Spinner would…

  • Fishing and Tying Flies

    I’ve been fishing and tying flies in the last couple weeks. You’re probably not surprised I’m fishing, because October is the last month of great fly fishing and I usually spend a lot of time on the river. But I’ve received several new fly tying orders I’m trying to complete, plus I’ve lost a few…

  • Ready for October Caddis?

    It’s late September and October will be here before we know it. Can you believe Summer is almost over? I just finished a fly order for some October Caddis and that got me thinking about checking my fly boxes to see if I have enough flies for myself! Are you ready for October Caddis? I was…

  • Mayfly Cripple

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Mayfly Cripple. The Mayfly Cripple is another fly pattern from Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone, MT. I found this fly pattern in Fly Patterns of Yellowstone – Volume 2 (2008) by Craig Mathews and John Juracek several years ago. Rowen Nyman created the Mayfly Cripple in the spring…