• 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…

  • My Favorite Ant Fly Patterns

    If you’ve been reading the posts from this year’s fly fishing road trip, you might have noticed how many of the fish we caught took ant patterns. In this week’s post, I thought I would highlight my favorite ant fly patterns. I’m always amazed how well ant fly patterns work. I’ve experienced how almost any…

  • Ray Bergman Black Angel

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Ray Bergman Black Angel. The Black Angel is a Ray Bergman dry fly listed in his book entitled Trout (1940 – fourth printing) on page 332, Plate No. 13. Bergman was well known for his wet flies, but his book also lists dry flies, streamers, nymphs, steel head and…

  • Improved Chaos Hopper TBT

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Improved Chaos Hopper TBT. It’s no coincidence I chose the Improved Chaos Hopper for this week’s post. I saw a picture earlier this week of a beautiful Brown Trout posted by Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone. The fish ate a hopper fly pattern! I originally found…

  • Fly Fishing Ennis Lake

    On the next stop of our 2018 fly fishing road trip, we planned to fish a week on the Madison River, MT, but decided to try our luck for a day fly fishing Ennis Lake. I’ve always heard about the trout in Ennis Lake, but it’s like anything new…sometimes it’s easier not to try. Perhaps…

  • Blue Ribbon Flies Iris Caddis

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Blue Ribbon Flies Iris Caddis. The Blue Ribbon Flies Iris Caddis is a fly I’ve been fishing the last few years and it has worked well for me. After I wrote my post, Fly Fish the Madison River in Early July, I thought many readers may not know the history…

  • Caddis Time

    It’s the middle of summer and that means it’s caddis time. Yes, all those spots are caddis…thousands and thousands of them. You might recognize this image a little better. These prolific bugs with their tent-shaped wings hatch throughout summer after the larger mayflies and stoneflies are finished. It can produce some very good fly fishing…

  • Blue Ribbon Flies X Caddis

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Blue Ribbon Flies X Caddis. The Blue Ribbon Flies X Caddis is a fly I fish often and honestly didn’t think about featuring as a TBT fly. It struck me as I wrote my last post, Fly Fish the Madison River in Early July, that many readers may not know…