I’ve had time for a little zen fly fishing lately. The weather has been beautiful, but the bugs aren’t showing up…hence the fish aren’t rising. Well, that gives me time to think about the types of dry flies I use and effective dry fly patterns for fast water. A week or so ago, I wrote…
I can’t believe the beautiful weather we’ve had the last couple of weeks. The types of bugs hatching along the river are definitely changing and I decided it’s time to get my April fly box in order. Gone are the days of concentrating on midge and Blue Wing Olive patterns in sizes 18 – 22…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Hatchmaster, a fly pattern developed in the 1930s. Originally known as the Two-Feather Fly, it was created by Harry Darbee for a fisherman named Terrell Moore to solve a problem of getting large mayflies to land on the water softly and eliminate the bulk and weight. Some…
How do you select the right dry fly to tie on the end of your leader? Here are a few tips to make the selection process a little easier the next time you’re at the river. Let’s make it simple. You arrive at the river and it’s your lucky day, bugs are hatching. You were…
Every once in awhile, I create a Recent Changes post to catch you up on what’s been happening behind the scenes at RiverKeeper Flies. And this is the week for it. Did you notice the Youtube video my wife took recently at the Central Oregon Sportsman Show in Redmond, Oregon? She was there with a few…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Lady Heather Double Wing. My friend Al Beatty offered the fly and story from the book he and Gretchen wrote entitled LaFontaine’s Legacy. I’ve known of Al and Gretchen for several years because I always stop by the BT’s Fly Fishing booth or fly tying tables at various events…
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 Hemingway Caddis. And the top view: The Hemingway Caddis is a variation of the Henryville Special developed in the 1930’s by Hiram Brobst. Mike Lawson created the variation for Jack Hemingway, son of the famous author Ernest Hemingway, for fishing the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River in…
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…
