• Atherton No.4 Dry Fly

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Atherton No.4 dry fly. John Atherton (1900 – 1952) was an artist by trade and incorporated his impressionistic art into the flies he tied. The hackle of the Atherton No. 4 are mixed medium dun and Cree to create a life-like fly imitating the real insects. The…

  • Don Martinez Golden Quail

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Don Martinez Golden Quail. Don Martinez (around 1903 – 1955), was born in Washington, Connecticut. His fly tying was influenced by fishing the Catskill area of New York. Martinez moved to Chicago where he was in the real estate business for a short time before moving on…

  • Atherton No.1 Dry Fly

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Atherton No.1 dry fly. John Atherton (1900 – 1952) was an artist by trade and incorporated his impressionistic art into the flies he tied. The hackle of the Atherton No. 1 are all mixed colors to create a life-like fly imitating the real insects. Interestingly, he didn’t…

  • Atherton No. 2 Dry Fly

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Atherton No. 2 dry fly. I’ve highlighted a couple other Atherton flies recently, the Atherton No. 5 and Atherton No. 3. John Atherton (1900 – 1952) was an artist by trade and incorporated his impressionistic art into the flies he tied. The tail, body, and hackle of…

  • Atherton No. 3 Dry Fly

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Atherton No. 3 dry fly. I posted my first Atherton dry fly last week, the Atherton No. 5. John Atherton (1900 – 1952) was an artist by trade and incorporated his impressionistic art into the flies he tied. The tail, body, and hackle of the Atherton No….

  • Atherton No. 5 Dry Fly

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the John Atherton No. 5 Dry Fly. John Atherton (1900 – 1952) was an artist by trade and incorporated his impressionistic art into the flies he tied. Interestingly, he didn’t name the flies, choosing instead to number his dry flies from 1 to 7, representing lighter to darker…

  • Slattery’s OD Stimulator

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Jim Slattery’s OD Stimulator. The OD stands for “original design”. I’ve frequented Jim Slattery’s Campfire Lodge Resort, located on the Madison River between Hebgen and Quake lakes quite a bit when we are in the Madison Valley during our fly fishing road trips. I first learned about it…

  • Mike Mercer’s Profile Spinner – PMD

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Mike Mercer’s Profile Spinner – PMD. I found this fly pattern in Mike Mercer’s Creative Fly Tying (2005) book. He relays a problem he had fishing spinner patterns on California’s Fall River where thousands and thousands of natural PMD Spinners were floating downstream with trout gorging themselves on these insects….

  • Dette Caddis

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Dette Caddis. The Dette Caddis is another fly I found in Eric Leiser’s book about Walt and Winnie Dette and their daughter Mary Dette Clark and their impact on classic Catskill flies. The book is entitled The Dettes – A Catskill Legend (1992). On the instruction page about how to…