• My Favorite Caddis Imitations

    I’ve spent some time on my favorite river over the last couple of weeks waiting for hatches and rising fish. Some days, I was rewarded…other days I sat a lot and watched the river. While waiting, I decided to look in the streamside vegetation to see if I could locate some bugs. I thought it…

  • What Fly Should I Use?

    What fly should I use? That was the question I asked myself last week. I bet you ask yourself that question a lot. I arrived at the river and pulled out my backup Winston rod, an 8 1/2 foot 5 weight with my Ross Evolution LTX reel. Nice backup, right? It’s a 3-piece rod. My…

  • Odds and Ends

    I continue to work on fly tying orders and head to the river to try my luck. Fishing has been a slow for me, which is normal in April. It’s one of the reasons I wrote If I Only Had Two Flies last week. I was reminiscing about hatches I’m looking forward to rising fish….

  • Wright’s Fluttering Caddis

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Wright’s Fluttering Caddis. This is a fly that was recently brought to my attention by a customer asking me to tie some. I hadn’t heard of the fly before, but it’s similar to Buz Buszek’s Kings River Caddis below. The only real difference is the wing. Leonard Wright…

  • If I Only Had Two Dry Flies

    I’ve been at the fly tying bench lately working on orders. I’m currently tying a few Green Drake imitations. It got me thinking about three important hatches I’m really looking forward to this year…Green Drakes, Salmonflies & Golden Stones, and Caddis. Are you looking forward to a favorite hatch? Yes, my mind wanders a little…

  • Royal Stimulator TBT

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Royal Stimulator TBT. The Royal Stimulator is a fly I tied recently for a customer and thought is would be a good candidate for a TBT post. I checked Randall Kaufmann’s Tying Dry Flies (1991) to see if the fly was listed. The fly pattern at the…

  • Jumbo Flies

    I’ve been tying flies for customer orders and thought I’d share a few flies I’ve been working on. A recent customer asked if I could tie some jumbo flies for his grayling fishing. I was intrigued. The image above includes a “normal” size 14 soft hackle for comparison. I’ve used two feathers on each of…

  • Overton Wax

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday post is about Overton wax. If you aren’t a fly tyer, you might be wondering why I chose this item. I attended a Zoom fly tying class last week taught by my friends Gretchen and Al Beatty. Many of the flies they demonstrate utilize touch-dubbing, which they learned from Gary…

  • Practice Tying Your Knots

    Did you practice tying your knots this winter? No, I didn’t either. I’ve been fishing a little and tying knots as usual when I change flies. But I did have to stop and think the first time I hit the water this year. Lucky for me, my muscle memory took over and I tied a…