Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful 2017 and are beginning to develop fishing plans for 2018. I’ve been tying flies the last week as I begin refilling fly boxes. Mostly Beetle Bailey flies for a customer who plans to use them in Patagonia. But we had a new fly fisher stop by the…
As 2017 comes to a close, I wanted to express my gratitude to all my RiverKeeper Flies subscribers and readers who have found me one way or another. 2017 has been another good year. I picked one of my subscribers at random today and they will receive a dozen of my favorite RiverKeeper Flies. It’s my…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Fan Wing Royal Coachman. This Fan Wing Royal Coachman was tied by Dan Bailey. It’s one of nine flies I was able to document with my camera. Last week’s TBT fly, the Black Bivisible, is the first fly I posted that was tied by Dan. Here is…
This week’s post is about teaching soft hackle flies, but before I get to that I wanted to make sure the non-tyers were taken care of as well. Be sure to read the end of this post about creating your digital fly fishing library and a Christmas present for one lucky subscriber. But first, don’t…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Black Bivisible. This fly was from a collection of flies tied by Dan Bailey. I was fortunate to be able to photograph a total of nine Bailey flies – a Blonde Wulff, Mosquito, Light Cahill, Grey Hackle, Dark Cahill, Ginger Quill, Black Gnat, Fan Wing Royal Coachman,…
It’s been cold out lately. As I write today’s post early this morning, the thermometer reads 7 degrees. That’s right…single digits. For some reason, I haven’t made it out to the river lately. Too cold I guess. What should I do on a cold winter day? Tie flies! Here is a picture of Whychus Creek,…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the North Country Purple Partridge soft hackle. I received a new book a few weeks ago, The North Country Fly: Yorkshire’s Soft Hackle Tradition by Robert L. Smith. It’s a terrific book. A friend had loaned me his copy about a year ago and I read most of…
I think it’s time again to talk about fly fishing knots. I don’t know why, but there seems to be a mystique about them. Fly fishers tend to make it more difficult than they need to. Perhaps it’s because of the variety of fly fishing knots available today. Whatever the case, my advice to you…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Bekeart Special. It’s been awhile since I highlighted a steelhead fly. I found the Bekeart Special steelhead fly pattern in John Shewey’s book entitled Classic Steelhead Flies. If you haven’t had a chance to peruse this book, go to your local fly shop and see if they have it in…
I’ve been back at my fly tying desk lately, tying flies for customers, adding fly pattern sheets to RiverKeeper Flies, and trying to find fishy-looking flies to fool fish. A friend of mine asked about my fly tying desk and suggested it must be very well organized. After all, it’s where all the magic happens. Nothing…
