• Fish Camp

    I’ve been helping my wife this week with Fish Camp, a 3-day fly fishing camp for 14 students, 10 – 14 years old. It’s part of our fly club’s Next Cast Flyfishers (our youth program) goal to get kids into fly fishing in Central Oregon. We’re teaching them about casting, knot tying, aquatic bug basics, fly tying,…

  • Sheep Creek Special TBT

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Sheep Creek Special. I found the fly was developed by George Biggs of Jerome, Idaho in the 1960’s where he fished it at Sheep Creek Reservoir on the Nevada/Idaho border. Some say the Sheep Creek Special imitates leeches is larger sizes and midges in smaller sizes. It might…

  • Del Cooper

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Del Cooper. I’ve been reading John Shewey’s Classic Steelhead Flies and decided to look in my Steelhead fly box to see if I had a few of the flies. Low and behold, I found a couple Del Coopers. I must have tied this several years ago. Shewey attributes…

  • Beetle Bailey Catches Fish

    I wrote a post entitled Fly Fishing with Beetles almost two years ago touting how effective fly fishing can be with a beetle on the end of your line. I’m still a believer. I fish a fly I call Beetle Bailey. I shake my head in disbelief and smile at how effective Beetle Bailey catches fish! Beetle Bailey…

  • Just in Time Fly Tyer

    Earlier this month, I wrote a post entitled Where to Fish where I tried to describe the difficulty of all the fly fishing choices available to me. Today I’m headed to the Lower Deschutes to see if the Golden Stoneflies are still around in numbers to have a few fish looking up. And that means…

  • Hackle Stacker

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Hackle Stacker, a style of fly developed by Bob Quigley in the late 1980’s. Bob fished the Hackle Stacker in Southern Oregon and Northern California. The fly utilizes a paraloop technique by winding the hackle around a flexible post of some type. The fly above is a…

  • PMDs Hatching Again

    I was on the river last week and happened to witness a tremendous PMD hatch. I’ve been waiting for the Green Drake mayflies to begin hatching, but it was great to see PMDs hatching again. PMDs, otherwise known as Pale Morning Duns, are an important hatch for fish and fly fishers. Generally, you’ll find these…

  • The Rose

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is The Rose. The Rose is a fly from the collection of Mary Orvis Marbury. I’ll call it a “variant” as I didn’t have the original materials to tie the fly. I used a Golden Pheasant body feather for the hackle and added black ostrich herl at the head…

  • Testing Fly Fishing Knots

    I’ve written about my favorite fly fishing knots in previous posts, but I’m preparing to teach a class entitled Making Effective Leaders for Rivers and Lakes at the International Federation of Fly Fishers Fair in Livingston, Montana on August 4. The Fair runs August 2 to 6. I thought I should use the knots I’ll…