• Green Drake Hairwing Dun

    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,…

  • Fly Fishing Leaders

    What leader length do I use? What tippet size do I fish? I’ve been asked those questions quite a bit. And I always point people to a previous RiverKeeper Flies post entitled Make Your Fly Fishing Leader Last Longer about the fly fishing leaders I use to fish dry flies. But if you are new to RiverKeeper Flies, perhaps…

  • Fern Variant

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Fern Variant. I found this fly in an antique fly wallet, which is part of my small collection. I’ve shared a few of them in posts titled Antique Fly Wallets and Antique Fly Wallets Revisited.

  • Lingrens Olive

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Lingrens Olive. I found this fly in the American Nymph Fly Tying Manual  (1975) by Randall Kaufmann. It imitates many mayfly nymphs and the fly pattern sheet suggests tying these nymphs in sizes 10 – 18. It was named Lingren’s Olive. But after writing this TBT post, I’ve since…

  • Lake Fly Order

    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…

  • Davie McPhail

    There are a lot of talented fly tyers out there. A rare combination is when you find someone who can tie beautiful flies and TEACH too. Davie McPhail is one of those tyers. Davie is from Scotland and has a Youtube channel I frequently watch. Youtube states he joined on June 26, 2009 and has posted…

  • The Baker

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is called The Baker. It’s another Atlantic Salmon fly I pulled out of an older box, the same box as The Kate and Rosy Dawn. The Baker is one of the oldest classic Atlantic Salmon fly patterns. As I’m learning with my brief history research on these flies, several…

  • Tying Flies in Paradise

    You might be surprised, but I’ve been known to tie flies while riding in a car. But this week, I’m tying flies in Paradise! Last fall, it was on the road to the Pendleton Round-up in September. I was able to finish a dozen RiverKeeper Soft Hackle Cripples.

  • The Kate

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is called The Kate. It’s another Atlantic Salmon fly from an old fly box I ended up with. The Kate is credited to Mrs. Courtney, who developed the fly in the middle of the 19th century…yes, that long ago! One of the few flies credited to a woman fly…