We returned last week from Hawaii where we enjoyed beautiful warm weather. Our time was split between the Big Island and Maui. Here are a few spinner dolphins we could see from our Kailua – Kona condo along the bay. I’m back at the vise, working to fill orders for those on my wait list….
If you are a feather junkie like me, I think you’ll enjoy the YouTube video series of Kelly Galloup explaining Whiting feather products. If you haven’t seen any of Kelly’s videos, he is a wealth of knowledge which he freely imparts to his viewers. Here he is tying a fly for me, his Compara Spinner…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the No. 8 Water-hen Bloa. The Water-hen Bloa can be found in many of the old fly fishing and fly tying books. The first example is from page 24 of Yorkshire Trout Flies by T. E. Pritt (1885) “This fly is identical with the blue dun of Ronalds, and…
I’ve been tying flies and working on projects for March 2022. I’ll be teaching two Zoom fly tying classes and offering a presentation to Central Oregon Flyfishers. This is the time of year I spend more time at the vise. The image above are a few flies I’m tying for a good customer. There are…
I finished and mailed a steelhead fly order for a customer in the mid-west about a month ago and thought I’d share his order with you. I enjoy tying steelhead flies, but haven’t tied many the last few years because of the low steelhead runs of the Columbia basin. But these 16 flies were a…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Broughton’s Point. I found this beautiful fly in Brook and River Trouting by Harfield H. Edmonds and Norman N. Lee (1916). It’s listed as fly No. 7 on page 18 – Broughton’s Point or Dark Bloa, with a note on the bottom as a fly to fish in March…
I finished a fly order recently, tying very small flies which challenged my fly tying skills. The order was for flies in sizes 18 to 22. Tying small flies is difficult if you don’t tie a lot. You feel like you’re tying with two thumbs! Trust me, I’ve been there! I remember a statement I…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday fly is Pritt’s Water Cricket. Here is a fly from T.E. Pritt’s Yorkshire Trout Flies (1885). The link will take you to one of the free download books from an extensive list I have created on my Links to Free Old Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Books page. You can normally…
If you’ve followed RiverKeeper Flies for a while, it won’t come as a surprise I might be a little obsessed with Green Drakes, from tying effective imitations, fishing the flies during a hatch, and creating images through my photography. In fact, I’ve been thinking about them all week. I taught a Zoom fly tying class…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Stuck-In-The-Shuck Midge TBT. I was on my favorite river yesterday looking for rising fish. I didn’t see very many, which wasn’t surprising to me. After all, it’s winter and I didn’t expect summertime hatches. I was hoping for a Blue Wing Olive hatch of 30 minutes or…
