• Theodore Gordon’s Bumblepuppy

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Theodore Gordon’s Bumblepuppy. To be honest, when I heard the name of this fly, I thought it was a joke. After a little research, I think the joke is on me. I’ve been reading Mike Valla’s book entitled The Founding Flies – 43 American Masters, Their Patterns and Influences…

  • Galloup’s Compara Spinner

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Galloup’s Compara Spinner. I stayed at Galloup’s Slide Inn on the Madison River during our 2017 fly fishing road trip and I thought it appropriate to feature a few of Kelly’s flies for my Throw Back Thursday Fly feature. I spent some time with him at the shop…

  • Rio Grande King

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Rio Grande King, another fly from the Ray Bergman collection. I haven’t posted a Ray Bergman fly for awhile, so I thought it was high time I tied another classic wet fly pattern. For some reason, I just like the elegance and simplicity of a Bergman wet…

  • Parachute Chernobyl and Joe Cantrell

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is about the Parachute Chernobyl and Joe Cantrell. The Parachute Chernobyl is another variant of the original Chernobyl Ant. I highlighted the fly in an earlier TBT post.  “Larry Tullis of Orem, Utah relays the fly’s development in Tying Flies with Foam, Fur, and Feathers by Harrison Steeves. Larry tied up…

  • Water Boatman TBT

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Water Boatman TBT. Peter Bowers from the Patient Angler in Bend taught this fly during a Central Oregon Flyfisher’s Winter Fly Tying class a couple of years ago. He said the Water Boatman was a fly tied for Lake in the Dunes many years ago. I wish…

  • Krystal Flash Nymph TBT

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Krystal Flash Nymph TBT. I found this fly in a favorite book I used for many years – Hatch Guide for the Lower Deschutes River (1994) by Jim Schollmeyer.  This is a small book and can be used as a stream-side reference. I also own his Hatch Guide for…

  • Egan’s Rainbow Warrior

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Rainbow Warrior, a fly developed by Lance Egan. The Rainbow Warrior is a relatively new “old” fly. I enjoy highlighting a variety of flies and this is fly catches fish.  Lance Egan has been a member of Fly Fishing Team USA since 2003 at the World Fly Fishing Championships. He…

  • Effective East Lake Flies

    I haven’t fished any lakes yet this year, but hopefully that will change this week. I think East Lake will be my fishing destination in a couple of days. I thought I’d use my own resources to refresh my memory for a few effective East Lake flies I need in my fly box. I created…

  • Chartreuse Humpy

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Chartreuse Humpy. I’ve featured the Humpy as a TBT fly back in April 2015. But I chose this fly to highlight the importance of what fly tyers call “variant”.  A “variant” gives the fly tyer the ability to change something on the original. Many times the change is as…

  • Mayfly Spinners

    On one of my fly fishing trips to the river last week, I was waiting for the fish to begin rising and I was curious about what flies were in the drift and available to the fish. A good place to find out is on the edges of an eddy. So I walked downstream to…