• Purple Serendipity

    This week’s post presents Serendipity fly variations, including my favorite, the $3 Dip. If you are a regular here at RiverKeeper Flies, you have seen pictures of the $3 Dip as well as a few pics of the fly in a fish or two.  Last week at our fly club’s Winter Fly Tying class, one of…

  • Fishing with Nymphs

    I’ve been busy tying flies lately. But I was able to get to the river a couple of times recently and reconciled to myself if I really wanted to catch fish, fishing with nymphs was the best solution. What a difference a year makes. Last year by this time, we had five feet of snow…

  • 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…

  • June Fly Box

    Perhaps you saw last week’s post entitled Fishing the Lower Deschutes. I drifted the river twice last week. My fly box was full of Salmonfly and Golden Stonefly imitations. So I returned to my home river today and found many more PMD’s hatching and thought I better get my June fly box in order. Where…

  • May Fly Box

    Wow! The weather has changed dramatically this week. The forecast shows 81 degrees on Thursday. The anticipation of some major hatches is very exciting and I decided I have to get a May fly box ready for the river. This is what I hope to catch. I’ve found the fish to be a little more…

  • Confusing Mayfly Names

    Do you know the names of all the bugs you see on the river or lake? Do you need to know these names to catch fish? Not at all. Fly fishers have developed their own common names over the years for many bugs in order to share information about recent fishing trips. I have to…

  • Poxyback Baetis

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Poxyback Baetis. This is an older fly pattern I found in Randall Kaufmann’s book Tying Nymphs (1994). Kaufmann’s book, along with his Tying Dry Flies, was one of the first color fly tying books I purchased. Tying Nymphs taught me new techniques, materials, and flies to tie. The Poxyback…