This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Swannundaze Midge. The fly was developed by Boyd Aigner of Seattle Washington in the 1980’s. The Swannundaze Midge is one I tied many years ago that I found in Randall Kaufmann’s Tying Nymphs book. Tying Nymphs and Tying Dry Flies were two important books for me and I tied many…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Girdle Bug. Frank McGinnis of Anaconda, Montana is credited with developing the Girdle Bug, sometimes call a McGinnis Rubberlegs. The fly was first fished on the Big Hole River in the 1930’s and 1940’s. You might recognize this fly if it used a variegated chenille body and…
The word on the street this week is Salmonflies are beginning to hatch. While it may be early for your river, these big bugs will be available for several weeks. So I thought I’d provide a few pictures of the real bug and offer some of my favorite Salmonfly patterns I plan to carry in my fly…
I can’t believe the beautiful weather we’ve had the last couple of weeks. The types of bugs hatching along the river are definitely changing and I decided it’s time to get my April fly box in order. Gone are the days of concentrating on midge and Blue Wing Olive patterns in sizes 18 – 22…
Every once in awhile, I create a Recent Changes post to catch you up on what’s been happening behind the scenes at RiverKeeper Flies. And this is the week for it. Did you notice the Youtube video my wife took recently at the Central Oregon Sportsman Show in Redmond, Oregon? She was there with a few…
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…
Recently, I received a comment on RiverKeeper Flies asking my opinion about how to fish unweighted nymphs. “How do I keep these small flies on the bottom?” I thought it was a great question and guess what…it turned into today’s post! I’m in Maui writing my post today and thought it was appropriate to add a…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Lightning Bug. I recently added the Lightning Bug nymph to the Fly Patterns list on RiverKeeper Flies. As I searched for the original fly pattern and who developed it, I thought it would be a good candidate for a TBT fly. I was surprised the Lightning Bug was over…
As I write this week’s post, I look out the window at a few inches of snow covering the ground. It’s winter. And I’ve always said winter is fly tying season. I’ve been working on a couple of orders for Custom Flies. In fact, I finished this order last night. He doesn’t plan to use them until at…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Janssens Damsel Nymph. I selected the fly because it incorporated a small piece of turkey in the wingcase…very appropriate for a Thanksgiving Day post! This is the creation of Hal Janssen, another talented California fly fisher. He is a noted writer, artist, lecturer, and video personality. I’ve read that…
