• WD-40

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the WD-40. The WD-40 was developed by Mark Engler for the Frying Pan River in Colorado back in 1982. The WD is for Wood Duck, which is used in the tail and wingcase, although I’ve seen the fly tied with Mallard Flank as well. The fly can be used…

  • Manage Two Nymph Rigs

    Have you ever wondered if there’s a better method to manage two nymph rigs?  If you follow my blog, you know I love to fish dry flies. I walk along the river searching for fish rising.  When I do fish nymphs, I usually fish two nymphs. Most of the time I tie on about 18″…

  • Copper John Rainbows

    I’m finishing up a custom fly order which includes a few Copper Johns. Since I had all the materials out, why not tie up a few Copper Johns in different colors for me? I’m calling these my Copper John Rainbows. The Copper John is the creation of John Barr. He started to create the fly…

  • Fishing East Lake

    I was fishing East Lake again on Monday. But before we went, I had to restock the “provider box”. So I tied up some Callibaetis Sparkle Dun and Harrops Callibaetis Paraspinner flies along with my latest favorite Callibaetis pattern, the RiverKeeper Callibaetis Emerger. My latest theory about Callibaetis fishing is to not bother fishing with a Callibaetis dun. That’s the…

  • Dougs Damsel Nymph

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Dougs Damsel Nymph. And here is what it looks like when wet. And a picture of the real damsel nymph. I began tying and fishing these flies in the mid-1990’s. I found the fly in Tying Nymphs book by Randall Kaufmann. I tied a lot of flies from that…

  • Pale Morning Duns

    Pale Morning Duns (PMD) are the major hatch I’m fishing lately. The Green Drakes are done, so PMDs are what I’m looking for. This is a picture I took of the real Pale Morning Dun. The distinguishing features of a PMD are 3 tails and light gray wings with a leading edge of yellow stain. The body…

  • Tellico Nymph

    The Tellico Nymph is this week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly. This is one I probably tied in the 1970’s. It was a fly pattern out of the American Nymph Fly Tying Manual by Randall Kaufmann. I tied many flies from this book as I learned new fly tying techniques. It fishes well today and is…

  • Birds Nest

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Birds Nest, another one of Cal Bird’s inventions. The history for the Birds Nest is a little mixed up for me. I found three versions: It was created in the early 1980’s and was first fished on the Owens River in California. The fly was created in 1959…

  • New Fly Patterns

    Here are a half dozen new fly patterns I learned to tie the last few months during the Winter Fly Tying Classes that look pretty good to me. I’ll give you a caveat…I haven’t fished these, but they sure look fishy and I can’t wait to try them out. Here are a trio of flies Peter Bowers…