This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is John Shewey’s Spawning Purple Steelhead fly. I recently finished tying an order of a half dozen Shewey’s Spawning Purple steelhead flies. Shewey created this fly in the mid-1980’s and tells the story of creating this variant of Dave McNeese’s Spawning Purple. McNeese’s version utilized a tail of orange-dyed…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Silver Admiral steelhead fly. I tied this pin recently for my wife as she left to lead a Casting for Recovery retreat. I thought it appropriate to highlight this Polly Rosborough fly as the first TBT fly in October to bring recognition to breast cancer awareness month….
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Art Lingren’s Green-Butt Black steelhead fly. Here is another steelhead fly pattern I found in John Shewey’s Classic Steelhead Flies on page 90. Lingren developed this fly around 1983. He is well-known in the steelhead community and knowledgeable about British Columbia fly fishing, which is his home. The link…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Van Sant Steelhead Fly. The fly pattern is found in John Shewey’s Classic Steelhead Flies, page 178. Shewey attributes this steelhead fly to Josh Van Sant, Jr. (1861-1950) of Eureka, CA. The fly is remeniscent of popular trout wet flies of the early to mid-1900s, namely those…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the McCloud Ugly steelhead fly. I’ve heard there might be a steelhead fishing season this year on the Deschutes River and thought I’d highlight an older steelhead fly pattern. The McCloud Ugly was developed by George McCloud of Seattle, WA in the late 1940’s. George also was the…
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 the Skunk steelhead fly, one of Frank Moore’s favorite flies. Frank Moore passed away last Sunday at the age of 98. Here’s Frank at the 2015 NW Fly Tying and Fly Fishing Expo in Albany, OR demonstrating his casting technique at 90 years old. He was the Dean…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Improved Governor. This is another steelhead fly found in John Shewey’s Classis Steelhead Flies book. It’s one of my sources of flies for TBT posts. I’ve read recently about the low steelhead returns in the Columbia Basin and it got me thinking about the last time I…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is another Pray’s Optic Steelhead Fly. This is the second of Pray’s Optic steelhead flies in a friend’s collection with a note on the fly stating it was tied by C. Jim Pray (1885 – 1952) of Eureka, CA in 1947. I did some research but didn’t find a…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Pray’s Silver Demon steelhead fly. C. Jim Pray (1885 – 1952) of Eureka, CA is known for starting fly fishing for salmon and steelhead on the heavy winter waters of the Eel River and other Northern California rivers.
