This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Quigley Cripple, developed by Bob Quigley in the late 1970’s for Northern California’s Fall River. Seems like Northern California is the birthplace of several flies I like. Here is my Green Drake Quigley Cripple. As the story goes, Bob was fishing a Humpy and catching fish with…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Muddler Minnow. Muddlers imitate various bait fish, namely sculpins. This is a fly I tied many years ago…a feeble attempt at best. The development of the Muddler Minnow was attributed to Don Gapen of Anoka, Minnesota in 1937. Don’s parents ran the Gateway Lodge Resort on the shore…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the LaFontaine Sparkle Pupa, developed by Gary LaFontaine. Caddisflies was first published in 1981. It was a classic as soon as it was written. Before his book came out, most the talk in fly fishing was about Mayflies. Caddisflies changed everything. Gary spent many years researching caddis. In fact, it took…
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: So you pick which one you’d like to believe. Regardless, it was and still is a great pattern for multiple bugs if used…
The Metallic Caddis is this week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly. I found this fly pattern in the mid-90’s from Randall Kaufmann’s Tying Nymphs book. I don’t think I had tied a lot of bead-head nymphs as beads only came to America in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s. Tying Nymphs stated Dennis Black of Umpqua Feather Merchants signed…
The Humpy fly pattern is this week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly. It’s a fast water attractor pattern, which floats well and can be seen a mile away. Some quick Internet research finds the fly was originated by Jack Horner, a Northern Sierra California fly tyer in the 1940’s. The original fly was called the Horner…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly pattern is the Madam X, an attractor dry fly. The original fly used a body of deer hair from the butt ends of the tail with thread spiraled through it. Many variations have been created over the years, including the one above using yellow floss. Fish it to imitate…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is Schroeders Parachute Hopper. Developed in the 1970s by Ed Schroeder of Fresno, California, it was one of the first fly patterns to add the parachute post to increase visibility for the fly fisher. The body stays flush on the surface while the parachute hackle helps with flotation. Most…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday fly is the Western Coachman. It can be fished wet or dry. I got the idea for this fly after reading my most recent copy of Northwest Fly Fishing. There was a very nice article called Masters at the Bench by David Johnson, featuring Buz Buszek. Looking through the list…
This week’s Throw Back Thursday fly is the March Brown Wet Fly. I decided to continue the theme of my last post – March Brown Time. I tied this fly many years ago. Can’t remember what book I found it in, but I’m sure it was for a “just in time” fly fishing trip. Probably…
