Craig Mathews Winter Seminar

What a great weekend. I had an opportunity to attend the Craig Mathews Winter Seminar sponsored jointly by my own Central Oregon Flyfishers and Sunriver Anglers.

I’ve written about Craig Mathews in previous posts (Craig Mathews and Blue Ribbon Flies) and how much I like and fish flies from Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone, Montana. Blue Ribbon Flies has influenced my fly tying and fly fishing for many years. You’ll see many of their flies on the Fly Patterns page. Their flies fit my fly tying style…simple, yet effective.

And many of those flies use Zelon. In fact, there were a few times during his fly tying demonstrations where a little laughter came across the crowd…”and we’ll begin with a tail of Zelon…”

In the mayfly patterns he tied, the Zelon imitates the transitional phase from a nymph to a dun (adult phase). I truely believe picky fish will take the helpless cripples and stillborn bugs over an adult dun. There are other materials that may provide similar properties, like sparkle yarn, but I say why mess with a proven material?

Then Craig used Zelon for egg sacs of caddis flies and salmonflies. You’ll see those in the fly patterns below.

Craig tied a few of his favorite flies each day. I was fortunate to collect them all and photograph them. In addition, our fly club will auction them at our banquet in April.

Even the non-fly tyers enjoyed watching him tie flies because he explained how and when to fish them. OK, perhaps the fly tyers in the room took copious notes and created their own fly pattern sheets. Here are the flies Craig tied (with links to fly patterns I already had on my website): 

Day 1 flies

Mighty Midget Emerger (20)

Crystal Serendipity (14 – 18)

Improved Sparkle Dun BWO  (18 – 20)

Improved Sparkle Dun PMD  (16 – 18)

Caddis Soft Hackle Emerger (14 – 20)

X Caddis (14 – 20)

Iris Caddis (14 – 18)

CDC Egg Laying Caddis (16)

Zelon Midge (20 – 22)

Nicks Sunken Stone (8 – 6)

Day 2 flies

Green Drake Cripple (14 – 16)

Yellow Sally (16)

Guide Serendipity (14 – 16)

Glossosoma Pupa (18 – 20)

$3 Dip (14 – 18)

Soft Hackle Emerger (18 – 20)

Knocked Down Dun – Baetis (18 – 20)

Scotty’s Midge (18 – 20)

CDC Sparkle Dun – Baetis (18 – 20)

Foam Spinner (16 – 18)

Improved Sparkle Dun – CDC (16 – 18)

Craig had several great presentations including Fishing Yellowstone Waters, Exploring Yellowstone Country’s Overlooked Waters, 1% for the Planet, and other conservation projects in the Madison River valley.  

Thanks for a good session Craig. I really enjoyed watching you tie flies!

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