Favorite Memories from 2023 on RiverKeeper Flies

This is my final post for the year and I’d like to share some of my favorite memories from 2023 on RiverKeeper Flies.

You might recall I keep track of the flies I tie. This year, the grand total is approaching 1,450 with a couple more days to go until the new year. The total includes flies I use, donate to Casting for Recovery, give away, and tie for my customer orders. I’d like to give a special “thank you” to my customers who purchased my flies. I hope they created wonderful memories for you.

I like to include a few statistics about RiverKeeper Flies for 2023, namely for me. I can go back each year and check my progress.

• Page views – 212,541 (average of 17,700 per month)
• Number of sessions – 135,817 (average of 11,300 per month)

The top three pages for last year continue to be popular:

• Fly Patterns
• Fly Tying Hook Conversion Table
• Links to Free Old Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Books

My most viewed posts in 2023 were:

• Fly Fishing the St. Joe River ID
• Fly Fishing the Yellowstone River in July 2023
• Fly Fishing Idaho’s Kelly Creek and North Fork Clearwater River
• My Home Waters, the Metolius River
• Using Wood Duck, Mallard, and Teal Feathers for Fly Tying

I created 14 new videos for my RiverKeeper Flies YouTube channel this year. While I initially didn’t believe I had much to add to the fly tying video world, I try to focus on teaching techniques and proportions, hoping it may help my viewers create better flies. Here are the three most popular videos I published in 2023.

We continued our fly fishing road trips this year. In late January, we traveled to Argentina to fly fish at Chochoy Mallin with SET Fly Fishing. Here are the posts about our trip in case you missed them.

• Fly Fishing in Argentina with SET Fly Fishing
• Pajarito Springs and Trocoman River with SET Fly Fishing
• Heli Fly Fishing from Chochoy Mallin Lodge with SET Fly Fishing

We returned to the Henry’s Fork of the Snake and Madison rivers last summer. These are now perennial stops for us because of the anticipated hatches of Brown and Green Drakes on the Henry’s Fork and Caddis on the Madison. Fishing was much slower on the Henry’s Fork, but we were still able to find a few Rainbows. The Madison didn’t disappoint either.

Here are a few images from the Madison River.

I enjoy taking my Nikon camera and lenses with me. I found myself taking many more images while on the water. My observation skills have increased, and I can capture insects floating in eddies along with other scenery.

I found myself wanting to share the images, which evolved into a new series of posts called Images from the Water.

This first set of insect images are some of my favorites.

As I mentioned above, it’s amazing what you can see when you pay attention to your surroundings.

The next set of images are from our home waters and those I found during our travels.

You might have noticed fewer Throw Back Thursday Fly posts in 2023. I found with our travel plans, I didn’t have as much time to prepare and post flies. Instead, I began sharing my Images from the Water. But here are some of my favorite TBT flies.

Besides the normal flies I traditionally tie every year, I was pleased to tie a few new-to-me flies. It’s a benefit of being a customer fly tyer. People contact me to ask if I can tie a fly for them they aren’t able to find.

Here is a Biot Backed Stonefly

These are some Thunder Creek Streamers I’m currently tying for a customer in Alaska. He’s fishes these flies to imitate Sockeye Salmon fry as they drop out of a lake into the river on their way to the ocean.

Wishing you a prosperous and happy new year!

Enjoy…go fish!