While sitting at the vise today, I decided to celebrate the 4th of July. Here’s what popped out the jaws.

While sitting at the vise today, I decided to celebrate the 4th of July. Here’s what popped out the jaws.


Last week found us searching for fishable water. We call that “Plan B” fly fishing. Our original plan was to spend time fishing the confluence of the Clark Fork and St. Regis river, then move to the Bitterroot and Beaverhead rivers. We delayed the start of our 2020 fly fishing road trip by a day…

Eddies are one of my favorite places to fish. I’ve caught some nice fish in eddies. It would be difficult to determine what my favorite water to fish is, whether it’s eddies, runs, boulders, or tail outs. I think the answer is WATER. But I always fish an eddy. The image above is a small…

I’ve been tying small flies recently in my attempt to catch very picky, selective trout. You can read more about my dilemma in the post – What are the Fish Eating? I enjoy a challenge and these particular fish continue to test my patience. I’ve used almost every fly in my fly boxes and none…

This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Improved Chaos Hopper TBT. It’s no coincidence I chose the Improved Chaos Hopper for this week’s post. I saw a picture earlier this week of a beautiful Brown Trout posted by Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone. The fish ate a hopper fly pattern! I originally found…

This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is a Pray Optic Fly. This is another fly 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. The Optic series of flies were some of the popular steelhead flies he tied….

The next stop on this year’s road trip is fly fishing the Yellowstone River in July 2023. We left the Madison River Valley after spending two weeks fishing for and catching beautiful Brown and Rainbow Trout. I’ll provide links to both posts at the bottom in case you missed them. I went back to my…
On the contrary, I would love to hear that you caught a fish with it! It is beautiful, but when it works, it is even more beautiful!
John,
I find the representation of the colors of our flag to be inspiring and beautiful in your hands. I suspect that patriotic fish everywhere would be similarly attracted to this fly. It is a shame that it is too beautiful to fish with, in my humble opinion. I hope you had a great Fourth of July. I enjoy the weekly RiverKeeper Flies and your other posts.
Thanks.
Jerry
Thanks for your nice comment! Pleased you like the July 4th fly as well as RiverKeeper Flies!
John