More Fly Fishing and Fewer Flies from the Vise

It’s that time of year when I spend more time fly fishing and fewer flies from the vise are tied. The official start of summer is tomorrow. I’ve been on the water more days than not, looking for hatching insects and rising fish.

In fact, I finished my last customer order last night, several Beetle Bailey and Fat Albert flies.

I started tying the Beetle Bailey flies because I remember how to tie them. The Fat Albert aren’t difficult, it’s the proportions I need to pay attention to.

Lucky for me, I looked back at my RiverKeeper Flies YouTube channel for the Fat Albert. I’ve provided the link below…and while I’m at it, I’ll include Beetle Bailey.

Here are three dozen Iris Caddis I tied for my wife.

Almost all of my orders I receive are via email and about a month ago, we were on the river waiting for a hatch that never came and she told me she needed these Iris Caddis. I said something to the effect she should email her order because I’d probably forget. That evening, I checked my emails and sure enough, an order for three dozen Iris Caddis were there, a dozen each in olive (#18), brown (#16), and black (#18)!

As I mentioned above, we’ve been on the river quite a bit, but fishing has been “so-so” for us, but an occasional fish will rise. We keep talking about how odd this year has been, struggling to find rising fish.

Here is one on a Clark’s Big Mayfly.

This is a style of fly my friend Lee Clark developed many years ago. I’ve tied the fly with Green Drake colors and the fish seem to like them. I had one rise the other day and liked it so much, he decided to keep it! Yes, it was the best fish of the day. I came home and tied up another half dozen, using olive-dyed grizzly for the hackle. I also tie them in barred dun and dun. I don’t think the fish care about hackle color at all.

I hope to find a little time and tie a few more flies before we head out on our fly fishing road trip. After that, it will be “just in time” flies when the provider box is empty or an idea pops into our heads for another fly pattern to fool trout.

Enjoy…go fish!