Odds and Ends

I continue to work on fly tying orders and head to the river to try my luck. Fishing has been a slow for me, which is normal in April. It’s one of the reasons I wrote If I Only Had Two Flies last week. I was reminiscing about hatches I’m looking forward to rising fish. Here are a few odds and ends I hope you like.

Metolius Rainbow | www.johnkreft.com

It’s been a couple of weeks since I caught a rainbow like the one above. Or this one…

Releasing Metolius Rainbow | www.johnkreft.com

I’ve gone back to fishing dry flies, which means sitting along the river, doing more watching than fishing.

I never tire of this view as we walk across the hatchery bridge to fish some of our favorite spots. We’ve seen buds and now leaves starting to show themselves on the brown twigs. Yes, spring is here.

April on Metolius | www.johnkreft.com

Doing more sitting than fishing allows me to spend time capturing images of insects too.

Here is the first image I’ve taken of mating October Caddis. It helps to be in the right place at the right time!

Mating October Caddis | www.johnkreft.com

Or this Ameletus mayfly.

Ameletus Mayfly | www.johnkreft.com

As I mentioned above, I’ve been filling customer orders. Did you see Wright’s Fluttering Caddis last week? I’ve tried tying them in different colors too.

Wright's Fluttering Caddis - Top View | www.johnkreft.com

One of my customers ordered a few Green Drake Sparkle Duns, so I thought it was a good time to create another YouTube fly tying video on my RiverKeeper Flies YouTube channel:

I received a fly from a new customer in today’s mail to see if I could duplicate it. I seem to be getting several questions about tying older fly patterns that have worked well for them, but they’re unable to purchase these days.

I’ve noticed a few holes in the Caddis box. I need to find time to tie some flies for the provider box for our fly fishing this year. One of them is the Iris Caddis in tan and amber.

And a few more Green Drake imitations. We should begin seeing a few naturals in two or three weeks.

I have SOOOO many flies I need to tie. I better get busy!

If you are thinking about ordering some flies, you better do it soon. I’ll be doing more fishing than tying, which means longer wait times.

Lastly, here are a couple updates you’ll see on RiverKeeper Flies:

Enjoy…go fish, stay safe!

Similar Posts

  • Very Small Flies

    I finished a few small flies for two different customers recently. I’m always amazed how the stars seem to align. Turns out, both orders included some very small flies. I remember several years ago stating “if I need any flies size 20 or smaller, I’ll buy them!” Well, I’m having to eat those words right…

  • Blue Wing Olives

    It’s the middle of winter and the major hatch on the river these days are Blue Wing Olives.  I get confused what to call these bugs…Blue Wing Olives…Blue Wings… BWOs…Baetis … I’m no expert, but I think they are all the same insect. Or close enough for a fly fisher.

  • Ray Bergman Dark Spinner

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Ray Bergman Dark Spinner. The Ray Bergman Dark Spinner is a wet fly listed in his book entitled Trout (1940 – fourth printing) on page 38, Plate No. 2. I usually tie just one fly for my TBT posts. I’m not trying to make them perfect, just…

  • Fly Fishing Knots

    Which fly fishing knots do you use? It’s important to tie good strong knots. Think of all the time casting, casting, casting only to lose a fish because your knot slips or breaks. Why would it do that? Let’s discuss knot slippage. Whenever a knot is tied and trimmed, a tag remains. If a knot isn’t…

One Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *